Silk road and bitcoin

Publications

Silk road and bitcoin

29 January 2014

The much trumpeted closure in October 2013 of the Tor-accessible illicit market known as Silk Road and arrest of its founder Robert Ulbricht struck a blow to consumer trust in the market for illicit goods and specifically narcotic drugs that are hosted on the Tor network. However, this success for the US multi-agency task force (involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Internal Revenue Service, US Postal Inspection, Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) does not mark the end of black markets hosted on the Tor network, or the availability of drugs anonymously bought online. Rather it spurred innovations in online illicit trading, underlining the hydra headed nature of ‘successful’ interdiction effort.

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