The Silk Path is the online black market and the first modern darknet market, best known as the platform for selling illegal drugs. As part of a dark web, it is operated as Tor's hidden service, so online users can explore it anonymously and securely without monitoring potential traffic. Website launched in February 2011; construction had begun six months earlier. Initially there were a number of new seller accounts available; the new seller must buy the account in the auction. Then, a flat fee is charged to each new seller account.
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) closed the website and arrested Ross Ulbricht on charges of being the founder of the fake website "Dread Pirate Roberts". On November 6, 2013, Silk Road 2.0 came online, run by former Silk Road administrator. It was also closed, and the suspected operator was arrested on November 6, 2014 as part of what was called "Onymous Operation". Ulbricht was sentenced to eight allegations related to the Silk Road in the US Federal Court in Manhattan and was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
Video Silk Road (marketplace)
History
Operation
Silk Road was founded in February 2011. The name "Silk Road" comes from a historical network of trading routes beginning in the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) between Europe, India, China and many other countries in Afro-Eurasia. mainland. Silk Road is operated by pseudonymous "Dread Pirate Roberts" (named after the fictitious character of The Princess Bride ), known for embracing libertarian ideals and criticizing the rules. Two others are also closely involved in site growth and success, known as Variety Jones and Smedley.
In June 2011, Gawker published an article about the site that caused "Internet buzz" and increased website traffic. After the site was publicly known, US Senator Charles Schumer called on federal law enforcement authorities to close it, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Justice.
In May 2013, the Silk Road was downgraded for a short time by continuous DDoS attacks. On June 23, 2013, it was first reported that the DEA confiscated 11.02 bitcoin, which is worth a total of $ 814, suspected by the media as a result of a Silk Road honeypot sting. The FBI has claimed that the real IP address of the Silk Road server is found through data leaked directly from the CAPTCHA site, but security researchers believe that the PHP login page is manipulated to generate the $ _SERVER and real IP variables following the maintenance site reconfiguration.
Henry Farrell, a professor of political science and international relations at George Washington University, analyzed Silk Road in an essay for Aeon in 2015. He noted that Ulbricht created a functioning market without government oversight but found it difficult to verify anonymous transactions. To maintain a steady stream of income, he began to increase surveillance to ensure low transaction costs. To do this, he adds steps to ensure confidence with the adoption of an automated escrow payment system and automated review system.
Capture and test Ross Ulbricht
In part thanks to off-duty research conducted by IRS criminal investigator Gary Alford, Ross Ulbricht was accused by the FBI as the founder and owner of Silk Road and the man behind the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts" (DPR). He was arrested on October 2, 2013 in San Francisco at 3:15 pm. PST at Glen Park Library, a branch of San Francisco Public Library. Ulbricht was charged with money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy against narcotics traffic, and tried to kill six people. Prosecutors alleged that Ulbricht paid $ 730,000 to others to commit murder, even though no actual killings took place. Ulbricht was eventually not prosecuted for any of the alleged assassination attempts.
The FBI initially confiscated 26,000 bitcoins from accounts at Silk Road, worth about $ 3.6 million at the time. An FBI spokesman said that the agency will hold the bitcoin until the Ulbricht trial is completed, after which the bitcoin will be liquidated. In October 2013, the FBI reported that it had gained 144,000 bitcoins, worth $ 28.5 million, and Ulbricht's bitcoin. On June 27, 2014, Marshals US Service sold 29,657 bitcoins in 10 blocks in an online auction, estimated to be worth $ 18 million at current prices and only about a quarter of the confiscated bitcoin. 144,324 other stored bitcoins have been found on Ulbricht computers, about $ 87 million. The Draper team bought bitcoin at an auction valued at $ 17 million, to lend it to a startco-up bitcoin named Vaurum that works in developing economies in emerging markets.
The Ulbricht trial begins on January 13, 2015 at the Federal Court in Manhattan. At the beginning of the trial, Ulbricht claimed to have established the Silk Road website, but claimed to have transferred control of the site to others as soon as he established it. Ulbricht's lawyers argue that Dread Pirate Roberts is really Mark KarpelÃÆ'¨s, and that KarpelÃÆ'¨s set Ulbricht as a falling man. However, Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled that any speculative statements about whether KarpelÃÆ'¨s or anyone else running Silk Road would not be allowed, and statements already made would be struck from the record.
In the second week of the trial, prosecutors presented documents and chat logs from Ulbricht computers which, they say, show how Ulbricht has been managing the site for months, as opposed to the claim of defense that Ulbricht has released control of the Silk Road. Ulbricht's lawyer suggested that the log files and logs be planted there by BitTorrent, which runs on Ulbricht computers at the time of his capture.
On February 4, 2015, the jury sentenced Ulbricht to seven counts, including indictments involved in continuing criminal companies, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and computer hacking. He faces 30 years to live in prison. The government also accused Ulbricht of paying for the killing of at least five people, but there is no evidence that the killings were actually committed, and the accusations have never been an official claim against Ulbricht.
During the trial Judge Forrest received death threats. The underground site user named The Hidden Wiki posted his personal information there, including his Social Security address and number. Ulbricht's lawyer Joshua Dratel said that he and his client were "clear, and as strong as possible, to condemn" anonymous posts against judges. "They have absolutely nothing to do with Ross Ulbricht or anyone associated with it or reflect on his views or the people associated with it," said Dratel.
At the end of March 2015, a criminal complaint issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California led to the arrest of two former federal agents who had worked undercover in the investigation of the Silk Road Baltimore Ulbricht, former drug enforcement agent Carl Mark Force IV and Secret Service Agent Shaun Bridges. The agents allegedly kept the funds that Ulbricht transferred to them in exchange for the recognized information about the investigation. The agents were accused of wire fraud and money laundering. At the end of November 2016, Ulbricht's lawyers filed a case with a third DEA agent, which they claimed leaked information about the investigation and damaged the evidence to remove the chat logs that showed a conversation with him.
In a letter to Judge Forrest before his sentence, Ulbricht declared that his actions through the Silk Road were done through libertarian idealism and that "the Silk Path should give people the freedom to make their own choice" and recognize that he made the "terrible mistake" "ruin his life". On May 29, 2015, Ulbricht was given five sentences to be served simultaneously, including two for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He was also ordered to lose $ 183 million. Ulbricht's lawyer Joshua Dratel said he would appeal the original punishment and verdict. On May 31, 2017, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed Ulbricht's appeal, and affirmed the sentence and sentence of life sentence, in a written opinion written by His Excellency Gerard E. Lynch, US Circuit Judge.
Other tests
In February 2013, Australia's cocaine and MDMA dealers ("ecstasy") became the first people convicted of crimes directly related to the Silk Road, after authorities intercepted imported medicines, ransacked the premise, and found Sutranya Jalan alias in image file on his personal computer. The Australian police and DEA have targeted Silk Road users and made arrests, albeit with limited success in achieving confidence. In December 2013, a New Zealand man was sentenced to two years and four months in jail after being found guilty of importing the 15 grams of shabu he purchased on the Silk Road.
The Dutch drug dealer Cornelis Jan, 23, "Maikel" Slomp pleaded guilty to the sale of large-scale medicines through the Silk Road website and was sentenced in Chicago to 10 years in prison on May 29, 2015 with his lawyer, Paul Petruzzi, present. Dealer Steven Sadler was sentenced to five years in prison. There are over 130 other arrests associated with the Silk Road, although some of these arrests may not be directly linked to the Silk Road, and may not be public information for legal reasons.
Maps Silk Road (marketplace)
Products
By March 2013, the site has 10,000 products for sale by vendors, 70% of which are drugs. In October 2014, there were 13,756 lists of drugs, grouped under the titles of stimulants, psychedelics, prescriptions, precursors, others, opioids, ecstasy, dissociative, and steroids/PEDs. A fake driver's license is also offered for sale. Site terms of service prohibit the sale of certain goods. When the Silk Road market first starts the creators and administrators apply the terms of service that prohibit the sale of anything whose purpose is to "harm or deceive". This includes child pornography, stolen credit cards, murders, and weapons of any kind; Other dark markets such as Black Market Reloaded get the famous users because they do not limit on these items because of the incarnation of the Silk Road. There are also legal goods and services for sale, such as clothing, art, books, cigarettes, erotica, jewelry, and writing services. The sister site, called "The Armory", sells weapons (mainly weapons) during 2012, but is closed due to lack of demand.
Buyers can leave seller product reviews on the site, and in related forums where crowdsourcing provides information about the best sellers and worst scammers. Most products are sent by post, with the site seller's guide instructing the seller how to seal their product in a vacuum to avoid detection.
Sales
Based on data from February 3, 2012 to July 24, 2012, an estimated $ 15 million in transactions are conducted annually on the Silk Road. Twelve months later, Nicolas Christin, the study's author, said in an interview that a large increase in volume to "between $ 30 million and $ 45 million" would not surprise him. Buyers and sellers make all transactions with bitcoin (BTC), a cryptocurrency that provides a certain degree of anonymity. Silk Road holds buyer bitcoins in escrow until orders are received and hedging mechanisms allow sellers to select the bitcoin value stored in escrow to be fixed to their value in US $ at the time of sale to reduce Bitcoin volatility. Any change in bitcoin price during transit is covered by Dread Pirate Roberts.
Complaints issued when Ulbricht was captured included information obtained by the FBI from the image of the Silk Road server system collected on July 23, 2013. He noted that, "From February 6, 2011 to July 23, 2013 there were approximately 1,229,465 completed transactions on total revenue generated from this sale is 9,519,664 Bitcoin, and total commissions collected by Silk Road from sales of 614,305 Bitcoin, This figure is equivalent to about $ 1.2 billion in revenue and $ 79.8 million in commissions, with the current Bitcoin exchange rate... ", according to a September 2013 complaint, and involving 146,946 buyers and 3,877 vendors. According to user information provided at the time of registering, 30 percent came from the United States, 27 percent voted for "not announced", and moreover, in decreasing order of prevalence: England, Australia, Germany, Canada, Sweden, France, Russia, Italy , and the Netherlands. During the 60 day period from May 24 to July 23, there were 1,217,218 messages sent via Silk Road's private messaging system.
Similar sites
The Farmer's Market is a Tor site similar to the Silk Road, but does not use bitcoin. This has been considered a 'Proto-Silk Road' but the use of payment services such as PayPal and Western Union allows law enforcement to track payments and then closed by the FBI in 2012. Other sites already exist when Silk Road is closed down and The Guardian predicts that this will take over the market dominated by Silk Road. Sites named 'Atlantis', closed in September 2013, and Project Black Flag , closed in October 2013, each stealing their user bitcoins. In October 2013, a site called Black Market Reloaded was temporarily closed after the site's source code was leaked. The market share of Silk Road successor sites is described by The Economist in May 2015.
Book club
Silk Road has a Tor-based book club that continues to operate after the initial site closure and even after the arrest of one of its members. Reading materials include conspiracy theories and computer hacking. Some titles include main books as well as books such as The Anarchist Cookbook and Beat the Electromagnetic Door Lock . Most of the titles in this book club are pirated. This book club still exists as a private-based chat room.
Direct successor
Silk Road 2.0
On November 6, 2013, the administrator of the closed Silk Road relaunched the site, led by the new Pirate Dread Pirate, and dubbed "Silk Road 2.0". It recreated the original site setup and promised enhanced security. The new House of Representatives takes precautions to distribute copies of the encrypted site source code to allow the site to be remade quickly in case of shutdown again.
On December 20, 2013, it was announced that three people suspected of being members of Silk Road 2.0 were arrested; two of these suspects, Andrew Michael Jones and Gary Davis, were named "Inigo" and "Libertas" administrators who continued their work on the Silk Road 2.0. Around this time, the new Pirate Roberts Dread suddenly handed control of the site and froze its activities, including its escrow system. The new temporary administrator under the screen name "Defcon" takes over and promises to return the site to working order.
On February 13, 2014, Defcon announced that the escrow account of Silk Road 2.0 has been compromised through a vulnerability in the Bitcoin protocol called "transaction flexibility". While the site remains online, all bitcoins in its escrow accounts, worth $ 2.7 million, are reportedly stolen. It was later reported that the vulnerability exists on the site's "Refresh Deposit" function, and that Silk Road administrators have been using their commissions for sales since Feb. 15 to return users who lost money, with 50 percent of hacked victims fully paid as of April 8.
On November 6, 2014, authorities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, and Eurojust announced the arrest of Blake Benthall, alleged owner and operator of Silk Road 2.0 under the pseudonym "Defcon", the previous day in San Francisco as part of Operation Onymous.
More
Following the closure of Silk Road 2.0 in November 2014, Diabolus Market changed its name to 'Silk Road 3 Reloaded' to capitalize on the brand. In January 2015, Silk Road Reloaded was launched on I2P with the support of several cryptocurrencies and restrictions on similar listings to the original Silk Road market. This website also does not work.
Supporters of web drug sales within
Meghan Ralston, a former "hazard reduction manager" for the Drug Policy Alliance, was quoted as saying that the Silk Road is "a peaceful alternative to the often deadly violence that is commonly associated with global drug warfare and street drug dealings, especially". Supporters of the Silk Road and similar sites argue that buying illegal narcotics from your home security is better than buying them personally from criminals on the streets.
Media
- Deep Web - On March 15, 2015, screenwriter/screenwriter Alex Winter made a film debut based on Silk Road that tells the story of the capture of Ross Ulbricht.
- CaseFile True Crime Podcasts - Case 76: Silk Road (Part 1, 2, 3) - aired 10, 17, February 24, 2018
See also
- Agorism
- Crypto-anarchism
- OpenBazaar
- War on Drugs
References
Note
Further reading
External links
- "Site 'Silk Road' is called Amazon heroin, cocaine". ABC Action News. Youtube. June 10, 2011
- "Silk Road: Theory & Practice"
- "United States v. Ross William Ulbricht" Grand Jury Indictment, Maryland District (October 1, 2013)
- Archive start page for Silk Road
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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