Silk Road Rises Again

Like the legend of the phoenix Silk Road has risen from the ashes of a recent US crackdown and is now live and even more secure. At 4:20 p.m. GMT on November 5, the so-called Silk Road 2.0 reappeared at silkroad6ownowfk.onion, an address on the TOR network.

The new site now supports PGP encryption of accounts and includes the forums, market, and escrow system familiar to previous users of the site. While there’s no telling who built the new site, former Silk Road admins have claimed they are behind this iteration.

The creation of the new site was, in a sense, expected. After the fall of Silk Road clone Atlantis, however, there have been a number of pretenders to the Silk Road crown and, if I were a betting man, I’d wager that more than one was a honeypot for the trapping of drug dealers. Whether SR 2.0 is the real thing remains to be seen – many of the same dealers are coming back even though the site has only a few hundred sellers – but even if this site dies ignobly there is always next time… and next time.

In related news the alleged mastermind behind the first Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, appeared in New York court today where his lawyer claimed he was not, in fact, famed SR admin Dread Pirate Roberts. As one Silk Road commenter wrote, “curiouser and curiouser.”

via AllThingsVice