Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: choclatepuma on November 05, 2012, 05:31 pm

Title: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: choclatepuma on November 05, 2012, 05:31 pm
What do you guys think will be the future of silk road in months/years to come? What happens if SR gets compromised or something like that? Will all buyers and sellers like me and you get found out and possibly get caught, Or will the security infrastructure which makes SR what it is today only get stronger?  would be nice to hear your views/opinions  :)
Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: mnak on November 05, 2012, 05:58 pm
No way will all buyers/sellers get caught.....there are too many safeguards to protect against that.  Many of us have gone to lengths to protect our identify.  Others, not go much.

In my opinion, there is a decent possibility the US government will eventually disrupt operations by complicating the exchange of dollars to bitcoins through new or existing money laundering laws or similar.

As for illicit online trade ... it will inevitably grow with time, SR or no SR.
Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: CoolGrey on November 05, 2012, 06:25 pm
Let's assume the server gets confiscated and the operators are forced to cooperate, a worst case scenario.

The sellers would be protected. Because of the way Tor works, it is very hard to obtain information on the people who use Silk Road.

Buyers have to leave their addresses, which then hit the server. Those who use PGP will also be protected, because only the vendor - not the server operators and police - are able to decrypt those. The addresses that have been left unencrypted might be visible to a hacker or government agency in case of such an event.

I don't think it will happen. I expect there will be more sites like Silk Road, and maybe even more networks like Tor. The future will be interesting.
Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: ilovelsd69 on November 05, 2012, 06:25 pm
SR is like a star, every star die and i think this will happen to SR one day (i hope this will be in many years). Not because of LE or governments but because of it's popularity, the same popularity that made SR what he is now will put an end to it at some time because they will be just too much people using it and the TOR infrastructure will not be able to handle it  :'(
Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: thelorax on November 05, 2012, 07:50 pm
i think we are all here forever

this places isnt going anywhere there is too much money to be made..

IF I WAS A OWNER i would do EVERYTHING in my power to keep this place running..

idk just what i think .. its a beautiful place enjoy
Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: choclatepuma on November 06, 2012, 12:11 am
Let's assume the server gets confiscated and the operators are forced to cooperate, a worst case scenario.

The sellers would be protected. Because of the way Tor works, it is very hard to obtain information on the people who use Silk Road.

Buyers have to leave their addresses, which then hit the server. Those who use PGP will also be protected, because only the vendor - not the server operators and police - are able to decrypt those. The addresses that have been left unencrypted might be visible to a hacker or government agency in case of such an event.

I don't think it will happen. I expect there will be more sites like Silk Road, and maybe even more networks like Tor. The future will be interesting.

That is what i think too, But this tor technology has been made along with all its contents. If its possible to make a software which relays ones IP address. Maybe someone or some government/LE team will  make a software which can counteract with it and reveal peoples real location.
 If there is a website that sells drugs which was revealed by Gawker whose to say there isn't a website that trades 'Child Porn'. In my eyes and probably the LE eyes I find child porn a much more concerning matter then people buying or selling drugs. But if such websites did get revealed I am sure, if not certain the LE will do everything to try and get into the system. And if they can take down that and bust every sick fucker who would use such websites why wouldn't they try and bust us all on here, Im probably missing the whooole point. Sorry if i am.  :D
Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: jsmithy123 on November 06, 2012, 12:33 am
it is a minor miracle it has lasted this long.

since traffic is growing, assuming (big if) SR can be scaled without making a huge privacy or monetary mis-step, it is only a matter of time before it becomes a priority target for the authorities. If I wake up and the SR site is replaced by a FBI message I would not be surprised in the least.

at the point where it becomes a priority for some kind of international effort to shut it down, then I expect there to be considerable pressure on the BTC gateways to stem the conversion of btc to cash and cash to btc.

There is also the possibility that they'll work out a technically legal way to ddos it off the dark net, or a legal way to sting vendors (who clearly buy from larger vendors and resell) with buyers as collateral damage.

the other possibility, if it doesn't fall into one of the holes above, is the business gets large enough to one day annoy non SR distributors who decide to pay hackers to bust the tor network for some weeks or months. This sounds ludicrous but TOR isn't very large nor particularly resilient. If you can imagine a SR that is 10 or 20x the size it could take a large bite out of the profits from traditional dealing.

If I had to bet I would say that the problem in future will come from anti-bitcoin legislation. Most of these BTC gateways are legit businesses run on shoe string budgets. Most would fold overnight if banks were all read the riot act and trading in BTC became highly bound in red tape. Legislation could happen if a study showed clearly that 80% of bitcoin turnover were SR related.
Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: johnmtl on November 06, 2012, 12:44 am
I dont think SR is going anywhere, If anything its the Bitcoin that will fuck this up.. not because it will be attacked but because it will be treated like a real currency and as such vendors wont be able to get paid anymore... Also if that's the case DPR will have a hard time turning his BTC into liquid he can use to further the site... BTC is the weakness!

all in all selling drugs online wont stop... how we get paid is a different story.

Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: WinterMoon on November 06, 2012, 12:59 am
Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin. Seems to be a consensus developing that BTC is the weak link.  So where or what is the work-around - what's the next currency?  Anybody?
Title: Re: What will happen to SR in months/years to come??
Post by: CoolGrey on November 06, 2012, 12:59 pm
I don't agree that BitCoin is the weak link. BitCoin is very hard to stop, because only the person who owns the coins can control them. There is no central back or anything involved.

If you have BitCoins and an internet connection, you can spend them and there is little that can stop you. I'm not saying bitcoin will never be replaced by something else. Only that if they are ever replaced, it's because the new currency is better and the community voluntarily switches. The government will have no say in the issue.

I think the weak link is the Tor network. Maybe we're going to see some attacks on Tor, but I don't think they will succeed.