Back Silk Road Afrikaans سيلك رود (سوق ألكتروني) Arabic Silk Road (онлайн пазар) Bulgarian Silk Road Catalan Silk Road (online market) Czech Silk Road Danish Silk Road German Silk Road Greek Silk Road Esperanto Silk Road Spanish
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&sq=Albert Einstein&lang=en&file=File:Silk_Road_Marketplace_Item_Screen.jpg) Item description page | |
Type of site | Darknet market |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Ross Ulbricht[1][2] (pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts)[3] |
| URL | Old URL: silkroad6ownowfk.onion (defunct)[4][failed verification][5] New URL: silkroad7rn2puhj.onion (defunct)[4][failed verification][5] |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched | February 2011 |
| Current status | Shut down by FBI in October 2013. Silk Road 2.0 shut down by FBI and Europol on 6 November 2014.[6] |
Silk Road was an online black market and the first modern darknet market.[7] It was launched in 2011 by its American founder Ross Ulbricht under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts." As part of the dark web,[8] Silk Road operated as a hidden service on the Tor network, allowing users to buy and sell products and services between each other anonymously. All transactions were conducted with bitcoin, a cryptocurrency which aided in protecting user identities. The website was known for its illegal drug marketplace, among other illegal and legal product listings. Between February 2011 and July 2013, the site facilitated sales amounting to 9,519,664 Bitcoins.[9]
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shut down the Silk Road website and arrested Ulbricht.[9][3] Silk Road 2.0 came online the next month, run by other administrators of the former site,[10] but was shut down the following year as part of Operation Onymous. In 2015, Ulbricht was convicted in federal court for multiple charges related to operating Silk Road and was given two life sentences without possibility of parole.[1][11][12] He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025.[13]
- ^ a b Benjamin Weiser, "Man Behind Silk Road Website Is Convicted on All Counts" Archived 20 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, New York Times, 4 February 2015.
- ^ Nicole Hong, "Silk Road Creator Found Guilty of Cybercrimes" Archived 16 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Wall Street Journal, 4 February 2015.
- ^ a b Ars Technica, How the feds took down the Dread Pirate Roberts Archived 24 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, 3 October 2013
- ^ a b Love, Dylan (6 November 2013). "Silk Road 2.0". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- ^ a b Martin, Jeremy (15 May 2015). The Beginner's Guide to the Internet Underground (2nd ed.). Information Warfare Center. ASIN B00FNRU47E.
- ^ Cook, James (6 November 2014). "FBI Arrests Former SpaceX Employee, Alleging He Ran The 'Deep Web' Drug Marketplace Silk Road 2.0". BusinessInsider.com. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
- ^ "Case 76: Silk Road (Part 1) - Casefile: True Crime Podcast". Casefile: True Crime Podcast. 11 February 2018. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ Lee, Nicole (8 February 2015). "Anonymity is dead and other lessons from the Silk Road trial". engadget.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
complaint1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Greenberg, Andy (30 October 2013). "'Silk Road 2.0' Launches, Promising A Resurrected Black Market For The Dark Web". Forbes. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ^ Weiser, Benjamin (29 May 2015). "Ross Ulbricht, Creator of Silk Road Website, Is Sentenced to Life in Prison". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ Mullin, Joe (4 February 2015). "Ulbricht guilty in Silk Road online drug-trafficking trial". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
- ^ "Trump pardons Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road drug marketplace". The Guardian. 21 January 2025. Archived from the original on 22 January 2025. Retrieved 22 January 2025.