I could see this actually working...but not as advertised. And not if advertised.
Just as dealers hit street corners and people still buy off them knowing the risk, secret USB ports (not all over Hacker News or advertised on a web page) could pass software to a group of people who have a high barrier for membership insofar as they trust the other members of the group.
But then, isn't this just what people used to do before the internet? Now it's "anonymous, offline, p2p file sharing"!
Just as dealers hit street corners and people still buy off them knowing the risk, secret USB ports (not all over Hacker News or advertised on a web page) could pass software to a group of people who have a high barrier for membership insofar as they trust the other members of the group.
But then, isn't this just what people used to do before the internet? Now it's "anonymous, offline, p2p file sharing"!