Silk Road forums
Support => Feature requests => Topic started by: Endemic on August 17, 2013, 11:22 pm
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Here's an idea meant to combat or mitigate the potential for vendors to go rogue: a reverse vendor bond. There is already a bond that is returned when a vendor meets the "good boy" requirements of gross sales and account age. How about another bond, say another $500 (or whatever seems fair) that is immediately returned to any vendor that decides to close their account after having satisfied their "good boy" bond.
There are currently two options to willingly close a vendor account: stop selling and go away, or attempt an epic scammer exit. The lucrative latter is fairly appealing compared to to unceremonious former, given its virtually guaranteed success.. Suckers really are born every minute, and there are always a few dozen new or otherwise hapless SilkRoaders willing to FE for an apparent deal and a smile. MrAnonymousX's scam was worth thousands, and all it took was some good communication skills and a half-way believable story.
Obviously, this doesn't help much versus the huge potential scammers. Rxking, for example, is a whale. He could easily dwarf the exit bond with even a hamfisted exit scam. I realize this. But how about (and I know this is a stretch) an adaptive exit bond? A bond that starts with the original $500, but increases in proportion to the gross receipts of a vendor. So giant mega-vendors would get back far more than $500 because their exit scam would likely shake the faith of the market moreso than the small fry.
It could be a way for SR to show the large, successful vendors that help this market to function properly that there is a reward for exiting in an honest and orderly manner. In the real world, this function belongs to district attorneys. You run a ponzi scheme and get busted, you get to sit in a concrete cube for a few years. Currently, the anonymity afforded to this market allows for no such deterrent. It would serve to blunt the allure of these impure thoughts. Can you imagine the exit scam JoR could have worked?
This idea has holes. I know it. I just wanted to hear some of your thoughts.