Silkroad | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 07 Nov 2014 10:28:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Silkroad | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Silk Road 2 and other dark net markets downed by FBI https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/silk-road-2-and-other-dark-net-markets-downed-by-fbi/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/silk-road-2-and-other-dark-net-markets-downed-by-fbi/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2014 10:28:19 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=220820 Running an online drug marketplace like the Silk Road is always going to be a risky endeavour. Not only does it make you the head of an organisation that makes millions through facilitating the sale of substances deemed illegal in many countries around the world, but its mere existence is a constant public reminder that the …

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Running an online drug marketplace like the Silk Road is always going to be a risky endeavour. Not only does it make you the head of an organisation that makes millions through facilitating the sale of substances deemed illegal in many countries around the world, but its mere existence is a constant public reminder that the authorities aren't able to shut it down with ease. Unfortunately for those running such sites, that means the police put a lot of resources into taking them down through traditional policing and as with Silk Road 1, that's exactly what's happened to Silk Road 2.

The original Silk Road dark-web marketplace was taken down in 2013, beginning the first in several hydra like creations of new marketplaces and mass exoduses of customers and vendors from one site to the next. However before long, a sequel to the original Silk Road appeared, using the same logo, the same basic system and even sporting a new leader with the same name, Dread Pirate Roberts.

Soon though, it became clear that Defcon was the real head of the operation and he would reign as the king of the ‘Road for just over a year. But no longer, as now the FBI is claiming to have an individual who went by the screenname of “Defcon”, in custody: ex Space-X employee Blake Benthall. The Silk Road forums are also entirely inaccessible and the main site has an FBI seizure notice on its homepage.

seized

According to the FBI's paperwork on the seizure and Blakehall's arrest, it actually managed to infiltrate Silk Road 2 quite early on, with one agent being hired on as a moderator for the site after joining in early discussions about its creation. This led to the authorities eventually discovering the location of a Silk Road server located in a “foreign country,” which it proceeded to image in May 2014. This caused the main Silk Road website to experience some down time, confirming its identity.

This is pretty typical police work however and suggests that the tor platform that Silk Road and other dark net markets use to protect their and their users identities does work. Benthall himself was caught using poor operation security (OPSEC), just as the alleged owner of the original Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht did. Benthall in this case was caught because he used a personal email to register servers for the Silk Road 2 in its early days.

One agent in the FBI report states that: “based on a review of records provided by the service provider for the Silk Road 2.0 Server, I have discovered that the server was controlled and maintained during the relevant time by an individual using the email account blake@benthall.net.”

Benthall now stands accused of various crimes, including: drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and money laundering as well as a number of other alleged offences. He stands a good chance of being given life in prison.

To his credit, the FBI did reveal however that Benthall (assuming he was Defcon) wasn't kidding when he claimed to be helping refund Silk Road users affected by a hack of the site's escrow bitcoin storage in early 2014. Benthall is said to have donated several hundred thousand dollars worth of bitcoins to help repay those affected.

benthall
Benthall taking a rather ironic image just a week ago when the San Francisco Giant's won the World Series

However it seems likely that any bitcoins users still had in wallets stored on the ‘Road will be gone, also seized by the FBI. The same goes for those found on other marketplaces the US' federal authorities claim to have taken down, including Hydra and Cloud9 marketplaces, though the latter of those two has had a status update released which claimed a replacement server would be coming online shortly, suggesting not all those involved in the darknet markets have been rounded up.

In-fact very few of them have been. Gone are the days of the original Silk Road which was the sole source of illicit substances online. Today there are well over 15 different dark-net markets, all offering similar products – albeit most of them smaller than Silk Road was. However some are even bigger and still continue to exist for now.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the wake of these site takedowns. Chances are some site owners will cut and run, deciding that the heat they're likely to receive now that the big name is gone won't be worth it. New markets will spring up in their wake and for a time, chances are scamming will rise as users try and figure out where they can – relatively – safely send their coins for purchases.

Because if one thing is certain from this, it won't have any effect on the people buying drugs online. The system works too well for that to ever happen at this point.

KitGuru Says: KitGuru of course doesn't advocate visiting or using any of the darknet markets out there.

Image source: Silk Road 2, BlakeisBlake Instagram

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Ex BitInstant CEO pleads guilty to unlicensed money transfer https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/ex-bitinstant-ceo-pleads-guilty-to-unlicensed-money-transfer/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/ex-bitinstant-ceo-pleads-guilty-to-unlicensed-money-transfer/#respond Mon, 01 Sep 2014 08:38:31 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=209731 The one time CEO of Bitcoin exchange company BitInstant and (now ex) member of the Bitcoin Foundation, Charlie Shrem, has pleaded guilty to US charges of unlicensed money transfers, after it was alleged that he had attempted to sell over a million dollars worth of bitcoin to the original Silkroad drug marketplace while it was …

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The one time CEO of Bitcoin exchange company BitInstant and (now ex) member of the Bitcoin Foundation, Charlie Shrem, has pleaded guilty to US charges of unlicensed money transfers, after it was alleged that he had attempted to sell over a million dollars worth of bitcoin to the original Silkroad drug marketplace while it was still in operation.

Today the original Silkroad is long gone, replaced by its many imitators, but Shrem's legal proceedings have continued on for some time, only now coming too an end after his guilty plea, which as Reuters explains, saw him avoid charges of operating an unlicensed money transmission business, money laundering, conspiracy and failing to provide suspicions activity reports to government banking watchdogs.

The question as this point is whether Shrem's partner in ‘crime,' R0bert Faiella, will also plead guilty and accept a lesser charge, or if he will fight the case in the court room. He's set to head to the same plea trial as Shrem, but no announcement has been made about his intentions.

schrem

If he pleads not guilty, then his full trial will begin on 22nd September, just over a month and a bit before the alleged owner and founder of Silkroad, Ross Ulbricht, begins his trial on 3rd November. Ulbricht has previously pleaded not guilty to all charges, including the ones for money laundering and computer hacking conspiracy. Last week he saw four new charges added, including: drug trafficking, distribution of drugs over the Internet, and conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Hopefully instances like this won't do too much damage to the reputable bitcoin enterprises out there. 

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Silk Road drug marketplace reduced violence, claims study https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/silkroad-drug-marketplace-reduced-violence-claims-study/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/silkroad-drug-marketplace-reduced-violence-claims-study/#comments Tue, 03 Jun 2014 14:15:37 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=196397 Despite the efforts of the media and government officials to tout online drugs marketplaces as the new frontier in the “war on drugs,” fraught with hackers, scammers and other dangerous individuals, it looks like switching trading cash for drugs in a car park to doing so from the comfort of your own home has one …

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Despite the efforts of the media and government officials to tout online drugs marketplaces as the new frontier in the “war on drugs,” fraught with hackers, scammers and other dangerous individuals, it looks like switching trading cash for drugs in a car park to doing so from the comfort of your own home has one big advantage: drug related violence is much less likely.

This is what University of Lausanne criminologist David Decary-Hetu and University of Manchester law professor Judith Aldridge believe. By removing the face to face interactions between dealers and customers and particularly dealers and suppliers (where more organised crime can be involved), real-world violence is reduced, simply because the opportunities for it are lessened. On top of that, due to the sheer anonymity of the platform, many people don't know enough about each other to be able enact any sort of violence.

A user's name and address are only sent to the person sending the product because of the use of PGP encryption, which means Silkroad or any of the other illegal drug marketplaces can't view the information. Likewise a user can send through a fake name and address to further obscure themselves if necessary. Larger scale suppliers and dealers are likely to take security even more seriously, so the chances of them ever even meeting major contacts are slim compared to traditional dealing methods.

silkroad2
The study argues clicking “add to cart,” is a lot safer than meeting a dealer in a car park

Ultimately as well, the paper said, whereas violence may have been a method used by drug dealers in the past, in an online world, having a better business is the defining factor. “In the drugs cryptomarket era, having good customer service and writing skills…may be more important than muscles and face-to-face connections.”

While the study doesn't have any particular statistics to back up its claims, it does highlight the fact that the large volumes of drugs being bought on Silkroad and other sites is indicative of plentiful dealer activity, suggesting more business to business transactions taking place than ever before. Considering violence is more common in the upper echelons of the drug trade, they postulate that this means Silkroad has led to a reduced total in drug related violence.

If that turns out to be true, no doubt the original Silkroad's alleged founder, Ross Ulbricht will be pleased, since he created the ‘road in order to facilitate peaceful deals where everyone is safe and had access to quality product that they know is the real deal because others have reviewed it. Safety was a big ideal he pushed for in its operation.

You can read the paper in its entirety here. Thanks to Wired for the quick quotes.

KitGuru Says: We obviously don't condone the use of such sites, but what do you guys think of this study? Do you think drug related violence has gone down because of sites like Silkroad?

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Tor drug markets just got their own search engine https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/tor-drug-markets-just-got-their-own-search-engine/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/tor-drug-markets-just-got-their-own-search-engine/#respond Wed, 23 Apr 2014 14:37:45 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=188727 Have you ever found yourself flitting between Silkroad, Cloud Nine, Outlaw, Mr Nice Guy or any of the many other online drug marketplaces and you just can't find what you're after? Well now it's gotten a lot easier, as there's now a search engine that checks all of them for whatever it is you're looking …

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Have you ever found yourself flitting between Silkroad, Cloud Nine, Outlaw, Mr Nice Guy or any of the many other online drug marketplaces and you just can't find what you're after? Well now it's gotten a lot easier, as there's now a search engine that checks all of them for whatever it is you're looking for.

It's called Grams and like the sites mentioned above, is only reachable via Tor – an anonymising browser service – though the address is publicly available (grams7enufi7jmdl.onion – don't get phished). It lets you search for anything you want and will link you through to the best market for it.

Wired had a chat with the creator, who said he was just filling a gap in the market. Noticing that people were regularly asking on subreddits and forums where to get different items, he created the tool to make their search that bit easier.

grams

However not all sites are currently featured, since it requires the thumbs up from their admin by implementing the API the Grams creator has been doling out to them. Silkroad2 though, perhaps still the most popular even with its recent security issues, has implemented it. So have most of the others listed in the opening paragraph of this article. This has the added advantage of legitimising certain URLs, since only the real sites can be found there, it prevents you – as an end user – from stumbling across a phishing site.

Results for a search are ranked by relevancy and give you a link to the product, as well as details on price, the vendor and where the product will ship from.

However the Grams author is thinking beyond providing a service to the community, he wants to get paid: “Within the next two weeks Grams will have a system similar to Google AdWords where vendors can buy keywords and their listings will go to the top of the search results when those keywords are searched for,” he said. “They will be bordered with an advertisement disclaimer so users know those are paid results.”

He's also going to be adding contact pages for vendors, so if any of the markets go down, you'll still be able to get in touch with them.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While KitGuru would never condone the use of any of the sites discussed here, it's good to see people at least will be protected from phishing thanks to this tool. 

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Silkroad 2 hack turns vendors into dealers https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/silkroad-2-hack-turns-vendors-into-dealers/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/silkroad-2-hack-turns-vendors-into-dealers/#respond Thu, 20 Feb 2014 11:37:41 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=178244 The history of online drug marketplaces, darknet markets, tor markets, however you want to term them, has been a rocky one. While the original Silkroad had a very long run, it was eventually downed by old fashioned police work, then its successors fell to hacks, scams and exponential growth and several of the hydra like …

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The history of online drug marketplaces, darknet markets, tor markets, however you want to term them, has been a rocky one. While the original Silkroad had a very long run, it was eventually downed by old fashioned police work, then its successors fell to hacks, scams and exponential growth and several of the hydra like successors to those marketplaces have had big problems too. Silkroad 2.0 has been the biggest of the bunch for a while now, topping 15,000 active listings earlier this month, but it too has now been hacked and it's sent vendors and customers running for cover.

It all relates to the problems with bitcoin, or more accurately, the way bitcoin transactions have been implemented, highlighted recently by Mt Gox. The vulnerability ultimately made it possible for the Silkroad 2.0 hacker to transfer all of the marketplace's funds to their own private holdings, making them a millionaire overnight. While the admin on the site has apologised profusely and promised a lot of changes going forward, the lack of security around a central location and the fact that for the next few months while security is improved, all transactions on thee road will be without the (relative) protection of escrow, vendors are setting up shop for themselves.

silkroad2
Unless a solution to the bitcoin security issue can be found, it seems likely that sites like Silkroad may stall or even gutter out 

This involves the creation of their own tor marketplace site, just for their own products. You'll need to know the vendor is trustworthy and you'll need to be willing to finalise early, but at least the chance of you being scammed or losing your coins is reduced. However this is more of a regression than an evolution. The plus points of sites like Silkroad, were that it allowed customers to view vendor reviews, talk about their favourite products and their quality, and receive drug health advice. That's less accessible via vendor specific tor shopfronts.

While the convenience of ordering online and the delivery to your door means you can avoid any real life confrontations or mingling with harder criminals, vendors moving to a more traditional one on one, dealer system is not the stepping stone to the future that many Silkroad users, and original alleged owner of SR1, Ross Ulbricht, hoped to achieve.

KitGuru Says: As usual, Kitguru doesn't recommend anyone visit any of these sites and that advice rings true now more than ever, with the security of sites like Silkroad really called into question. 

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Meet the owner of the new Silk Road – DPR2 https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/meet-the-owner-of-the-new-silk-road-dpr2/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/meet-the-owner-of-the-new-silk-road-dpr2/#respond Thu, 06 Feb 2014 12:17:55 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=176371 If you've followed the story of the tor accessible marketplace Silk Road, you'll know all about its closure last year and the arrest of the alleged owner, Ross Ulbricht. However it didn't take long after that initial shut down for other sites to take its place, one of them being Silk Road 2. It sailed …

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If you've followed the story of the tor accessible marketplace Silk Road, you'll know all about its closure last year and the arrest of the alleged owner, Ross Ulbricht. However it didn't take long after that initial shut down for other sites to take its place, one of them being Silk Road 2. It sailed back into the limelight with the same theme as before and even an owner/admin that used the same moniker: Dread Pirate Roberts. That persona disappeared a few weeks ago amid claims that their security had been compromised, but now they're back – at least in interview form – talking with Ars about the site and the morality behind making all sorts of drugs available to anyone that can figure out PGP, bitcoins and anonymous browsing.

While drugs are certainly the main focus of the site, it does sell other things, but DPR2 believes it's more than just a marketplace for substances: “We represent a right for the individual to choose what they would or wouldn't like to put into their own bodies,” they said, continuing by highlighting reasons why the current drug law system just doesn't work.

silkroad2
While Silk Road 2 offers a lot of items for sale, its main business is drugs

“Did prohibition at all stop people drinking? No. Did prohibition stop people seeking help? Yes, and many people paid with their lives for it. Does prohibition take otherwise productive citizens who've done no harm to others out of society and let them sit in a jail cell to drain resources? I'll let you consider that.”

They even take the opportunity to take a swing at the US government for more than its drugs laws: its terrorism scaremongering: “After 9/11, there was a vast amount of scaremongering over terrorism, and the higher echelons of society saw fit to strip the rights of everyone in the process [… and]  yet we can see such hypocrisy from the US government where everyone must surrender their rights for the actions of a few.”

According to DPR2, tracking down the new Silk Road's servers wouldn't actually be that difficult for organisations like the FBI and NSA, but unlike Ross Ulbricht, DPR2 has safeguards in place that should mean even if he/she is arrested, the site will continue on as before.

“There is only one person in the world that knows who [my second in command] “Defcon” is — me. So unless the feds have me they can never take down the Road, because as soon as I am missing he knows to just move servers and hit the killswitch on my access.”

Are the police already trying to entrap people on the site? Yes they are, but DPR2 has been squashing them wherever possible, claiming to have taken down over 15 different honeypot accounts – though apparently the authorities keep using the same “SuperTrips” moniker for some reason.

In closing, the Silkroad admin simply said: “I have brought Silk Road back to life this time around, but the future of free markets is in the hands of those who are willing to step up after Silk Road falls. There is a revolution coming that is larger than Silk Road has been or will ever be.”

KitGuru Says: The rest of the interview is a very interesting read. Check out the full thing for a lot more insights into the road and its owner's philosophy. 

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US authorities may flood Bitcoin market with Silk Road coins https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/us-authorities-may-flood-bitcoin-market-with-silk-road-coins/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/us-authorities-may-flood-bitcoin-market-with-silk-road-coins/#comments Fri, 17 Jan 2014 11:24:52 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=172709 Back when the US federal authorities busted Ross Ulbricht, the alleged Dread Pirate Roberts and founder of the Silk Road online drugs marketplace, it also seized almost 30,000 bitcoins that were sitting in the site's digital vault. Back then, those coins were worth $140 each, so around $4.2 million. An impressive sum. Since then though, …

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Back when the US federal authorities busted Ross Ulbricht, the alleged Dread Pirate Roberts and founder of the Silk Road online drugs marketplace, it also seized almost 30,000 bitcoins that were sitting in the site's digital vault. Back then, those coins were worth $140 each, so around $4.2 million. An impressive sum. Since then though, the value of Bitcoins has exploded, meaniing today they're worth closer to $28 (£17.5) million. Now it could be looking to offload them, as the federal judge covering the case has given the authorities permission to sell the stock off, which could mean the market is soon set to be flooded with extra coins.

Of course though, how the federals plan on getting rid of them is an interesting one. The legal and moral status of exchanges like Mt. Gox and others – at least in the eyes of law enforcement – are questionable at best, so it's unlikely they'd be used to offload the digital currency. However Forbes is predicting that they could be sold off in a similar fashion to auctions for seized property and cars from criminal organisations.

duckberg
No word on whether Scrooge McDuck was contacted to help with coin storage

The question now on many a Bitcoin trader's lips – as well as those that may want to use it for currency on sites similar to Silk Road – is what will the selling off of this many bitcoins do to the market? But perhaps more than that, if you go in and buy a few of these coins, will you be saddled with the FBI looking up your skirt from then on?

KitGuru Says: All the proceeds from the sale of these bitcoins will go to the treasury, in a similar fashion to taxes made from cannabis sales in Colorado at the moment. One method seems far easier than the other. 

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Silkroad’s DPR 2.0 enters ‘exile’ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/silkroads-dpr-2-0-enters-exile/ Mon, 30 Dec 2013 09:30:20 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=169600 The administrator of the second iteration of drug marketplace Silkroad, Dread Pirate Roberts, (DPR) has entered “exile” according to another of the site's admins, DefCon, who in a lengthy blog post over the weekend talked about the problems that was causing, as well as the solutions his team had come up with to fix them. …

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The administrator of the second iteration of drug marketplace Silkroad, Dread Pirate Roberts, (DPR) has entered “exile” according to another of the site's admins, DefCon, who in a lengthy blog post over the weekend talked about the problems that was causing, as well as the solutions his team had come up with to fix them.

DPR, the same moniker used by the admin of the original Silkroad, currently believed by the authorities to be Ross Ulbricht, disappeared from the new site after a single post on the forum saying he would soon release information on the arrest of several alleged Silkroad employees. Since then no word has been heard from him, leaving staff like Defcon in a difficult position, because he took the key for unlocked Silkroad's bitcoin cold storage with him.

This means that for now, any bitcoins stored in Silkroad's escrow system while it was down over the Christmas period, are unreachable by anyone, including Silkroad admins. However, Defcon has assured members in a forum post that all staff working on the site would not be receiving a salary until all escrow bitcoins were returned to members. Fortunately though, Defcon believes this won't be a necessary step for very long, since he is certain that DPR will make his triumphant return shortly.

silkroadscreen
Silkroad was down over the Christmas period, but is now live and kicking again

Also moving forward, new security measures have been put into place. Firstly, the “cold storage” system, which has the majority of SR's bitcoins stored in offline computers, will allow for multiple admins to access them, thus preventing any further problems with DPR or other moderator disappearances.

There will also be the option for no-escrow listings; as Defcon puts it: “a truly free market.” However, this will be the equivalent of finalising early and therefore gives no protection to the buyer when putting money down, since it goes straight to the vendor before the product has even been sent. It will however mean bypassing Silkroad fees, so theoretically could allow for cheaper pricing, benefiting the trustworthy and the trustful.

Defcon also addressed his relative anonymity and the fact that trust in him as an admin will have to be earned. He's ready for that:

“I intend to prove to you that leading this movement forward is my top priority in life, and that I will pour any time and energy necessary into ensuring its success.”You may not always see me here under this name but I am completely committed to ensuring this movement's immortality.”

KitGuru Says: As usual, KitGuru doesn't recommend you visit any darknet sites, but if you do, make sure you have the right address as there's lots of scammers out there with phishing links that would love your login and personal details.

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Three more arrested in Silk Road case https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/three-more-arrested-in-silk-road-case/ Mon, 23 Dec 2013 08:53:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=168876 Ross Ulbricht might be the alleged captain of the now sunken ship that is the Silk Road drugs marketplace (well, there is version 2.0) but he wasn't the only one that worked on it. Now another three have been linked with Ulbricht and have been charged with money laundering. The three men in question are …

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Ross Ulbricht might be the alleged captain of the now sunken ship that is the Silk Road drugs marketplace (well, there is version 2.0) but he wasn't the only one that worked on it. Now another three have been linked with Ulbricht and have been charged with money laundering.

The three men in question are Brisbane, Australia based Peter Nash, Andrew Jones of Virginia and Gary Davis from Ireland. The former is alleged to have been the main forum moderator, who with the other two helped process disputes between drugs vendors and buyers. It's claimed that Ulbricht paid each of them between $50,000 and $75,000 a year for their time.

silkroad

According to the Guardian report, Nash is currently awaiting an extradition trial to send him to the US for further questioning and charges. If he and the others end up facing trial there, they could face up to 20 years in jail if given the maximum sentence.

KitGuru Says: 20 years seems a little steep for what these guys were involved in. Moderating a forum that helps an illegal site function may not be a legitimate job, but customer support shouldn't land you two decades in jail.

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SilkRoad drug marketplace rises from the ashes https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/silkroad-drug-marketplace-rises-from-the-ashes/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/silkroad-drug-marketplace-rises-from-the-ashes/#respond Thu, 07 Nov 2013 09:42:41 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=161062 It's only taken about a month, but on top of original competitor sites scooping up big handfuls of old members, Silk Road has returned in its 2.0 form, bringing with it some simple changes, but largely sticking to the formula in the hope of bringing back old vendors and customers alike. The tor-only accessible site …

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It's only taken about a month, but on top of original competitor sites scooping up big handfuls of old members, Silk Road has returned in its 2.0 form, bringing with it some simple changes, but largely sticking to the formula in the hope of bringing back old vendors and customers alike.

The tor-only accessible site has a new onion address of course, but the login screen looks very similar to the one you can still see on the original Silk Road address – with just a couple of minor alterations.

silkroad
Note the logo in the background and the “This Site Has Risen,” stamp

According to AllThingsVice, functionality on the site is essentially restored to pre-take down levels, with transactions possible and the usual number of product categories available. However there are some new features, like the ability to put up information about you as a customer (only vendors could do this before). There's also a spot for you to add your own public PGP key, should anyone wish to get in touch with you anonymously.

Not all features have been implemented yet, but for some of the outstanding ones, the admins are offering a bounty for programmers and translators, with weekly wages – presumably paid in Bitcoin.

The forum has also been restored, mostly to its former glory. While many old members have flocked back, some of whom have already begun setting up old threads that they ran on the original forums, there is a bit of an influx of spammers and trolls, so for now, registrations there are by invite only.

The main site though isn't preventing new registrations, so it's perfectly easy to sign up and login. Though if you're looking for product, the categories are a little thin at the moment. It's only the day after the relaunch though, so give it some time.

Even the site's figurehead admin, Dread Pirate Roberts has made a return, though presumably this is someone different than the accused admin of the original site, Ross Ulbricht.

KitGuru Says: It goes without saying that Kitguru doesn't encourage any of you to search out sites like this. However if you do, make sure you're using a Tor browser and make sure that the address you visit is the legitimate one as no doubt with Silkroad making a return, plenty of detail scamming, fake login pages will appear over the next few days. 

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Tor usage trebles in mid August https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/tor-usage-trebles-in-mid-august/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/security-software/jon-martindale/tor-usage-trebles-in-mid-august/#comments Mon, 02 Sep 2013 10:31:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=150476 Use of the anonymising Tor network has increased exponentially in the past couple of weeks, leading to not only the highest tracked user numbers since the birth of the service, but the largest growth spike too, leaving many people wondering what's been behind it. One of the suggested reasons, are continued revelations from ex-NSA contractor …

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Use of the anonymising Tor network has increased exponentially in the past couple of weeks, leading to not only the highest tracked user numbers since the birth of the service, but the largest growth spike too, leaving many people wondering what's been behind it.

One of the suggested reasons, are continued revelations from ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, prompting more people to seek refuge in the more secretive Tor browser software. However, this might not be the only contributor. It's possible than once again online drug marketplaces like Silkroad and Atlantis have had an impact on the deep web.

tor
Cheers TorProject

Previously, Tor use and Bitcoin value have grown hand in hand and it looks like it might be the case once again. Looking at the latest stats from Blockchain, it's at $145 per Bitcoin at the time of writing, up from a low of $69.70 just over a month and a half ago. This is of course, still way down on the currency's all time high of $237 in April, before the crash that brought it back down to more reasonably levels.

But nothing happened around the middle of August that could have sparked this boost… did it?

forbes
A little publication called Forbes, might have written something…

Looking at the share stats of a piece like this, you might not think it would have a huge impact, but drugs aren't usually the kind of thing people want coming up in their social networking feeds, so any sharing would have been done privately, via direct URL.

KitGuru Says: I'm not saying that the Silkroad piece saw over a million more people dive onto Tor, but I think it will have been a big contributor. If there's one thing the 30 year long war on drugs has taught us, it's that a lot of people like taking them and if there's an easier and safer way to get them, they'll probably do it. 

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