If you want to buy high-quality, low-price cocaine, there really is only one place to go, and that is the dark net anonymous markets.
如果你想買物美價廉的古柯鹼, 其實只有一個地方能去, 就是黑暗網路上的匿名市場。
Now, you can't get to these sites with a normal browser -- Chrome or Firefox -- because they're on this hidden part of the Internet, known as Tor hidden services, where URLs are a string of meaningless numbers and letters that end in .onion, and which you access with a special browser called the Tor browser.
當然,你是無法透過一般的瀏覽器 瀏覽這些網站, --例如Chrome或Firefox -- 因為這些網站, 隱身於網際網路中, 被稱為Tor隱藏服務 (Tor hidden service)。 網址由一串無意義的數字和字母組成, 並以.onion (.洋蔥)作結尾, 你只能用特殊的瀏覽器 造訪這些網站, 稱為Tor瀏覽器。
Now, the Tor browser was originally a U.S. Naval intelligence project. It then became open source, and it allows anybody to browse the net without giving away their location. And it does this by encrypting your IP address and then routing it via several other computers around the world that use the same software. You can use it on the normal Internet, but it's also your key to the dark net. And because of this fiendishly clever encryption system, the 20 or 30 -- we don't know exactly -- thousand sites that operate there are incredibly difficult to shut down. It is a censorship-free world visited by anonymous users.
Tor瀏覽器一開始來自 美國海軍的情報計劃, 後來變成開放原始碼, 任何人都可以在網路上任意瀏覽, 而不必透漏自己的IP位址。 它所用的方式是 將你的IP位址進行編碼, 再將它繞行於全世界各地 裝有相同軟體的電腦。 你也可以在一般網路上這麼做, 但這也是你進入黑暗網路的鑰匙。 也因為這種精妙的編碼系統, 讓大約二萬或三萬個 - 詳細數字不清楚 - 正在運作的黑暗網站, 要將其關閉極其困難。 這是個完全匿名造訪、 無須審查的世界。
Little wonder, then, that it's a natural place to go for anybody with something to hide, and that something, of course, need not be illegal. On the dark net, you will find whistle-blower sites, The New Yorker. You will find political activism blogs. You will find libraries of pirated books. But you'll also find the drugs markets, illegal pornography, commercial hacking services, and much more besides. Now, the dark net is one of the most interesting, exciting places anywhere on the net. And the reason is, because although innovation, of course, takes place in big businesses, takes place in world-class universities, it also takes place in the fringes, because those on the fringes -- the pariahs, the outcasts -- they're often the most creative, because they have to be. In this part of the Internet, you will not find a single lolcat, a single pop-up advert anywhere. And that's one of the reasons why I think many of you here will be on the dark net fairly soon.
所以它也毫無意外地成為有所隱藏的人 自然會去的地方, 而他們想隱藏的事, 當然也不見得不合法。 在黑暗網路上,你會發現 揭发内幕的網站,《紐約客》雜誌。 你會發現政治激進主義的部落格。 你會發現盜版書的圖書館。 但你也會發現毒品市場、 非法的色情作品、商業化的駭客服務、 還有很多其他東西。 現在,黑暗網路是網路上 最有趣、最令人興奮的地方之一。 原因在於,雖然創新當然會 出現在大企業裡、 出現在世界級的大學裡, 但它也會出現在邊緣地帶, 因為這些邊緣地帶 - 被排斥者、社會邊緣人 - 他們往往更有創意,因為他們不得不。 因為在這部分的網路, 你不會看到任何惡搞圖、 或是任何彈出式廣告。 這也是為什麼我覺得 你們很快就會開始逛黑暗網路。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Not that I'm suggesting anyone in this audience would use it to go and procure high-quality narcotics. But let's say for a moment that you were.
我不是建議在座任何人透過它 去弄到一些高品質的毒品。 但就先假設你們會這樣做。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Bear with me. The first thing you will notice on signing up to one of these sites is how familiar it looks. Every single product -- thousands of products -- has a glossy, high-res image, a detailed product description, a price. There's a "Proceed to checkout" icon. There is even, most beautifully of all, a "Report this item" button.
請寬容我一下。 登入註冊這些網站後,首先你會發現 它們看起來多麼熟悉。 每一個產品 - 成千上萬的產品 - 都有光亮的、高解析度的圖片、 詳細的產品說明、以及價格。 上面有個「結帳」的按鈕。 甚至還有一個設計得最漂亮的 「舉報這個物品」按鈕。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Incredible.
不可思議。
You browse through the site, you make your choice, you pay with the crypto-currency bitcoin, you enter an address -- preferably not your home address -- and you wait for your product to arrive in the post, which it nearly always does. And the reason it does is not because of the clever encryption. That's important. Something far simpler than that. It's the user reviews.
你在網站上任意瀏覽、選好商品、 用加密的比特幣付款、 輸入一個地址 - 最好別用你家住址 - 然後等著你的產品送到手上, 而且幾乎一定會送到。 一定會送到的原因 不是這個聰明的加密系統。 這很重要。 原因遠比這個簡單。 就是賣家評價。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
You see, every single vendor on these sites uses a pseudonym, naturally enough, but they keep the same pseudonym to build up a reputation. And because it's easy for the buyer to change allegiance whenever they want, the only way of trusting a vendor is if they have a good history of positive feedback from other users of the site.
你們看,這些網站上的每個賣家 很自然地都使用假名, 但他們會一直使用這個假名以建立商譽。 因為買家很容易隨時改變忠誠度, 所以要信任賣家唯一的方法, 就是他們要擁有足夠的 其他網站使用者的歷史正面評價。
And this introduction of competition and choice does exactly what the economists would predict. Prices tend to go down, product quality tends to go up, and the vendors are attentive, they're polite, they're consumer-centric, offering you all manner of special deals, one-offs, buy-one-get-one-frees, free delivery, to keep you happy.
而這帶來的兢爭和選擇關係 完全符合經濟學家的預測, 價格越來越低、產品品質越來越好, 賣家十分周到, 他們很有禮貌、以顧客為中心, 提供各種特別優惠、一次性大特價、 買一送一、免費運送等等 來維持你的滿意度。
I spoke to Drugsheaven. Drugsheaven was offering excellent and consistent marijuana at a reasonable price. He had a very generous refund policy, detailed T's and C's, and good shipping times.
我和《毒品天堂》交談過一次, 《毒品天堂》提供 品質良好且穩定的大麻, 價格也很合理。 他們有非常慷慨的退貨政策、 詳細的交易條款、 令人滿意的運送時間。
"Dear Drugsheaven," I wrote, via the internal emailing system that's also encrypted, of course. "I'm new here. Do you mind if I buy just one gram of marijuana?"
「親愛的毒品天堂」我寫給他們, 透過內部郵件系統, 當然也經過加密。 「我是新來的。不知道是否能 只買 1克的大麻?」
A couple of hours later, I get a reply. They always reply.
幾小時候,我收到了回覆。 他們總會回覆。
"Hi there, thanks for your email. Starting small is a wise thing to do. I would, too, if I were you."
「您好,謝謝您的來信。 從少量開始購買是明智的做法。 如果我是您,我也會這麼做。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
"So no problem if you'd like to start with just one gram. I do hope we can do business together. Best wishes, Drugsheaven."
「所以如果您想從 1克開始購買, 完全沒有問題。 我真心希望我們可以做成生意。 最誠摯的祝福,毒品天堂」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I don't know why he had a posh English accent, but I assume he did.
我不知道為何他要用 英國上流社會口音,但我假設他有。
Now, this kind of consumer-centric attitude is the reason why, when I reviewed 120,000 pieces of feedback that had been left on one of these sites over a three-month period, 95 percent of them were five out of five. The customer, you see, is king. But what does that mean? Well, on the one hand, that means there are more drugs, more available, more easily, to more people. And by my reckoning, that is not a good thing. But, on the other hand, if you are going to take drugs, you have a reasonably good way of guaranteeing a certain level of purity and quality, which is incredibly important if you're taking drugs. And you can do so from the comfort of your own home, without the risks associated with buying on the streets.
這種以顧客為中心的態度, 就是為何當我瀏覽完大約12萬則 三個月內留在某個網站上 的用戶回饋後, 發現有 95%的買家給了五星評等。 你看,顧客至上。 但這代表什麼? 嗯,一方面 這代表會有更多的毒品、 更好取得、更容易送到 更多人手上。 據我估算,這不會是件好事。 但是,另一方面,如果你想吸毒, 你有一個合理的好通路 來確保有一定水平的純度和品質, 這對你吸毒而言是非常重要的。 而且你可以舒服地在家裡這樣操作, 而不是冒著上街購買毒品的種種風險。
Now, as I said, you've got to be creative and innovative to survive in this marketplace. And the 20 or so sites that are currently in operation -- by the way, they don't always work, they're not always perfect; the site that I showed you was shut down 18 months ago, but not before it had turned over a billion dollars' worth of trade. But these markets, because of the difficult conditions in which they are operating, the inhospitable conditions, are always innovating, always thinking of ways of getting smarter, more decentralized, harder to censor, and more customer-friendly.
所以,如我所說, 你必須要有創意、要夠創新 才能在市場上生存。 而現在營運中的大約20個網站中 - 順帶一提,他們不是一直 都順利運作,也非完美無缺; 像剛剛展示的網站已經 在18個月前被關閉了, 但在那之前,它們早已完成了 數十億美元的交易。 但這些商場, 因為必須在很嚴苛的情況下營運, 而且是對他們不利的情況, 所以他們必須一直創新、 一直想出更聰明的辦法、 讓他們更加分散、更難察覺, 同時提供對顧客更便利的服務。
Let's take the payment system. You don't pay with your credit card, of course -- that would lead directly back to you. So you use the crypto-currency bitcoin, which is easily exchanged for real-world currencies and gives quite a high degree of anonymity to its users.
就拿付費系統來說, 你不會用信用卡付款, 這是當然-因為這樣你會被追蹤到。 所以你會用加密過的比特幣, 因為它很容易就可以換成真實貨幣, 也讓使用者能保持高度的隱蔽性。
But at the beginning of these sites, people noticed a flaw. Some of the unscrupulous dealers were running away with peoples' bitcoin before they'd mailed the drugs out. The community came up with a solution, called multi-signature escrow payments. So on purchasing my item, I would send my bitcoin to a neutral, secure third digital wallet. The vendor, who would see that I'd sent it, would be confident that they could then send the product to me, and then when I received it, at least two of the three people engaged in the transaction -- vendor, buyer, site administrator -- would have to sign the transaction off with a unique digital signature, and then the money would be transferred.
但在這些網站營運初期, 大家發現一個瑕疵。 某些不肖商家收了 買家的比特幣捲款潛逃, 而沒有寄出他們的商品。 所以這群人想出了一個辦法, 稱為「多重簽章第三方託管付費系統」 所以當我要買東西時, 我會將我的比特幣 付給一個中立的、安全的 第三方數位錢包, 賣家看到我的付款後, 就會知道可以放心地將產品寄給我, 然後我收到產品之後, 在三個介入交易的人之中 - 也就是賣家、買家、網站管理人 - 至少要有兩人簽核這筆交易, 用一種特別的數位簽章, 然後錢才會被轉出去。
Brilliant! Elegant. It works.
聰明! 優雅。 相當有用。
But then they realized there was a problem with bitcoin, because every bitcoin transaction is actually recorded publicly in a public ledger. So if you're clever, you can try and work out who's behind them. So they came up with a tumbling service. Hundreds of people send their bitcoin into one address, they're tumbled and jumbled up, and then the right amount is sent on to the right recipients, but they're different bitcoins: micro-laundering systems.
但隨後他們發現比特幣有個問題, 因為比特幣的每筆交易 其實都會被公開地被記在總帳上, 如果你夠聰明,就能試著找出 這些交易背後的人是誰。 所以他們想出了一個「翻攪」服務。 幾百人將他們的比特幣寄到一個位址, 經過翻攪和混雜, 再將正確的金額寄回給正確的接收者, 而它們已經變成不同的比特幣: 微型的洗錢系統。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
It's incredible.
不可思議。
Interested in what drugs are trending right now on the dark net markets? Check Grams, the search engine. You can even buy some advertising space.
想知道黑暗網路上 毒品的市場趨勢嗎? 上Grams看看,一個搜尋引擎。 你甚至可以在這裡買些廣告空間。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Are you an ethical consumer worried about what the drugs industry is doing? Yeah. One vendor will offer you fair trade organic cocaine.
你是個關懷毒品市場的、 有道義的消費者嗎? 是。 那麼有個賣家可以提供你 公平貿易的有機古柯鹼。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
That's not being sourced from Colombian druglords, but Guatemalan farmers. They even promised to reinvest 20 percent of any profits into local education programs.
產品來源不是哥倫比亞的毒梟, 而是瓜地馬拉的農夫。 他們甚至保證會將20%的利潤 投資在當地的教育方案上。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
There's even a mystery shopper.
甚至還有神秘客。
Now, whatever you think about the morality of these sites -- and I submit that it's not actually an easy question -- the creation of functioning, competitive, anonymous markets, where nobody knows who anybody else is, constantly at risk of being shut down by the authorities, is a staggering achievement, a phenomenal achievement. And it's that kind of innovation that's why those on the fringes are often the harbingers of what is to come.
現在,無論你對這些網站 的道德問題有何想法 - 而我承認這不是個簡單的問題 - 建置這種可運作、 有競爭力又匿名的市場, 而且沒有人知道任何其他人的身分, 還有隨時被關閉的風險, 都是種難以置信的成就, 一種非凡的成就。 而像這樣的創新 就是為什麼那些在邊緣的人 往往預告了接下來要發生的事。
It's easy to forget that because of its short life, the Internet has actually changed many times over the last 30 years or so. It started in the '70s as a military project, morphed in the 1980s to an academic network, co-opted by commercial companies in the '90s, and then invaded by all of us via social media in the noughties, but I think it's going to change again. And I think things like the dark net markets -- creative, secure, difficult to censor -- I think that's the future.
由於它的出現時間不長, 我們很容易忘記 網際網路在過去30年左右 其實已經有過多次改變。 在70年代,它從一個軍方計劃開始, 80年代變成學術網路, 90年代則是和商業公司合作經營, 然後2000年後開始 被我們的社交網路入侵, 但我認為它還會再次改變。 而我認為像黑暗網路市場這樣的東西 - 有創意、保密性高、難以察覺 - 我認為這就是網路的未來。
And the reason it's the future is because we're all worried about our privacy. Surveys consistently show concerns about privacy. The more time we spend online, the more we worry about them, and those surveys show our worries are growing. We're worried about what happens to our data. We're worried about who might be watching us.
其中的原因是, 我們都很擔心隱私問題。 許多調查不斷顯示出 我們對隱私的擔憂。 我們花在線上的時間越多, 就越擔心這些問題, 而調查顯示這些擔憂正在增加。 我們擔心個資會怎麼被利用。 我們擔心不知道誰在監視我們。
Since the revelations from Edward Snowden, there's been a huge increase in the number of people using various privacy-enhancing tools. There are now between two and three million daily users of the Tor browser, the majority of which use is perfectly legitimate, sometimes even mundane. And there are hundreds of activists around the world working on techniques and tools to keep you private online -- default encrypted messaging services. Ethereum, which is a project which tries to link up the connected but unused hard drives of millions of computers around the world, to create a sort of distributed Internet that no one really controls. Now, we've had distributed computing before, of course. We use it for everything from Skype to the search for extraterrestrial life. But you add distributed computing and powerful encryption -- that's very, very hard to censor and control. Another called MaidSafe works on similar principles. Another called Twister, and so on and so on.
因為愛德華.史諾登的爆料, 現在有遠比以前更多的人 正在使用各種加強隱私的工具。 現在大約有兩百到三百萬的日常用戶 正在使用Tor瀏覽器, 其中大部分是完全合法的用途, 有時甚至只是一般瀏覽。 而全世界現在有數以百計的團體 正致力於製作讓你保有 網路隱私的技術和工具 - 預設加密訊息服務。 Ethereum,一個試圖連接 全世界數百萬台電腦裡 有聯網但未使用的硬碟的計劃, 用以創造一種分散式、 沒人能真正控制的網路。 當然,我們過去也有分散式運算系統, 我們用它來做許多事情, 從Skype到探索外星生命。 但如果你將分散式運算系統 和強大的加密系統結合 - 它會非常非常難以察覺和控制。 另一個系統MaidSafe, 也用類似的原理在運作。 另一個系統Twister亦同,諸如此類。
And here's the thing -- the more of us join, the more interesting those sites become, and then the more of us join, and so on. And I think that's what's going to happen.
而事情是這樣的 - 我們之中越多人加入, 這些網站就變得越有趣, 然後就會有更多人加入,以此類推。 而我認為這就是會發生的事情。
In fact, it's already happening. The dark net is no longer a den for dealers and a hideout for whistle-blowers. It's already going mainstream. Just recently, the musician Aphex Twin released his album as a dark net site. Facebook has started a dark net site. A group of London architects have opened a dark net site for people worried about regeneration projects. Yes, the dark net is going mainstream, and I predict that fairly soon, every social media company, every major news outlet, and therefore most of you in this audience, will be using the dark net, too.
事實上,它已經在發生了。 黑暗網路不再是毒販的密室 或是需要揭發舉報的罪犯巢穴。 它已經漸漸成為主流。 就在最近,音樂家 艾費克斯雙胞胎(Aphex Twin) 就在黑暗網路的網站上發表新專輯。 Facebook也開始 架設黑暗網路的網站。 倫敦一群建築師 已經在黑暗網路上架設網站, 吸引擔心再生空間計劃的人們。 是的,黑暗網路正在走向主流, 而我預測不久後,每間社群網站公司, 每間主要新聞媒體, 連帶影響大部分在座各位聽眾, 也會開始使用黑暗網路。
So the Internet is about to get more interesting, more exciting, more innovative, more terrible, more destructive. That's good news if you care about liberty. It's good news if you care about freedom. It's good news if you care about democracy. It's also good news if you want to browse for illegal pornography and if you want to buy and sell drugs with impunity. Neither entirely dark, nor entirely light. It's not one side or the other that's going to win out, but both.
所以網路即將變得更有趣、 更令人興奮、更加創新、 更加可怕、 也更具破壞力。 如果你在乎自主權,這是個好消息。 如果你在乎自由,這是個好消息。 如果你在乎民主,這是個好消息。 同時,如果你想要瀏覽非法色情網站 或進行毒品買賣且全身而退 ,這也是個好消息。 所以網路既不會完全黑暗, 也不會完全光明。 不會有哪一方贏過另一方, 而是雙方共存。
Thank you very much, indeed.
非常感謝各位。
(Applause)
(掌聲)