WSC: Black Markets

Underground

North American term for black economy.

Arbitrage

In economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance.

Demand

In economics, demand is the quantity of a commodity or a service that people are willing or able to buy at a certain price, per unit of time. The relationship between price and quantity demanded is also known as demand curve.

Liabilities

In financial accounting, a liability is defined as the future sacrifices of economic benefits that the entity is obliged to make to other entities as a result of past transactions or other past events. Liability that one party assumes on behalf of another via a contract is called contractual liability. Coverage for contractual liability is automatically included in a general liability policy.

Endangered Animals

In many developing countries, living animals are captured in the wild and sold as pets. Wild animals are also hunted and killed for their meat, hide, and organs, the latter of which and other animal parts are sold for use in traditional medicine. In several of the states within the United States, laws requiring the pasteurization of milk has created black market situations involving the transport and sale of raw milk, and sometimes raw milk cheese which is legal in a number of EU countries but banned in the US if aged less than 60 days

Housing

In places where there is rent control there may be a black market for housing. For instance, in the UK there is illegal subletting of social housing homes where the tenant illegally rents out the home at a higher rent. In Sweden, rental contracts with regulated rent can be bought on the black market, either from the current tenant or sometimes directly from the property owner. Specialised black-market dealers assist the property owners with such transactions. In India, places like Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, and New Delhi where students are coming from all over India, getting high rented PG (paying guests) or other forms of rented apartments without any taxation or regulations.

Soft Forks

In terms of blockchain technology, a soft fork is a change to the software protocol where only previously valid blocks/transactions are made invalid. Since old nodes will recognize the new blocks as valid, a soft fork is backward-compatible. This kind of fork requires only a majority of the miners upgrading to enforce the new rules, as opposed to a hard fork which requires all nodes to upgrade and agree on the new version.

Embargoes

An embargo is a government order that restricts commerce or exchange with a specified country or the exchange of specific goods. An embargo is usually created as a result of unfavorable political or economic circumstances between nations.

Exchange

An exchange is a marketplace in which securities, commodities, derivatives and other financial instruments are traded. The core function of an exchange is to ensure fair and orderly trading, as well as efficient dissemination of price information for any securities trading on that exchange.

Acceptance

An offer is an open call to anyone wishing to accept the promise of the offeror and generally, is used for products and services. Acceptance occurs when an offeree agrees to be mutually bound to the terms of the contract by giving consideration, or something of value like money, to seal the deal.

Oral Contract

An oral contract is a contract, the terms of which have been agreed by spoken communication. This is in contrast to a written contract, where the contract is a written document.

Unreported Economy

An unreported economy refers to an economy that is engaged in those economic activities that circumvent the institutionally established fiscal rules as codified in the tax code. An unreported economy does not report to the tax authority the amount of income that is to be reported. Such an economy clearly shows the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax revenues due the fiscal authority and the amount of tax revenue actually collected.

Weapons

Arms trafficking, also known as gunrunning, is the trafficking of contraband weapons and ammunition. What constitutes legal trade in firearms varies widely, depending on local and national laws.

Hard Forks

As it relates to blockchain technology, a hard fork is a radical change to the protocol that makes previously invalid blocks/transactions valid (or vice-versa), and as such requires all nodes or users to upgrade to the latest version of the protocol software. Put differently, a hard fork is a permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain, and nodes running previous versions will no longer be accepted by the newest version. This essentially creates a fork in the blockchain, one path which follows the new, upgraded blockchain, and one path which continues along the old path. Generally, after a short period of time, those on the old chain will realize that their version of the blockchain is outdated or irrelevant and quickly upgrade to the latest version.

Laissez-Faire

Laissez-faire is an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from government intervention such as regulation, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies.

Written Contract

A written contract is an agreement made on a printed document that has been signed by both the lender and the borrower. Written contracts are legally binding and easier to enforce than oral contracts.

Market Failure

In economics, market failure is a situation in which the allocation of goods and services is not efficient, often leading to a net social welfare loss.

Quid Pro Quo

A Latin phrase meaning "something for something". This term is typically used in financial circles to describe a mutual agreement between two parties in which each party provides a good or service in return for a good or service.

Bazaar

A bazaar is a permanently enclosed marketplace or street where goods and services are exchanged or sold.

Black Market

A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or transaction that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by some form of noncompliant behavior with an institutional set of rules.

Blockchain Ledger

A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Constantly growing as 'completed' blocks (the most recent transactions) are recorded and added to it in chronological order, it allows market participants to keep track of digital currency transactions without central recordkeeping. Each node (a computer connected to the network) gets a copy of the blockchain, which is downloaded automatically.

Collateral

A collateral contract is usually a single term contract, made in consideration of the party for whose benefit the contract operates agreeing to enter into the principal or main contract, which sets out additional terms relating to the same subject matter as the main contract. The collateral contract co-exists side by side with the main contract. For example, a collateral contract is formed when one party pays the other party a certain sum for entry into another contract. A collateral contract may be between one of the parties and a third party.

Formation

A contract arises when the parties agree that there is an agreement. Formation of a contract generally requires an offer, acceptance, consideration, and a mutual intent to be bound.At common law, the elements of a contract are offer, acceptance, intention to create legal relations, and consideration. Not all agreements are necessarily contractual, as the parties generally must be deemed to have an intention to be legally bound. A so-called gentlemen's agreement is one which is not intended to be legally enforceable, and which is "binding in honour only".

Wallets

A cryptocurrency wallet is a software program that stores private and public keys and interacts with various blockchain to enable users to send and receive digital currency and monitor their balance. If you want to use Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, you will need to have a digital wallet.

Darknet

A darknet is any overlay network that can be accessed only with specific software, configurations, or authorization, often using non-standard communication protocols and ports. A darknet market or cryptomarket is a commercial website on the web that operates via darknets such as Tor or I2P. They function primarily as black markets, selling or brokering transactions involving drugs, cyber-arms, weapons, counterfeit currency, stolen credit card details, forged documents, unlicensed pharmaceuticals, steroids, and other illicit goods as well as the sale of legal products.

Swap Meets

A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of bazaar that rents or provides space to people who want to sell or barter merchandise. Used goods, cheap items, collectibles, and antiques are commonly sold. Many markets offer fresh produce or baked goods, plants from local farms and vintage clothes.

Futures Market

A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts; that is, a contract to buy specific quantities of a commodity or financial instrument at a specified price with delivery set at a specified time in the future.

Grey Market

A gray (or "grey") market is an unofficial market where securities are traded. Grey market trading generally occurs when a stock that has been suspended trades off-market, or when new securities are bought and sold before official trading begins. The gray market enables the issuer and underwriters to gauge demand for a new offering because it is a "when issued" market; i.e. it trades securities that will be offered in the very near future. The gray market is an unofficial one, but is not illegal. The term "gray market" also refers to the import and sale of goods by unauthorized dealers; in this instance as well, such activity is unofficial but not illegal.

Monopoly

A market structure characterized by a single seller, selling a unique product in the market. In a monopoly market, the seller faces no competition, as he is the sole seller of goods with no close substitute.

Medium of Exchange

A medium of exchange is an intermediary instrument used to facilitate the sale, purchase or trade of goods between parties. For an instrument to function as a medium of exchange, it must represent a standard of value accepted by all parties. In modern economies, the medium of exchange is currency.

Price Ceilings

A price ceiling is a government-imposed price control, or limit, on how high a price is charged for a product. Governments use price ceilings to protect consumers from conditions that could make commodities prohibitively expensive.

Private Keys

A private key is a sophisticated form of cryptography that allows a user to access his or her cryptocurrency. A private key is an integral aspect of bitcoin and altcoins, and its security make up helps to protect a user from theft and unauthorized access to funds.

Legal Regulation

A rule of order having the force of law, prescribed by a superior or competent authority, relating to the actions of those under the authority's control. Regulations are issued by various federal government departments and agencies to carry out the intent of legislation enacted by Congress.

Smart Contracts

A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. Smart contracts allow the performance of credible transactions without third parties. These transactions are trackable and irreversible.

Adhesion

A standard form contract (sometimes referred to as a contract of adhesion, a leonine contract, a take-it-or-leave-it contract, or a boilerplate contract) is a contract between two parties, where the terms and conditions of the contract are set by one of the parties, and the other party has little or no ability to negotiate more favorable terms and is thus placed in a "take it or leave it" position.

Stock Market

A stock market, equity market or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks, which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include securities listed on a public stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.

Store of Value

A store of value is the function of an asset that can be saved, retrieved and exchanged at a later time, and be predictably useful when retrieved. ... The most common store of value in modern times has been money, currency, or a commodity like a precious metal or financial capital.

Tariffs

A tariff is a tax on imports or exports between sovereign states. In other languages and very occasionally in English, tariff or its cognates may also be used to describe any list of prices.

Taxes

A tax is a mandatory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed upon a taxpayer by a governmental organization in order to fund various public expenditures. A failure to pay, or evasion of or resistance to taxation, is punishable by law.

Trade Agreement

A trade agreement (also known as trade pact) is a wide ranging taxes, tariff and trade treaty that often includes investment guarantees.

Unit of Account

A unit of account in economics is a nominal monetary unit of measure or currency used to represent the real value (or cost) of any economic item; i.e. goods, services, assets, liabilities, income, expenses. It is one of three well-known functions of money. It lends meaning to profits, losses, liability, or assets.

Organs

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), illegal organ trade occurs when organs are removed from the body for the purpose of commercial transactions. The WHO justifies these actions by stating, "Payment for ... organs is likely to take unfair advantage of the poorest and most vulnerable groups, undermines altruistic donation and leads to profiteering and human trafficking." Despite these ordinances, it was estimated that 5% of all organ recipients engaged in commercial organ transplant in 2005. Research indicates that illegal organ trade is on the rise, with a recent report by Global Financial Integrity estimating that the illegal organ trade generates profits between $600 million and $1.2 billion per year with a span over many countries.

Acropolis

Acropolis Market is a bit different marketplace since its main products are books and digital services, unlike other markets where drugs are the target items. Drug listings are mainly cannabis (60) and stimulants (20);a few other kinds of drugs are placed in other categories.

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin cash is a cryptocurrency is a fork of Bitcoin Classic that was created in August 2017. Bitcoin Cash increases the size of blocks, allowing more transactions to be processed.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator.

Medicine

Black market medicine is not a theoretical concept. It is a blatant reality in many parts of the world. This paper proposes to dwell on the ethical questions raised by the underground practice of medicine. Black market medicine can be defined as the practice of medicine outside existing legal frameworks.

Black Money

Black money is money which is earned through any illegal activity controlled by country regulations.Black money proceeds are usually received in cash from underground economic activity and, as such, are not taxed. Recipients of black money must hide it, spend it only in the underground economy, or attempt to give it the appearance of legitimacy through money laundering.

Breach

Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance.

Capacity Terms (implied vs. express)

Capacity is the maximum level of output that a company can sustain to make a product or provide a service. Planning for capacity requires management to accept limitations on the production process. Management has to plan production so that the machine can operate within a relevant range. An expressed contract is a contract where the elements are specifically stated, including offer, acceptance and consideration. An implied contract evolves when no written contract is present but circumstances may cause one person to become unjustly enriched as a result of their actions or an understanding exists.

Caveat Emptor

Caveat emptor is a neo-Latin phrase meaning "let the buyer beware." It is a principle of contract law in many jurisdictions that places the onus on the buyer to perform due diligence before making a purchase. The term is commonly used in real property transactions, but applies to other goods, as well as some services.

Consideration

Consideration must be of value (at least to the parties), and is exchanged for the performance or promise of performance by the other party (such performance itself is consideration). In a contract, one consideration (thing given) is exchanged for another consideration.

Deadweight Loss

Deadweight loss is the fall in total surplus that results from a market distortion, such as a tax. In economics, a deadweight loss (also known as excess burden or allocative inefficiency) is a loss of economic efficiency that can occur when equilibrium for a good or service is not achieved or is not achievable.

Decentralized

Decentralized cryptocurrency is produced by the entire cryptocurrency system collectively, at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly known. In centralized banking and economic systems such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency.

Dogecoin

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency featuring a likeness of the Shiba Inu dog from the "Doge" Internet meme as its logo.

Duress

Duress in contract law relates to where a person enters an agreement as a result of threats. Where a party enters a contract because of duress they may have the contract set aside. Originally, the common law only recognised threats of unlawful physical violence, however, in more recent times the courts have recognised economic duress as giving rise to a valid claim. Where the threat is to goods, the courts have been less willing to intervene, although analogous claims in restitution suggest that this position of the law may change.

Sanctions

Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted country, group, or individual. Economic sanctions may include various forms of trade barriers, tariffs, and restrictions on financial transactions.

Ethereum

Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract functionality.

Force Majeure

Force majeure - or vis major - meaning "superior force", also known as cas fortuit or casus fortuitus "chance occurrence, unavoidable accident", is a common clause in contracts that essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, or an event described by the legal term act of God (hurricane, flood, earthquake, volcanic eruption, etc.), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract. In practice, most force majeure clauses do not excuse a party's non-performance entirely, but only suspend it for the duration of the force majeure.

Formalities

Formalities in English law are required in some kinds of transaction by English contract law and trusts law. In a limited number of cases, agreements and trusts will be unenforceable unless they meet a certain form prescribed by statute.

Misrepresentation

Fraudulent, negligent, or innocent misstatement, or an incomplete statement, of a material fact. If a specific misrepresentation induces the other party to enter into a contract, that party may have the legal right to rescind the contract or seek compensation for damages.

Freedom of Contract

Freedom of contract is the freedom of private or public individuals and groups to form contracts without government restrictions. This is opposed to government restrictions such as minimum wage, competition law, or price fixing.

Shadow Economy

Illicit economic activity existing alongside a country's official economy, e.g. black market transactions and undeclared work.

Offer

In contract law, an offer is a promise in exchange for performance by another party. An offer can be revoked or terminated under certain conditions. There are also times when an offer can be negotiated to create a counter-offer. The expression of an offer may take different forms, such as a letter, newspaper advertisement, fax, email and even conduct, as long as it communicates the basis on which the offeror is prepared to contract.

Mining

In cryptocurrency networks, mining is a validation of transactions. For this effort, successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network.

Cigarettes

It has been reported that smuggling one truckload of cigarettes from a low-tax US state to a high-tax state can lead to a profit of up to $2 million. The low-tax states are generally the major tobacco producers, and have come under enormous criticism for their reluctance to increase taxes. North Carolina eventually agreed to raise its taxes from 5 cents to 35 cents per pack of 20 cigarettes, although this remains far below the national average. But South Carolina has so far refused to follow suit and raise taxes from seven cents per pack (the lowest in the USA).

Money Laundering

Money laundering is the process of creating the appearance that large amounts of money obtained from criminal activity, such as drug trafficking or terrorist activity, originated from a legitimate source.

Negligence

Negligence is a failure to exercise the appropriate and or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by failing to act as a form of carelessness possibly with extenuating circumstances.

Regulation

Regulation is an abstract concept of management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends.

Ripple

Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network by Ripple. Also called the Ripple Transaction Protocol or Ripple protocol, it is built upon a distributed open source Internet protocol, consensus ledger and native cryptocurrency called XRP (ripples). Released in 2012, Ripple purports to enable "secure, instantly and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks."

Sanctity of Contract

Sanctity Of Contract is a general idea that once parties duly enter into a contract, they must honor their obligations under that contract.

Silk Road 1.0 - 3.1

Silk Road was an online black market and the first modern darknet market, best known as a platform for selling illegal drugs. As part of the dark web,it was operated as a Tor hidden service, such that online users were able to browse it anonymously and securely without potential traffic monitoring. The website was launched in February 2011; development had begun six months prior. Initially there were a limited number of new seller accounts available; new sellers had to purchase an account in an auction. Later, a fixed fee was charged for each new seller account. Current status: Shut down by the FBI in October 2013. Silk Road 2.0 shut down by FBI and Europol on 6 November 2014. Silk Road 3.0 went offline in 2017 due to loss of funds.

Smuggling

Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.

Stellar

Stellar is an open-source protocol for value exchange founded in early 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim.

Supply

Supply is a fundamental economic concept that describes the total amount of a specific good or service that is available to consumers. Supply can relate to the amount available at a specific price or the amount available across a range of prices if displayed on a graph.

Currency

The black market in currencies refers to the illegal or parallel market in foreign exchange in various countries around the world. The currency black market forms part of the underground economy by virtue of operating outside legal banking channels.

Informal Economy

The informal economy is the diversified set of economic activities, enterprises, jobs, and workers that are not regulated or protected by the state. The concept originally applied to self-employment in small unregistered enterprises. It has been expanded to include wage employment in unprotected jobs.

Compounding Crime

The offense committed by a victim of a crime when he or she fails to report or prosecute the offender or agrees to hamper prosecution in exchange for a bribe, act of atonement, or making of amends by the criminal. In some states, it is not a crime if the victim agrees not to prosecute when the criminal returns what was taken or pays remuneration to the victim for the injury or loss.

Perfect Competition

The situation prevailing in a market in which buyers and sellers are so numerous and well informed that all elements of monopoly are absent and the market price of a commodity is beyond the control of individual buyers and sellers.

Imperfect Competition

The situation prevailing in a market in which elements of monopoly allow individual producers or consumers to exercise some control over market prices.

Underground Economy

The underground economy refers to illegal economic activity. Transactions in the underground economy are illegal either because the good or service being traded is itself illegal or because an otherwise licit transaction does not comply with government reporting requirements. The first category includes drugs and prostitution in most jurisdictions. The second includes untaxed labor and sales, as well as smuggling goods to avoid duties. The underground economy is also referred to as the shadow economy, black market (not gray market) and informal economy.

Remedies

The way a right is enforced by a court of law when injury, harm, or a wrongful act is imposed upon another individual. The laws of remedies will be based on the extent of relief the plaintiff is entitled to receive after appropriate court procedures were followed and the plaintiff proved with sufficient evidence they were wronged by the defendant. Breach of Contract: Remedies. The five basic remedies for breach of contract include the following: money damages, restitution, rescission, reformation, and specific performance. A money damage award includes a sum of money that is given as compensation for financial losses caused by a breach of contract.

White Market

The white market, is the legal, official, authorized, or intended market for goods and services. It is distinct from the black market of illegally trafficked goods and the grey market, in which commodities are distributed through channels which, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended by the original manufacturer.

Contraband

The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold.

Condition

This means that each of the parties is obligated, or required, to perform a duty under the contract. The contract conditions determine the parties' obligations. A condition is an act or event that affects a party's contractual duty. It is a qualification that is placed on an obligation.

Counterfeiting

To counterfeit means to imitate something. Counterfeit products are fakes or unauthorized replicas of the real product. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product.

Volatility

Volatility is a statistical measure of the dispersion of returns for a given security or market index. Volatility can either be measured by using the standard deviation or variance between returns from that same security or market index. Commonly, the higher the volatility, the riskier the security.

Statutory Regulation

the process of checking by a government organization that a business is following official rules: There is little statutory regulation of the people who sell products which are not covered by the Financial Services Act rules. The Institute is working towards statutory regulation for the profession.