The Silk Road has been called the eBay of the dark web, the Amazon of the deep web, and the Walmart of the underworld. It’s been called the most important, most influential, and most prolific dark website of all time.
It was the largest online black market of its time, and it’s estimated to have generated as much as $214 million in annual revenue and have processed over $9 billion transactions. But in the end, the Silk Road was a story of hubris, greed, and betrayal.
Anonymity is one of the greatest attractions and criticisms of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin transfers can be made public, but they are only linked to an account number. Not to a person.
Bitcoin isn't really that anonymous. Experts refer to it as "pseudonymous," similar to writing under a penname. As long as there is no connection between an account number and their identity, users can remain anonymous.
It is difficult to trace this connection. You will need a receipt from your bank or credit card if you purchase bitcoins online. You will need to enter your delivery address if you buy bitcoins online. Every transaction is traceable.
Ross Ulbricht will spend his life in prison serving a life sentence. He can think about the difference between anonymous and pseudonymous for the rest of his life. He created a digital marketplace that allowed customers to order everything from heroin to fake IDs. Ulbricht was eventually unable to rely on bitcoin anonymity and the dark side the internet.
There are many parallels between Ulbricht's story, and Star Wars' Anakin skywalker's. As a hopeful Skywalker is eventually seduced by power, the dark side, and becomes Darth Vader through the Force, so too was Ulbricht, who became "Dread Pirate Roberts" in an attempt to establish his illegal empire in dark corners of internet.
Ulbricht returned to Austin, Texas after completing his graduate degree in materials science engineering at Penn State. Ulbricht wanted to become an entrepreneur. Before he found success in e-commerce, he tried many things before landing on the successful online used-book shop.
The site grew rapidly, selling 50,000 used books and employing five workers. It also brought in $10,000 per month in sales. It could have been all perfect and petit bourgeois. But Ulbricht was the dark side.
Ross Ulbricht was not only entrepreneurial but also considered himself a Libertarian. The political philosophy of libertarianism considers any state intervention, such as taxation, coercion.
Ulbricht, like his spiritual brothers, stood for property and self-administration as well as self-realization. Ulbricht believed that the only task of the state was to guarantee these rights to its citizens.
Because of its lack of regulation, cryptocurrency is an attractive option for libertarians. The state cannot print bitcoins, seize it from its owners or tax it. Bitcoin can be as free as libertarians want it to be.
Ulbricht wrote in his diary that he had the idea to create a website that would allow people to buy anything anonymously and leave no trace that could be traced back. This idea became Silk Road, which is a major Darknet marketplace that sells drugs and guns. It went live in 2011.
Ulbricht's "eBay for drug" was available on Darknet. But what exactly is the Darknet? The Darknet is physically identical to the internet.
A server is required to run a website or online store. Every computer connected to the internet has an unique identification number (or IP address). This is as anonymous as a public home address in a city register.
Users can download Tor software from the Darknet. This software uses an intermediary server architecture to conceal both the IP address and the identity of those who are surfing on the Darknet. People can surf the internet anonymously using a Tor browser.
They can still visit websites such as Facebook and leave no digital footprint. They can also visit a Darkweb site. These sites cannot use domain names like ".com" and ".io". Instead, they use one identifier called the ".onion." Facebook is available on the Darkweb at http://facebookcorewwwi.onion. It allows people to access Facebook in countries that Facebook is not allowed. Turkey, for example, feels so threatened by this that they have attempted to block all Tor usage.
