Silk Road

When one hears of “the silk road,” many may jump to the name of the trade network that spanned China about 2000 years ago. However, with the widespread usage of companies like Fedex and UPS, which deliver goods via airplanes and a network of trucks, the horse-drawn carts of that time have become extinct.

As shopping moves to the internet, in a wave known as e-commerce, people use websites like Amazon and Ebay to market and purchase goods. A lesser known, and more infamous website borrowed the “Silk Road” name and created a blackmarket goods ecommerce website. The creator is Ross Ulbricht, or known as Dread Pirate Roberts on the internet. The website has now been taken down for its trading of illegal goods, but prior to, it was only accessible via Tor. It’s called a “dark web” website, as it’s not indexed by Google or search engines, and must be accessed in a special way that “normal” internet users don’t do. The website was wildly popular for its anonymity, yet was secure in a way that other websites didn’t offer.

This was especially necessary when the primary usage of the website was the exchange of illegal drugs. To exchange goods, patrons on the website used a virtual currency, or cryptocurrency, called Bitcoin. Anyone can own Bitcoin, and it is not tied to an individual or institution, making it highly anonymous as well. These two worked hand-in-hand to provide a secure and private website for such goods. The Silk Road owners would take a percentage cut out of each transaction for providing this platform. In 2013, the FBI arrested Ulbicht and shut down the website. Since then, there have been attempts at creating a so-called 2.0 version of the website, but none successful.


Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 26, 2019 at 1:24 AM

    Nice post Alan! It's really interesting how the Silk Road was able to take advantage of legal delivery companies such as Fedex and UPS to deliver their goods. How were they able to do so without these companies knowing what was being delivered?

    ReplyDelete

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