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SUMMARY:Dark web marketplaces and COVID-19: Flexible and resilient - Andre
 a Baronchelli\, City University of London and The Alan Turing Institute
DTSTART:20210323T140000Z
DTEND:20210323T150000Z
UID:TALK157558@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jack Hughes
DESCRIPTION:This talk focuses on two aspects of dark web marketplaces (DWM
 s). (1) It investigates how DWMs reacted to COVID-19. The analysis of mill
 ions of listings from 102 DWMs identified 788 listings directly related to
  COVID-19 products and monitor the temporal evolution of product categorie
 s including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)\, medicines (e.g.\, hydrox
 yclorochine)\, and medical frauds\, as well as 33 vaccine listings. In gen
 eral supply of COVID-19 related goods on DWMs reacts either to shortages i
 n the economy or to public attention\, and in particular to misinformation
 . (2) It clarifies how the DWM ecosystem can be resilient despite the intr
 insic weaknesses of individual markets. It analyses 24 separate episodes o
 f unexpected marketplace closure by inspecting 133 million Bitcoin transac
 tions among 38 million users\, focusing on “migrating users” who move 
 their trading activity to a different marketplace after a closure. It show
 s that most migrating users continue their trading activity on a single co
 existing marketplace\, typically the one with the highest trading volume. 
 User migration is swift and trading volumes of migrating users recover qui
 ckly. Thus\, although individual marketplaces might appear fragile\, coord
 inated user migration guarantees overall systemic resilience. \n\nREFERENC
 ES\n* Dark Web Marketplaces and COVID-19: Before the vaccine. EPJ Data Sci
 ence 10 (1)\, 6 (2021)\n* Dark Web Marketplaces and COVID-19: The vaccines
 . Preprint arXiv:2102.05470 (2021)\n* Collective dynamics of dark web mark
 etplaces. Scientific Reports 10 (1)\, 1-8 (2020).\n\n\nRECORDING : Please 
 note\, this event will be recorded and will be available after the event f
 or an indeterminate period under a CC BY -NC-ND license. Audience members 
 should bear this in mind before joining the webinar or asking questions.
LOCATION:Webinar
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