Source for what? For my personal experiences? For me having purchased drugs?

Or the amount of marketplaces, interactions in the marketplaces, and their values?

We can’t quantify the size of the illegal drug trade, but it’s in the hundreds of billions, if not trillions.

Hell, if only any of those marketplaces were open anymore, I’d have had probably now worth thousands in Bitcoin because a portion of them remained after my shopping. I didn’t have a local Bitcoin wallet, the stores had wallets you’d transfer into.

But yeah they switch so often, after either cutting and running or being caught.

But yeah, that’s what made Bitcoin a bit more mainstream, but the value radically shot up once people began seeing it as something worth investing in, since the value was growing relatively fast even without there being investors.

I don’t know what you’re asking a source for, exactly.

With a world GDP of US$78 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as nearly 1% of total global trade.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_drug_trade

And those are honestly very conservative (and bad) guesses. Of course it’s much larger. You can see if you google it, none of the guesses are even similar to each other, lol.

Also, remember there’s a hugely popular show called “how to sell drugs online - fast” or smth. It’s just everywhere. But people pretend it isn’t. It’s fascinating to me, the willfull ignorance.

We have to legalise all drugs to actually get them under regulation.

You know the story about the Somali pirate stock market?

Think that, but times 1000.

Bitcoin is mostly used for illegal shit. Mostly drug trades, but anything else criminal as well. Want to buy guns, whores, even a hitman? Bitcoin.

The drug trade basically created the value for Bitcoin. And then the traders who already had lots of it when people began hyping Bitcoin became richer and richer.

Which annoys me a whole fucking ton, because at one point I had over 120 Bitcoin in my possession. Should’ve saved at least one and I wouldn’t be in this problem. Well, honestly, I would, because I’d have probably sold it at 500 or something.

Back when I had then they were worth 1e a piece. Ordered me some drugs, so I never bought them as an investment, just as currency.

Tldr Anyway yeah investing in Bitcoin is essentially funding drug cartels.

so I can now put my spicy pillows in the oven and tell the insurance men the internet told me to?

No if you know they’re gonna have to check, then you’ve worked for your cousin Randy at his placeofbusiness doing menialchore related to the industry.

You can confirm this by calling Mr Randolphius McGillecuddy, Esq.

What gap?

I’ve not been unemployed, I’ve been under a strict NDA for a very private employer. No, I’m not allowed their share their contact information. Sorry.

“But you’re not considering how valuable this experience will be!”

I’m not, because I share that identity and am culturally allowed to joke about it, but still don’t find your joke funny.

Hugh Grant’s middle name is Mungo.

Ooh. That sounds nice. Delicious

I believe you.

Ah. You wouldn’t believe how much I miss the shenanigans. (Only once did I wake up in the brig, but I was banned from leave a few times.)

The movies really don’t exaggerate it that much, lol.

I’ve been through my conscription. I enjoyed it. Mostly because I knew it was mostly larping and not real war.

(Yeah that’s the backside of my dogtags, and thus empty. I’m hardly gonna dox myself my photographing my social security number, lol.)

Unlike in Russia, where conscription currently leads to being fed to a meat grinder.

So it was cut ham before you cooked it…?

Either way, looks nice.

Oh damn, eat some calcium, bro.

throw me into a frontline battle where it’s super easy to disappear.

It’s not necessarily as easy as you’d think. It’s not like they point you towards the enemy and then you can go wherever you please.

You’re with your squad, and desertion is kinda frowned upon.

I think there’s also a sort of autodidactic type of learning empathy, even if your parents don’t teach it to you.

I think it’s — at least for a part of the population — a very natural thing and would have to be actively discouraged as a kid to make it go away.

Although idk I did read a ton so maybe the books raised me idk

I want to be on the AI death list as well!

For a lot of languages, lots of names are just “descriptions”. Like Finnish, German — and I assume — Japanese.

Like capybara is a “water pig” in at least Finnish and German. And English usually just takes loanwords it doesn’t understand, and thus English speakers don’t think of as descriptors. “Capybara” is originally from Tupi language (spoken by indigenous Brazilians) capiuára , from capĩ ‘grass’ + uára ‘eater’.

Although the names aren’t always accurate. Like guinea pigs aren’t from Guinea. (And neither are they related to pigs, really.)

“Schwein” (=pig) was used much in the same way “deer” once was in terms of animals and “apple” was in terms of fruit. A general term. Oranges are still etymologically “Chinese apples” in Northern Europe/Nordics; variations of “appelsin” ~applechina.

Languages are fun, aren’t they?

Yeah but those golden retrievers usually have food provided to them and they don’t need to worry about it.

Even golden retrievers get rather depressed when malnourished, although the way we humans have bred them means they’ll still look somewhat optimistic.

For humans the “money can’t buy happiness” limit used to be something like 50-70k, closer to 50k in Europe and 70k in the US, but that was like 15 years ago so now it’d be something closer to 70k in Europe and 100 in the US. What that means is just that you can afford decent housing, transportation, all the necessities, and have a bit left over.

Up to that point money dramatically increases happiness. After that, it doesn’t really have an effect anymore. Making a million a year doesn’t mean you’re any less happy than making a billion. But making 100k a year versus 30k a year is a massive difference.