@Jesus 8 July 2020

What did the Random Shopper Bot Buy on the Dark Web? Interview by Alison George for New ScientistMaG

***What did the random shopper bot buy on the dark web?***

**Carmen Weisskopf** is part of **IMediengruppe Bitnik**, a group of artists who work on and with the **internet**. She gave a **software bot** some bitcoins and sent it shopping in the dark side o f the internet — where it bought things that no bot has bought before. Tell me about your art project to use a bot to randomly shop on the dark net. The Random Darknet Shopper is a bot programmed to shop in the deep web or dark net once a week, with a maximum budget o f $100 in bitcoins. What exactly are the **deep web** and **dark net**? The deep web is part of the internet comprised of all the web pages that aren’t indexed by search engines, such as intranets. It’s actually larger than the ‘surface web ’ that most people are used to. Part of the deep web is encrypted and accessed through **TOR** browsers to hide where you come from. This is called the dark net. **What has your bot bought from the dark net?** Most items there have dubious legal status. In 2014 when we tried it we got a set o f master keys used by fırefıghters, cigarettes, fake jeans and trainers, some ebooks, a credit card, a scan of a passport and some ecstasy. That was the fırst time a bot had bought drugs. It raises the question of who is responsible for a bot’s actions. **What did your shopper bot buy when you set it of again?** Some fırecrackers, a fake Lacoste shirt and two USB devices to mine bitcoins. It chose these items randomly,but it did seem like the bot was saying: ‘OK you’re not giving me enough money to spend’ . **How do you feel as you open up the unknown parcels delivered from the dark net?** Its always exciting, but it’s also scary to run the bot and to see what it will buy. We’re hoping for a diverse set of items that give a good insight into the dark net landscape. Does anything go? What if your bot bought a bomb- making kit? $100 in bitcoins doesn’t buy that much. This ensures the items remain manageable. Also, there aren’t that many. items that fill us with fear on these deep web markets. Why would you want to randomly shop for things in the **dark net**? Isn’t it a haven for illegal stuff? So is the **surface we**b ! This project started out with the Snowden revelations. It made us re-evaluate mass surveil-lance of the surface web, where everyone who uses it is trackable. So we started looking at the dark net, where encryption is built in. 11 is a necessity for people to remain anonymous in certain situations.We started thinking about how trust is formed in an anonymous network. And we Wanted to know what was actually sold and bought there.What about trust? Has the bot been scammed yet, and paid for goods that haven’t been delivered? No. And this shows the level o f trust that is there. The people who sell on these markets are used to trusting people online, and want to get a good rating. Even the Swiss poliçe who seized the ecstasy bought by our bot were surprised at its **quality** compared to that available on the streets. **Interview by Alison George for New Scientist magazine** Help Give An Upvote For This Extensive Research👍 #Darkweb #bitcoin #cryptocurrency #read.cash #decentralized