An underground economy for the sake of this blog is a market
for goods and services banned by government.
Payment systems consisting of payment hubs exist for these markets as
they do for any other but some of the payment hubs have unique controls
allowing them to act like valves between banned and unbanned markets.
Payment instructions flow into banned markets in two ways:
use of electronic payments and hiding some of the payment data in a cipher
disguised as another element, or cash. Payment instructions flow out of banned
markets into unbanned markets electronically by joining a stream of unbanned
flow or by joining unbanned cash receipts.
The cash valves have few distinguishing features, although
predictable surges into electronic payment systems can identify the presence of
underground markets, identifying precise movements, however, becomes haphazard at best
and at worst leaves a morass of paperwork and mounds of false positives.
The control structure of the valve for electronic hubs
leaves forensic evidence of the passage of one type of funds (banned or unbanned)
into the realm of the other. Further the
encryption of data to disguise the origin of funds causes detectable
backpressure. The characterizing nature of valve payment hubs provides s a
method for detecting an array of unauthorized activity of various types
found in non-valve payment hubs.
The side effects from creating too many underground markets
mean the detecting the existence of payment valves requires increased
granularity of detected payment flow. There may be a ratio of banned to
unbanned goods and services that indicate major social changes such as
revolution or civil war inevitability, but that is a discussion dear reader(s)
best left for another blog.
Next Blog: Turnstiles
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