The Effect of Feedback-Texts on the Sellers Performance on the Crypto Market
Summary
In my thesis, I researched the illegal crypto markets that are only accessible through a so-called Tor, concealing users' location and identity. The encrypted technology on these illegal online crypto markets makes it very hard for law enforcement to get involved and shut down these market exchanges. Using a data set of a closed down crypto market called Silk-road, I reconducted the research of Przepiorka, Norbutas, and Corten (2017). I got similar results, proving that sellers with a better rating charge higher prices and sell their product faster than a seller with a bad or no rating history. This leads to the argument that reputation systems create incentives for cooperative behaviour. At last, I added new variables from previous research to look at the impact of moral norms on trust and cooperative behaviour. I found that moral norms affect the seller's performance by increasing item price per gram. When receiving negative feedback, the item sales per day decreased.