Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: tbart on August 04, 2013, 01:19 am

Title: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: tbart on August 04, 2013, 01:19 am
http://www.dailydot.com/business/silk-road-monthly-sales-black-market-drugs-study/

How big is the Internet's most notorious black market?



By Patrick Howell O'Neill on July 30, 2013 Email

It’s not hard to guess that running the world’s most notorious online market for illegal drugs is big business, with millions changing hands every year. But just how big is Silk Road, and how fast is it growing?

Carnegie Mellon computer security professor Nicolas Christin says Silk Road’s traffic and reputation have increased so drastically over the past year that he expects the famous black market may have doubled transactions over the past 12 months. “Somewhere between $30 million and $45 million a year would not surprise me. It may even be more,” he told the Daily Dot.

In August 2012, Christin conducted a comprehensive analysis of Silk Road that estimated its sales had reached $15 million per year. Christin’s study has become the most widely cited source of information on Silk Road’s business. Numerous vendors and customers on Silk Road have effusively praised his work.

A June 2013 crawl of Silk Road revealed that the black market boasted at least 1,239 active vendors selling at any given moment, double the number Christin counted in August 2012. This crawl was conducted by StExo, a Silk Road vendor and money launderer, with the explicit permission of Silk Road’s owner, Dread Pirate Roberts.

The last 12 months have been mostly kind to Silk Road. Vendors seem to have an endless supply of customers willing to pay for their products. The biggest threat to the marketplace doesn’t seem to be law enforcement or even market forces—it’s the technology. Silk Road, like other sites on the Dark Web, relies on the anonymization service Tor, which comes with its own set of limitations.

“It will be interesting to see how far [Silk Road] can scale,” Christin said. “My hunch is that they may already be hitting some scalability limits due to the Tor network itself. Although it has grown by leaps and bounds, it is still not a very large network, and most relays are run by volunteers. Hidden services are still a very experimental feature with known issues (see,e.g., the paper "Trawling for Tor hidden services" at this year IEEE S&P conference).”

Considering the emergence of rival black markets such as Atlantis and Black Market Reloaded, Christin said, “It will also be interesting to see how the competition shapes up.”

Christin’s Silk Road study has received extensive press coverage in around the globe in publications such as Wired, Ars Technica, Gawker, and the New York Times. Although subsequent crawls of Silk Road have taken place, none have been academic, and none have shared so much information about the site so widely.

When asked whether he hopes to complete another crawl, Christin said “Possibly, I don't know. The paper has already been written, so it may be more interesting to me to focus on other research questions.”

Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: anonymart on August 06, 2013, 04:37 am
My account is routinely in the top 3-6 percent.  I make under 100k per year.   Even the claims that DPR makes a million a year in fee's seemed dubious to me.

In order for these numbers to be true, greater than 90% of the transactions happening here would have to be in stealth mode.  I don't buy it.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: DrMDA on August 06, 2013, 05:22 am
^^^^  Really? Off of my 10 days as a vendor I would say it is closer to $100 million then $40 million. Unless I am an anomaly I would not say a $100k a year guy is in the top %5.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: Bluto on August 06, 2013, 05:25 am
I'm in the wrong fuckin' business.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: DrMDA on August 06, 2013, 05:31 am
^^^ No you're not Bluto. The money is good until it's not, and when it's not it's really not. Prison jobs pay 50 cents a day. Unless you are in the backed up toilet cleaning business I'd say stay where you are.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: farmer1 on August 06, 2013, 05:52 am
My account is routinely in the top 3-6 percent.  I make under 100k per year.   Even the claims that DPR makes a million a year in fee's seemed dubious to me.

In order for these numbers to be true, greater than 90% of the transactions happening here would have to be in stealth mode.  I don't buy it.

Do you make less then 100k profit, or do you do less then 100k in volume? I can believe the former, but not the latter.

I would guess the figures in the article are low but it is very hard to tell.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on August 06, 2013, 06:21 am
My account is routinely in the top 3-6 percent.  I make under 100k per year.   Even the claims that DPR makes a million a year in fee's seemed dubious to me.

In order for these numbers to be true, greater than 90% of the transactions happening here would have to be in stealth mode.  I don't buy it.

Do you make less then 100k profit, or do you do less then 100k in volume? I can believe the former, but not the latter.

I would guess the figures in the article are low but it is very hard to tell.
Farmer1, your also in the tops, how much profit are you netting? Iv always wanted to know about stuff like this. I remember asking the top coke vendor a while back and he said I only make a hundred dollars a week. I called mad bullshit on that
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: farmer1 on August 06, 2013, 06:30 am
My account is routinely in the top 3-6 percent.  I make under 100k per year.   Even the claims that DPR makes a million a year in fee's seemed dubious to me.

In order for these numbers to be true, greater than 90% of the transactions happening here would have to be in stealth mode.  I don't buy it.

Do you make less then 100k profit, or do you do less then 100k in volume? I can believe the former, but not the latter.

I would guess the figures in the article are low but it is very hard to tell.
Farmer1, your also in the tops, how much profit are you netting? Iv always wanted to know about stuff like this. I remember asking the top coke vendor a while back and he said I only make a hundred dollars a week. I called mad bullshit on that

$100/wk!?! What a chump. I make at least $200/wk unless bitcoins are taking a shit.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on August 06, 2013, 06:51 am
My account is routinely in the top 3-6 percent.  I make under 100k per year.   Even the claims that DPR makes a million a year in fee's seemed dubious to me.

In order for these numbers to be true, greater than 90% of the transactions happening here would have to be in stealth mode.  I don't buy it.

Do you make less then 100k profit, or do you do less then 100k in volume? I can believe the former, but not the latter.

I would guess the figures in the article are low but it is very hard to tell.
Farmer1, your also in the tops, how much profit are you netting? Iv always wanted to know about stuff like this. I remember asking the top coke vendor a while back and he said I only make a hundred dollars a week. I called mad bullshit on that

$100/wk!?! What a chump. I make at least $200/wk unless bitcoins are taking a shit.
Come on man. Give a vague figure that tells something. Like above this amount, but below this amount
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: koonta on August 06, 2013, 07:06 am
Hope u are declaring your incomes to your countries tax authorities.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: caerus on August 06, 2013, 07:08 am
I'm making almost 600 hundred a week ever since I got to top 2%. Life is good:)
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on August 06, 2013, 07:13 am
I'm making almost 600 hundred a week ever since I got to top 2%. Life is good:)
I wish some vendor would say something honest.
I want to become a vendor and devote myself to an op I just really need some idea of money.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: sharonneedles on August 06, 2013, 08:23 am
You make as much as you want to make. it depends if you sell coke or just weed, if you sell to all countries or just domestically (what about Australia, Russia, Middle East?). The more risk and bigger the operation the more income, obviously.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: meatwad on August 06, 2013, 05:38 pm
Just a thought.... but why are you vendors posting how much you make?  To me it seems like that is a good way to get a LE target on your back.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: tbart on August 06, 2013, 06:04 pm
Just a thought.... but why are you vendors posting how much you make?  To me it seems like that is a good way to get a LE target on your back.

Bigger than the one already there?
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: meatwad on August 06, 2013, 06:28 pm
Nice one tbart.  It just doesnt seem like a good idea.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: MarcelKetman on August 06, 2013, 06:42 pm
That made me giggle. The top 5 vendors would make that annually. The whole of SR??? Most likely 10 times that much.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: thepotroast on August 06, 2013, 06:52 pm
Just a thought.... but why are you vendors posting how much you make?  To me it seems like that is a good way to get a LE target on your back.

When one of them starts posting a real figure, then it would be of concern.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: TheCostelloGroup on August 07, 2013, 01:21 pm
I'm making almost 600 hundred a week ever since I got to top 2%. Life is good:)
I wish some vendor would say something honest.
I want to become a vendor and devote myself to an op I just really need some idea of money.

There is money to be made mate.

Look at a team like that of the 'Symbiosis' team. They sell out about 500 grams of MDMA in a week. Probably a 100 or so of coke. They were selling large amounts of LSD, Mephedrone and 2cb as well.

Now they offer XTC pills to. And lets not forget the ketamine.



There is money to be made here.


I joined as a vendor 2 or so weeks ago and in my first 5 days I sold out 2 ounces of MDMA, 2 ounces of Mephedrone, 100 hits of LSD and 100 Green android XTC pills.

I was amazed! But if you have the right customer service, product and stealth. You can and will do well here.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: tbart on August 07, 2013, 01:52 pm
I'm making almost 600 hundred a week ever since I got to top 2%. Life is good:)
I wish some vendor would say something honest.
I want to become a vendor and devote myself to an op I just really need some idea of money.

There is money to be made mate.

Look at a team like that of the 'Symbiosis' team. They sell out about 500 grams of MDMA in a week. Probably a 100 or so of coke. They were selling large amounts of LSD, Mephedrone and 2cb as well.

Now they offer XTC pills to. And lets not forget the ketamine.



There is money to be made here.


I joined as a vendor 2 or so weeks ago and in my first 5 days I sold out 2 ounces of MDMA, 2 ounces of Mephedrone, 100 hits of LSD and 100 Green android XTC pills.

I was amazed! But if you have the right customer service, product and stealth. You can and will do well here.

hopefully you'll never get busted and tied to your SR ID, cause if you are, that stmt will be used against you

Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: benzoking on August 07, 2013, 02:00 pm
that estimate means nothing. It could be far over or far under. Thats like when police find 10 pot plants growing outside then the next day its on the front page after the sheriff says he seized a million dollars in pot.

SR is doing good business but there is no way to estimate. This is not an accurate estimate and I dont think its even close. It might be much higher or much lower who knows, only 1 person. I mean honestly, there is no way for an outside source too tell at all. That is just a guess its not even an estimate. There are many many listings that havent sold one time that were used to make that 30-45million guess. There are also alot of listings that do sell in stealth that wernt used. But ive seen more then 1 vendor trying to sell kilos of coke and kilos of this and that, mainly new vendors looking for a scam, but the program used to anaylize the site doesnt understand that, and thats just one example.

The media is not on your side. They are not here so you can learn things or become more informed. They have only 1 goal and thats too make money.
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: NW Nugz on August 07, 2013, 02:08 pm
I'd say those numbers are exaggerated to make SR seem important. SR is no big deal...we can move along...these are not the drug dealers you are looking for........
Title: Re: SR estimated to be doing $30-45 Million annually?
Post by: Just Chipper on August 07, 2013, 04:20 pm
that estimate means nothing.

SR is doing good business but there is no way to estimate.

Well it's just that, an estimate. To be taken with a grain of salt.

There is an easy way to estimate. Just take how many BTC get transferred off SR, multiply that by current price of BTC/USD and viola you have a USD estimate of earnings. Definitely not the most accurate, but it's an idea.