Feds Shutdown of Silk Road

             This week I read an article on the capture of the dread pirate Roberts and the shutdown of silk Road. The article is called ”Feds Say they’ve Arrested ‘Dread  Pirate Roberts,’ Shut Down His Black Market ‘The Silk Road’  (Alex Konrad, 2013)  The Silk Road was a dark net site for the trading of illegal goods such as drugs.  “The Silk Road didn’t just sell drugs. The FBI says listings also offered social media hacks, illegal contact lists, currency and firearms.” (Alex Konrad, 2013)  

        The silk Road site was only accessible through the TOR network.  The Tor network is anonymity service that routes a user with the correct software to several virtual private networks.  This set of network shifts every so often so that the user stays hidden.   

              The currency used for the silkworm website is the controversial anonymous currency Bit Coins.  Bit coins are like stocks and that they fluctuate in price up and down.  Bit coins are peer-to-peer currency that could be traded anonymously.  They are controversial because they are treated as a currency.  They can be bought for money and exchanged back for money as well.  This makes them thoroughly different than most point currency’s that go one way, an example are PlayStation wallet, xbox points, steam wallet.  The difference in those is that they are nonrefundable.  

            The point of the silk road was to take black market  dealing of illegal goods on line.  I mean it was not just pot and drugs.  It allowed for other things to be sold like stolen information and weapons.    I personally am happy to see a black market site go. 

For a better picture of what the dark net was see this article http://www.pcworld.com/article/20462 (Chacos, Brad, 2013)27/meet-darknet-the-hidden-anonymous-underbelly-of-the-searchable-web.html.

Works Cited

Alex Konrad. (2013, October 2). Feds Say They've Arrested 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' Shut Down His Black Market 'The Silk Road'. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2013/10/02/feds-shut-down-silk-road-owner-known-as-dread-pirate-roberts-arrested/

Chacos, Brad. (2013, August 12). Meet Darknet, the hidden, anonymous underbelly of the searchable Web. Retrieved from PCworld.com: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2046227/meet-darknet-the-hidden-anonymous-underbelly-of-the-searchable-web.html