Slur

Slur is an open source, decentralized and anonymous marketplace for the selling of secret information in exchange for bitcoin. Slur is written in C and operates over the Tor network with bitcoin transactions through libbitcoin. Both buyers and sellers are fully anonymous and there are no restrictions on the data that is auctioned. There is no charge to buy or sell on the Slur marketplace except in the case of a dispute, where a token sum is paid to volunteers.

In this example a seller signs, encrypts, uploads and lists a document on the Slur marketplace with a description of the contents. As the buyers place bids their funds are placed into escrow in real time. The winner of the auction is an exclusive bidder and receives the decryption key from the network. The losing bidders receive their pledges back in full. Funds held in escrow by the network are automatically run through a tumbler.

At this stage the winner of the auction has a opportunity to evaluate the decrypted document before the seller receives payment to verify it matches the description. If the bidder believes he has received the promised information he can authorize the funds held in escrow by the network protocol to be released to the seller.

If the bidder believes the document does not match the sellers description a dispute can be initiated. In this case five arbitrators are given the decryption keys in order to evaluate the contents and compare with the original description. Their majority decision determines where the funds held in escrow by the network protocol will go. In trades where a dispute is initiated a small sum is paid to each arbitrator for their time which is deducted from the funds in escrow.

In this case the crowd bidders have won the auction and the listed data will become public. There is an opportunity for those who bid to evaluate the data before the seller is paid and vote on initiating a dispute. If either the majority of the bidders or a subset of the bidders who were responsible for > 33% of the equity in the winning bid are dissatisfied then a dispute will be initiated.

If correctly implemented this platform will have a profound and lasting effect on our society.

An unregulated free market for information would redefine the net worth of every person as their material assets would in the future be weighed against the market value of their secrets.

As damaging as Slur can be to individuals it is considerably more so for groups

It's estimated that 5% of the general population are psychopaths. Introducing financial incentive in an anonymous framework will produce a greater yield of leaked information than from say the ideology that drove patriots like Edward Snowden. For every idealist willing to selflessly sacrifice their freedom, assets and even risk their lives for a greater good, there are 1000 psychopaths willing to anonymously sell out their peers for material gain.

Organizations of every type; governments, corporations and the military are in the unfortunate predicament of having both a great deal of liquid assets and a large number of secrets to protect - accessible by numerous disgruntled or psychopathic personnel. When Slur becomes ubiquitous it will bleed organizations secrets and funds.

The Slur marketplace will sharply increase demand for bitcoin from those parties attempting to purchase previously inaccessible secret information and organizations scrambling to suppress damaging leaks from inside their own ranks or security breaches.

The Slur market is WikiLeaks 2.0. An incalculable resource for public knowledge and unfiltered access to the truth. Except that in the future journalists will need to compensate whistle blowers for the extreme risks they take.

The types of information we expect to see on the Slur marketplace ;

The u99 group consists of nine cryptographers and software developers. We see disruptive technology as a counterbalance in a class war. By April 2015 Slur will be in beta and production versions will be available in July. Help us pay for the next six months of development and we will deliver an unprecedented information weapon.