An assassination market is a

prediction market Prediction markets, also known as betting markets, information markets, decision markets, idea futures or event derivatives, are open markets that enable the prediction of specific outcomes using financial incentives. They are exchange-traded mar ...

where any party can place a bet (using anonymous

electronic money Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...

and

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s) on the date of death of a given individual. This incentivises assassination of the individual, as parties with advanced knowledge of an assassination plot can profit by betting accurately on the date of the death. Because the payoff is for accurately picking the date rather than performing the assassination, it is substantially more difficult to assign criminal liability.

History

Early uses of the terms "assassination market" and "market for assassinations" can be found (in both positive and negative lights) in 1994's "The Cyphernomicon" by Timothy C. May, a cypherpunk. The concept and its potential effects are also referred to as assassination politics, a term popularized by Jim Bell in his 1995–96 essay of the same name. Early in part 1, Jim Bell describes the idea as: Bell then goes on to further specify the protocol of the assassination market in more detail. In the final part of his essay, Bell posits a market that is largely non-anonymous. He contrasts this version with the one previously described. Carl Johnson's attempt to popularise the concept of assassination politics appeared to rely on the earlier version. There followed an attempt to popularise the second in 2001 that is ongoing today. Technologies such as

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and

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

have enabled online assassination markets, as described in parts one to nine of ''Assassination Politics''.

Assassination Market website

The first prediction market entitled 'Assassination Market' was created by a self-described crypto-anarchist in 2013. Utilising Tor to hide the site's location and

-based bounties and prediction technology, the site lists bounties on former

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, economist

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and former

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(all of whom are still alive as of February 2025). In 2015, the site was suspected to be defunct, but the deposited bitcoins were cashed out in 2018.

References

External links

Jim Bell's ''Assassination Politics'' essay
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Mirror

The Usenet discussion containing the initial publication of the first part of ''Assassination Politics''
at

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Academic discussion of assassination markets from an anarchist perspective
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Assassination Market Crypto-anarchism Prediction markets Anarcho-capitalism Homicide

History

Assassination Market website

See also

References

Further reading

External links