Controversial one here, let's analyze both points of view, I look forward to the discussion:
It seems consistent throughout most of the past and present major and upcoming marketplaces that they require vendors to pledge NOT TO KEEP RECORDS OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION
After noticing some marketplace manipulation it got me thinking......
Why do they require this?
We all read the policy and think, well obviously, were breaking the law, the less records the better is a good policy. That was always my assumption, now I am second guessing myself.
Consider this for a second....
What if your so busy processing orders and shipping and packaging and weighing that your not even being paid on most of your orders? What if the marketplaces are analyzing your patterns on there market, figuring out what stats your going to check, how often, when your going to withdrawal, how you track your money, etc.....
If they are analyzing this data live or even through the server logs (any good shopping cart's statistics or analytics program could easily be converted or already has similar tracking features in place) then they could quite easily figure out a system to steal your BTC without you even knowing....
How?
With no records, you have no record of the orders you shipped. Your orders could quite literally disseapear from your page, and most vendors, including myself, would never notice. Depending on your habits and when you withdrawl, they can do all of this on some orders, pay you on some, your BTC is always going up.
We can go even further.....
What if they hack your device to monitor how much you pay for your products, etc, etc..
It is very conceivable that they could have a system to do this for your entire tenure on the site and YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW. You would still make a profit, they would leave enough money for your habits and living expenses, and steal the rest of your profits that you made.
Leaving you at the end of a hard push to sell, thinking, god damn I just worked for XXXX days how did I only make $$$$?
Another possibility is they could frame you very easily as well, they can move sales from user to user, have a virtual machine running on your machine without your knowledge (if your inexperienced), plant a IR device in your body that interacts with your computer, hack your phone to access your computer. Sell there own products on there own account but through your devices and frame you for there doings.
The world is full of possibilities, and im expecting the typical "your a paranoid fucker" responses, but instead of replying, why don't we all just think about this one for a second.
I am not for one second saying we should have a filing system of documents on our customers and our transactions, fuck that, so here is what I did:
KEEP A WRITTEN TALLY of the BTC Amount of EVERY TRANSACTION. That is it, no username, no transaction number, nothing but the BTC amount. Is this incriminating information? Could it be used against you?
Yes it is, but it is incriminates no one but myself, so why would any marketplace have a problem with that? With the new rise of sites closing registrations and selling aftermarket vendor accounts on the forums, it seems the pack of marketplace owners (they are mostly all connected imo, they use a few different shopping cart scripts), you can notice the consistencies from market to market on the little stuff. Like why did BOTH A. And B. market strip away the < character. None of this is conclusive data, but you start gathering facts and you can compile the similiarities and figure out what sites are run by the same people.
The whole darknet market scheme is basically a scam. They scam the vendors with multiple markets, vendor hostage fees, then close down or get "seized" or disseapear and steal from the vendors and the customers. Before they shut down they already have another market launched and starting to gain traction, change the scam around a bit, and do it again.
This is happening heavy right now, and I would beware of the shit that's about to hit the an soon, get your money out of the accounts, when your going to buy, transfer it in and buy that day, transfer any BTC back out of the account after your purchase.
I know ill get more flame as usual, but I don't give a fuck. My name is BHOSale I sell BHO, im launching my own line of Weed Extract at specific THC levels coming soon and if you don't like my words, you will like my products.
im going to throw a rock at you if you keep posting this shit. yes vendors should obviously keep track of their financials but the reason to not keep records is customers dont want vendors to have a copy of their address especially if they get busted. the less information available the best.