If the FBI’s claims that Ulbricht and Blake Benthall of “Silk Road 2.0” were caught due to their own mistakes are true, then it’s still possible for similar anonymous marketplaces to escape prosecution in the future. So while the Silk Road and several of its immediate successors are gone, the suggestion that the technology behind these marketplaces is flawed is based on speculation that the FBI or NSA have cracked them. However, there may be other cryptocurrencies with the means to get around these weaknesses in the future. ![]() Unless bitcoin becomes more readily accepted then it will be hard for criminals to avoid the temptation to cash out at digital exchanges, linking them to their ill-gotten gains. This is why governments are choosing to regulate to bitcoin through digital exchanges. Once a wallet ID has been linked to an individual bitcoin, transactions become highly traceable, as all transactions involving that ID are viewable on the public ledger. ![]() But for the owner of bitcoins to realise their value, they must be spent or transferred through exchanges into real-world currency – at which point the owner is liable to be traced. While the value of bitcoins remains within the blockchain, the anonymity persists. The limits to the anonymity afforded by bitcoin has also been highlighted. You have to go far to find somewhere that accepts bitcoin. But the evidence and explanations given by the FBI in court were not convincing, leading to rumours that the FBI used malware or enlisted the NSA to help track down Silk Road and its users within Tor. The subsequent sites that attempted to follow in its wake were brought down through similar mistakes. Officially the FBI insists that Ulbricht made mistakes which allowed detectives to uncover his identity and location. Buyers and sellers guides were available on the website to assist in using the technology without detection. Transactions were carried out using bitcoin due to the pseudonymity it affords. Run as a Tor hidden service within the Dark Web, Silk Road’s servers were only accessible through Tor software in order to mask their IP addresses and physical location. The site used a mix of sophisticated privacy technologies to try to hide the identities of its users. It operated like an eBay for illegal goods, complete with the opportunity for buyers to provide feedback scores to sellers so others could gauge their trustworthiness and quality of product. The Silk Road was an online marketplace designed to allow users to conduct illegal business anonymously beyond the reach of law enforcement. Ulbricht was labelled a drug dealer and criminal profiteer, and Judge Forrest was unequivocal in stating that “a message must be sent out that no one is above the law”. Ross Ulbricht, aka the “Dread Pirate Roberts”, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole by a Manhattan Federal Court for masterminding the Silk Road anonymous online illegal marketplace.
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