Black Market Drug Site 'Silk Road' Booming: $22 Million In Annual Sales

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edgarshade

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Forbes

8/06/2012 @ 2:28PM

With reader comments

In the year since Senator Joe Manchin called for the “audacious” drug-selling website Silk Road to be “shut down immediately,” the world’s most high-profile underground pharmacy hasn’t just survived. With $22 million in annual sales and around double the commission for the site’s owners compared with just six months ago, its black market business is booming.

In a research paper (PDF here) released earlier this month, Carnegie Mellon computer security professor Nicolas Christin has taken a crack at measuring the sales activity on Silk Road’s underground online marketplace, which runs as a “hidden service” on the Tor network and uses tough-to-trace digital Bitcoins as currency, two measures that have helped to obscure its sellers, buyers and operators from law enforcement.
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More...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygre...ng-22-million-in-annual-mostly-illegal-sales/
 
Good for them. An adult should have the right to ingest anything he/she wants to ingest. When it comes to drugs, none of them are anyone's intellectual property and most of them (I'm specifically thinking about cannabis and the opium poppy) about were here long before we were. Law enforcement should be concentrating on catching serial killers, rapists and pedophiles (among other individuals who are an undeniable threat to society) and keeping their noses out of what substance John and Jane Doe decide to consume.
 
Christin was also struck by the fact that Silk Road has managed to grow steadily even with its complete lack of advertising.
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Well I think the media has done a decent job advertising for silk road by simply mentioning it. As they say, any press is good press.
 
I don't know what that governor is bitching about, our government is responsible for 40 percent of the opium crop in Afghanistan.

I'm sure he gets a cut somewhere along the line.
 
If Silk Road is doing that well then I guess we can expect Facebook to try and buy it out soon.
 
most everything i have seen on SR is super expensive. im sure if you live somewhere that doesnt have much in the way of drug variety it can be great, there was one tor site that specifically dealt in opiates, really wanted to give them a try but i cant find them anymore.
 
I agree with medicine cabinet, everythIng is incredibly expensive. I do understand why but it deters me from even attempting. In my opinion the only thing worth aquiring would be the apparently highly uncut cocaine but I would worry its just a sham like how all drug dealers say their shit is the shit.
 
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paolo666 said:
I agree with medicine cabinet, everythIng is incredibly expensive. I do understand why but it deters me from even attempting. In my opinion the only thing worth aquiring would be the apparently highly uncut cocaine but I would worry its just a sham like how all drug dealers say their shit is the shit.
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I think the mods will decide but - I'm just trying to keep the site from being shut down so please don't take it personally - I think discussing the purity of their cocaine and if "they" are too expensive or not may be risky in terms of law enforcement looking for a reason to pull the plug and deeming us a place where we review places/people which sell controlled substances but I understand you're commenting in relation to an article so I'm not sure (and I may be wrong, and I apologize if I am - just better to be safe than sorry I suppose).
 
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^I edited out the line asking how good their coke was. Shouldn't do that here. About the rest: I mean, it's on Forbes so it's kind of out of the bag. This is definitely debatable though.

"you've let the cat out of the bag": what is the origin of this phrase? Were cats ever commonly kept in discreet bags? What were the consequences of letting them escape, and how did that relate to the divulging of dangerous secrets?
 
I will say this from a financial harm reduction standpoint - if you're thinking of obtaining (buying, trading, etc.) bitcoins, know that it's a double-edged sword. It may help keep you anonymous, however if you get scammed, chances are you'll never see that money again even if certain reputable sites claim to have a clever system in place which prevents this from happening. Just know that before you decide you want to use the system to protect your identity.

I've read a couple of horror stories where people got scammed out of a lot of money that belonged to someone else such as - for example - a hot headed unpredictable dealer (who above all else hates being ripped off) who was guaranteed that he wouldn't get ripped off and then that person has to go into hiding because he doesn't have the money to pay back the dealer, who at this point may go after said person's immediate family. Very shitty situation - and yeah, the guy who decided to borrow money from a dealer is a fool, I agree. Just thought I'd point that out to anyone curious who ain't sure of the possible consequences.
 
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yeah, as opposed to buying it on the street.

the thing i dont get is how the bitcoins value fluxs to high and low. does that have something to do with the tor system or is it econ?
 
I can imagine that a cat inside of a bag is much easier to keep under wraps, especially in contrast to a cat that had been in a bag and then was let out. This sounds like trouble. Of course I am not explaining anything whatsoever and this much is a given. I just like the imagery of cats, bags, and the spaces in between. Oh and drugs.
 
no youre right, its trouble. Even if they cant take it down, im sure there are going to be more narcs on that site then ever before. Forbes isnt exactly a small magazine
 
im still shocked people go to Silk Road to buy cocaine and heroin, small amounts..im like, umm its much easier to just go to a street corner, less risky imo as well..
 
'medicine cabinet' said:
the thing i dont get is how the bitcoins value fluxs to high and low. does that have something to do with the tor system or is it econ?
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Generally speaking:

Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item decreases. This is a deflationary economic model.
 
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