The Threat of a Darknet Economy

This year the State of Colorado gained world’s attention when it became world’s first state –licensed place for marijuana business. Drug business across the world is growing every year causing greater threat to the entire humanity. In 2012 itself around 1, 90000 deaths were reported due to drug abuse, that too between the age group 15-64. Another alarming data is that, in the same year nearly 324 million people in 15-64 age groups used one at least illicit drug once.

Around 39 million people have regular drug usage and having physical and psychological problems while only one in six of them have an access to medical facilities. The number of people who injects the drug will come around 13 million, which is 0.64% of the population aged 15-64. One amazing fact is that most of the drug users are from Eastern and South- Eastern Europe.

It is very shocking to know that 14% of the drug addicts are infected with HIV due to the use of shared syringes. Majority of such HIV patients are from South-West Asia and Eastern and South- Eastern Europe. More than half of these drug addicts are infected with Hepatitis C also. Prevention services are on the progress to reduce the threat and prevent the HIV, few of the components of these services are Needle and Syringe Programs, Opioid Substitution Therapy, HIV testing and counseling and Antiretroviral Therapy.

The list of problem drug includes Opiates and Opioids, Cocaine and Cannabis since these drugs cause majority of deaths related to drug addiction. Afghanistan, the country which is the major producer of opium poppy cultivation, started more cultivation in more geographical area and Myanmar is the next country which produces maximum opium. Opium is cultivated in 3, 00000 hectares of land all around the world. Even though the strict laws against drug business have reduced the scope of drug business in European markets, smuggling is very frequent in Pakistan, Middle East Africa to Europe.

Rate of seizures are also increasing all over the world, with that the price of drugs are becoming cheaper and they are more available. Due to this synthetic drugs are also available in the market. Darknet which is the drug economy is booming through the virtual market places, Silk Road, which the most prominent drug selling site, has around 14,000 drugs listed in their website and the whole Darknet drug economy has listed 75% of drugs. Even after the seizures this web market places function and if one is forced to closed down today then another interface pops up fast , maybe for a reassurance for its loyal buyers.

When Economy Switches to Sharing

Is the concept of Sharing Economy an answer to economic inequality? Under this shared economy the access to the products and services are shared between the consumers even though the ownership is limited. This opens a new array of opportunities for the sellers and the buyers. When assets and services are digitally available then there is no reason for this new trend to not gain popularity.

Pioneered by eBay in 1995, as a peer to peer auction model, sharing economy or collaborative consumption started off with lot of inadequacies due to the lack of full-fledged support system during those days. The service offered by them was only for an auction of apparels.

Starting from bartering, bike sharing, book swapping to seed swap, share taxi, virtual currency, all are shared in this mode of collaborative consumption. Collaborative lifestyles, product service systems and redistribution channels make this sharing economy lively and innovative.

AirBnB, an online home rental marketplace for individuals, which started off in 2008 has about 500,000 listings in 33,000 cities and 192 companies by now. This website provides home owners to rent out their home for business meetings for short –term stays, which is a unique opportunity for the business networking. This is a kind of broker model; AirBnB provides market, customer support, payment handling and $1 million in insurance for hosts, and take a 3% cut from the renter and 6% to 111% cut from the tenant. This amount totally depends on the price of the property.

UberDriver, a San Francisco based transportation networking company, builds mobile apps to connect passengers and drivers, for ridesharing services. They use cars like Lincoln Town Cars, Cadillac Escalades, BMW 7 Series, and Mercedes-Benz S550 sedans and more. . Lyft is another app with same kind of services. RelayRides give an opportunity for car owners to rent their car. SideCar also works in the same pattern.

Parking Panda gives the customers an opportunity to search the parking spaces and even to rent them out.. The customers can even choose the spot to park.

TaskRabbit, which is an online market place for sharing tasks within the neighborhood, this is also a bidding site where users come and post their task and the amount they are willing to pay when the task is done. The owner of TaskRabbit started this when she found she is too busy to even buy dog food. For each task TaskRabbit cut 12% previously on a sliding 12-20% scale depending on total price. Other services like DogVacay for dog care, Rentoid , where you can rent anything, Liquid, AvisBudgetGroup, GetAround and NeighbourGoods.