Silk Road
As it was described in the previous section, the deep web is comprised by more
things than most people tend to know. During this paper it will be explain the history
of one of the most important servers that have ever existed in the darknet, why it
closed two times and why the governments and the law have failed in stopping the
emergence of these safe havens for illegal transactions.
The Silk Road online marketplace was an international network of drug
dealers and buyers where people were able to buy and sell approximately 340 types
of drugs (Gayathri,2011). It was located in the deep web and was launched in 2011,
by the owner best known on the internet as "Dread Pirate Roberts", whose official
name is Ross Ulbricht. This case will be explained in depth in the next section, since
it has a certain degree of complexity, however it is of great importance to emphasize
it because he managed to evade justice after two years of illegal activity in the portal,
nonetheless he was seized and prosecuted in 2013, which resulted in the closure of
the site for the first time (Lacson, Jones, 2016).
According to the FBI’s criminal complaint filed in Ross Ulbricht's trial, the Silk
Road market had almost 150,000 buyers and almost 4,000 vendors (USA v. Ross
Ulbricht, 2013). Most of the users were located in the United States, but there were
users from all over the world, however it is difficult to ensure their origin due to the
high levels of anonymity and confidentiality that the portal had.
The anonymity is the main reason why sites as Silk Road became so
important. They use secret servers such as TOR that hide the identity of both the
buyer and the seller ((Ciancaglini, Balduzzi, Goncharov & McArdle, 2013). The TOR
network was originally developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and was
first introduced in 2002, its main objective is to allow anonymous communication and
transactions (Ciancaglini, Balduzzi, Goncharov & McArdle, 2013).
As just mentioned, the Silk Road marketplace was accessible only through a
computer encryption software, and was supported by online transactions using peer
to peer anonymous and untraceable cryptocurrencies, like bitcoins (Van Hout,
Brigham, 2013). By using the TOR and the crypto assets, any movement was
impossible to follow, situation that favored the purchase and sale without producing
any risk. In several documents whose objective is to define these platforms and their
operation, have come to compare Silk Road service with Amazon, since in both
cases it is purchased online, paid and received in one direction, without any personal
interaction (Morrie, Nosses, 2011).
It is a common belief that in these markets it is possible to find every product
(legal and illegal), but The Silk Road had a moral code which established and
marked clearly certain limits. The most important was that not all kinds of products
were allowed. The administrators of the portal had a certain "conscience" that did not
seek to harm people and society, therefore they only allowed drugs to be sold and
bought, killers for hire, weapons of mass destruction, stolen credit cards, etc. were
not accepted. Not like today's marketplaces, that sell and buy everything in order to
satisfy the increasing and insatiable needs of the market.
Although nowadays this moral code seems to be illogical and completely
counterproductive to the objectives of the industry, it was one of the most important
characteristics that defined the portal, since it was a server that during its two years
of existence was based on the camaraderie and respect among the participants.
Regarding the good relationship existing within the portal, it is known that not
only was it a place where certain items could be bought, but also there were forums
where people talked about the items for sale, their quality, the rating of the sellers
and buyers, the best payment methods, etc. "This made the site not only for free
exchange of contraband, but a store of information [...] and a global community with
its own values, beliefs, and internal conflicts" (Lacson, Jones, 2016)
In these forums what could be found was valuable information that gave the
solidity and security necessary to the portal, since both buyers and sellers felt safe
within the system. The sellers had the responsibility to give good quality products
and prove their authenticity with stamps and personal marks that could not be
imitated by any other seller, while buyers could enter the portal to see the "street
prices" of the products, so that no seller cheated them by giving them a high and
erroneous price (Van Hout & Bingham, 2013). Following this process, both parties
made good deals in a professional and trusty environments where the
administrators avoided conflicts that could have affected the long-term business.
Because these global forums that gave a sense of community to the platform
became an essential factor, as time went by, an entrance filter was created so that
not everyone could participate in these forums, but people who truly had the purpose
of learning and above all to contribute something positive to the platform. The first
filter that had to be passed was the "newbie boards", a forum prior to the main one
where at least 50 comments had to be placed, which would then be reviewed, and if
the filter was passed, they were given access to the main forum.
As in any society, there were rules that should be followed and respected by
all users and the most important was the hierarchy, which was present throughout
the platform and not only in the discussion forums. The more it came to the platform,
the higher the status, and this in turn gave exclusive benefits. In addition to this,
users of the platform received ratings that were reflected in the profiles, in this way it
was intended to make each user accountable for their comments and actions.
This method of artificial social hierarchy and regulation reduced the
consequences of the deindividuation, defined as the "phenomenon in which people
engage in seemingly impulsive, deviant, and sometimes violent acts in situations in
which they believe they can not be identified personally"
Ciancaglini, V., Balduzzi, M., Goncharov, M., & McArdle, R. (2013). Deepweb and Cybercrime. It’s
Not All About TOR. Retrieved from http://www.trendmicro.ie/media/wp/deepweb-andcybercrime-whitepaper-en.pdf