https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace)

Basically, Silk Road was an online eBay type thing for anything and everything without restriction, meaning drugs were the bulk of its trade. It was hosted on the darknet, meaning conventional search engines and browsers couldn't find it. My question is whether such a thing could exist in Shadowrun.

The first question is, can a host exist outside the Grid and stay that way? Sure there's Jackpoint, the Denver Data Haven, etc, but the corps allow those to exist because they find shadowrunners useful. I'm sure if the Grid Overwatch Division or the Feds or really anyone powerful REALLY wanted Jackpoint offline, it could be done. So that's a maybe.

Failing that, there are ways around. Firstly, there's making your own internet. It'd have to be basic, but seeing as a commlink in 2075 has more power than the entire world in 1998, it seems feasible. It'd definitely be enough for a few storefronts.

Secondly, there's hiding in an existing construct. Remember those articles about how ISIS was using the PS4's chat features to communicate? Stuff like that. Have a store set up in a free to play MMO, or hijack a Stuffer Shack host to piggyback your signal. Use a front business. Hell, AA or AAA corps can just sell off their premises. I can see Universal Omnitech and other biotech corps being in on this.

Some other thoughts:

Border crossing would be more of an issue since North America is now something like 13 different countries. I'd imagine dealers would stick to their own borders, meaning the Seattle dealers would just sell to Seattle, the CAS dealers would just sell to the CAS, etc. This might affect availability some. For instance, peyote would be easy to find in the PCC (where it's probably legal anyway) but hard as nails to find in Seattle.

I'd also say there's a 50% markup, just because this would definitely knock down the Availability a ton, maybe completely. More if it's not drugs you're seeking (expect 300%+ markups for milspec battle armor, Panther cannons, rare cyber, and so forth).

Thoughts?

I would say they exist, but I would handwave it rather than trying to create the mechanics behind it, because that would mean diving even deeper into how the matrix does and does not work and that way lies madness.

Call it a ShadowNet, or go with limited access Nodes (that only connect at certain times to the Matrix so you need both passcode AND know when you can access it) or whatever takes your fancy.

As for cross border deliveries.. if the item is small enough they could be using spirits to haul it over to their agents within other territories.
Not cheap, but hell Demonoes Pizza delivers to me when we are in the Salish and it's still warm when it gets here.

What do you think things like Shadowland, Jackpoint, and the Denver DataHaven are for?


Fixers have to move goods, and there are a metric shit ton of shadow hosts floating around the grid for that sort of thing. The corps both need and like the existence of the grey and black markets, because it lets them both get resources that would otherwise be out of their reach, and engage in business they can't be seen publicly doing. God knows enough AresArms milspec stuff 'falls off the back of trucks'.

Well, maybe if the new Ares transport vans/trailers had not been built without tailgates/rear doors.

Another Bugged design?

Jackpoint doesn't exist because the corps permit it to exist. It exists because the Matrix is one of those modern beasts where human creation has just outreached humanity's ability to comprehend and control it. Sure, the feds can shut down a Jackpoint front. But the data is backed up. The people behind it will let that host go, then go and find another, then seed the directional information through trusted contacts.

To answer your questions; yes, a host can exist independent of the matrix. A host is just a computer device that supports a VR interface.
I don't think it's ever outlined how a host gets its location in the matrix. The matrix does have a relational geography, so there are some clusters which are more desirable than others, and keeping hosts out of those clusters is desirable to those that are already there (otherwise it becomes weighed down with spam and useless). Some location is based on where you are physically connected, but that doesn't seem to be consistently the case, so there's space for some modifications on the logic side.

The point I'm getting to is, if you have a host connected to the matrix in some deep, dark corner, say out of Malaysia, it seems like it would be possible to set up a portal or a front in a totally different matrix (assuming you have the connections and expertise) that would, to the average user, appear to be its legitimate, native front-end.

I don't think it's ever made clear if sites like JackPoint are regional or not; i.e., if there's a Seattle JackPoint, a Beijing JackPoint, and so on. Things like reddit don't exist, but there is message filtering. This is more of an issue for sites like the Silk Road, where you're shipping physical goods though. Still, if I were selling in Seattle, I'd host my servers in the NAN and bounce through a proxy. The feds can shut down the front end, but my actual data is in a totally different country, a country which by-and-large doesn't like them very much.

Sure. It's like a Data Haven that also sells drugs. Or in case of Beetles, a data haven, period.

JackPoint is a bit of an exception to the standard system of the Mateix in that it actually runs on a P2P system. All registered users (there are only a few dozen, and those are the regular posters we tend to see in the books) actually run part of the network on their commlink/deck. It is also set to be able to run on a single commlink if all others go down.

It is set up so that only members and approved guests can view and post. And without a hard server, it is very difficult to crack into.

That might give you more of an idea on how someone might avoid the more obvious authorities on the Matrix.

As a side note, more subtle intelligence agencies and covert groups simply use existing websites/hosts and just speak in code that seems innocuous to anyone else.

Definitely. Arsenal mentions several times that smugglers use delivery services and matrix-based vendors to deal anything from drugs to explosives.

We know there are shadow nodes connecting all manner of runners, syndicates and other criminals - and once the deal is concluded without police forces or sec-corps noticing, it's simply a matter of finding a courier that isn't too finicky about scanning every single parcel they handle.

I made up a corp called "UPS-Strongarm" that handles deliveries in the sixth world for my games, and they have rather strict discretion rules, including receiving and packing parcels on extraterritorial property as to not implicate their, often criminal, clients.