Here's some history of the rise & fall of Silk Road & the events that followed closely after!
THE PARTY'S OVER
October 2 2013 was a sad day. The infamous Silk Road login screen was replaced with an FBI Seizure Notice. Some thought it was a joke, some thought it was a "runner" pulled by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Within hours the most feared rumours were confirmed, Silk Road (1.0) was dead.
The operator, Ross Ulbricht, was arrested. I myself had been an online "friend" of the man we all knew as DPR. He shared many secrets with me and I got to know some of the inner workings of SR and DPR's mindset. More on that later.
A few days later, a well known former British vendor (of Xanax and other goods) and prominent member of the Silk Road Forums, StExo, decided to don the mantle of Dread Pirate Roberts (as the in the Princess Bride, the moniker is passed down from one to the next).
He assembled with some of the moderators of the original Silk Road, and decided that though the man was history, the dream wasn't. StExo was also notorious for his love of money, having offered money laundering advice/services on SR1. In an but candid interview with Weirderweb, StExo himself claimed that "ambition has no rest".
That propelled the events and adventures of the following few months, which I stumbled right into. StExo (who had also been an online friend of DPR and had performed some remarkable services for him) called an online meeting with the Libertas (former admin/moderator) aka GrahamGreene (a former bulk marijuana vendor based out of Ireland, later arrested and found to be a 30 year old named Gary Davis), SSBD (SameSameButDifferent, a former moderator who turned out to be an Australian man in his late 30s named Peter Phillip Nash), Cirrus (former two time moderator who was known on the forums as Scout, before being demoted by DPR1, then re-instated with another handle, only to be ordered by the ultra paranoid DPR to change handles again) and others to discuss the possibility of continuing Silk Road. Missing from this meeting was Inigo, the "first mate" to the Captn DPR's, who had gone underground the day SR1 was hit. Inigo was later found to be a 20something in Virginia named Andrew Michael Jones. StExo's first order of business was actually to post a red herring on the the original Silk Road forums the day of the bust.
The post was something to the affect of "To the original DPR, if you're reading this, I don't care what it takes or where you are, you know how to reach me, get in touch ASAP!". This was seemingly to throw a wrench in law enforcement's post-arrest monitoring of the forum. The intent was to make it seem as if there were more then one persons operating the DPR account, and potentially aid in Ross Ulbricht's defense in some way. To create reasonable doubt that the feds had the wrong guy. StExo, being a polarizing member of the forums, did something seemingly admirable. Was it pretext to don the DPR mantle himself and perhaps give the impression that a pre-determined order of succession was already in play? Or was a good faith effort to help the inevitable legal battle of the embattled Ulrbricht? Perhaps a little both of both.
*Disclaimer: Take it for what you want in terms of truth and reliability, there are no guarentees here and we do not endorse / vouch or in anyway confirm or stand behind anything mentioned in this post - Its re posted here because its an interesting read and interesting description of the events, even if you consider this to be 100% fictional.
Credit goes to deepdotweb http://www.deepdotweb.com/2014/06/29/silk-road-tales-oracles-memoirs/
Don't forget the disclaimer - for entertainment purposes only :)