Silk Road

What Is the Silk Road?

The Silk Road was an illegal market on the dark web, now shut down by the FBI. It accepted Bitcoin as payment for transactions.

A key feature of Bitcoin was the anonymity of transactions and the people using the digital currency. All cryptocurrencies are designed to be anonymous. But they can only stay anonymous if there is no track of the transaction. This means that if people buy cryptocurrencies with a credit or debit card, there is a trail for people to follow. In addition, buying cryptocurrency from a digital exchange also leaves an address from the proof of delivery protocol. 

Background of the Silk Road

Ross Ulbricht was the person behind the creation of the Silk Road. Launched in 2011, the Silk Road was a marketplace where buyers could get a varied range of illegal items like fake IDs, drugs, and narcotics. Buyers usually paid with cryptocurrency. 

The marketplace is notorious for being the initiator of an illicit narcotics business. For example, Silk Road allegedly earned over $1.2 Bn over its two-year life span and around $ 80 million in commissions alone. 

At the time it was investigated and shut down by the FBI in October 2013, about 174,000 BTC were seized, while at least 440,000 BTC are still missing. Ross Ulbricht was suspected of having another computer with details about the missing and lost BTC. 

Ross Ulbricht was convicted of seven charges from the Silk Road marketplace in a Manhattan Court.