Silk Road 2.0 Now Larger Than Silk Road Ever Was

from the strike-down-one-arm-and... dept

This effect was likely boosted by sensible policies at Silk Road. Most significantly, soon after February’s hack, the site’s operators announced that they would pay back bitcoins lost by customers. Silk Road’s moderator Defcon said at the time: “We are committed to getting everyone repaid even if it takes a year.” In anonymous drugs marketplaces, as in any market, confidence is key, it seems.

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This is hardly surprising, but it appears that in the wake of the feds taking down the "dark marketplace" Silk Road and arresting its alleged creator Russ Ulbricht, replacement marketplaces quickly sprung into place to try to take its place. This was exactly as we predicted . A few of the markets have come and gone (usually associated with scandals), but it appears that the one that has stuck around is "Silk Road 2.0" -- and it's actually now larger than Silk Road ever was , in terms of the amount of products being offered. The article linked above, from Coindesk, notes that, somewhat ironically, the reason why Silk Road 2.0 seems to be standing out above the others is because it's worked hard to establish trust.That's not to say Silk Road 2.0 is going to stick around -- there are plenty of reasons to think it won't. But, in some ways, you wonder if this is a kind of Napster moment all over again. After the original got shut down, a series of replacements all came about vying to take its place, leading to some interesting innovations -- even if those who wanted to shut down the original decried how awful and illegal each new version was.

Filed Under: decentralized, marketplaces, silk road, silk road 2.0