Silk Road
- Category: 💊 Drugs
- Seized Date: 2013-10-01
- Visibility: Dark web
Description
Silk Road was an infamous dark web marketplace that operated on the Tor network and was primarily used for the anonymous buying and selling of illegal goods and services, most notably narcotics. Launched in February 2011 by Ross Ulbricht under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts," Silk Road quickly became the most well-known online black market of its time.
The platform used Bitcoin to facilitate transactions, which, combined with Tor’s encryption and anonymization, allowed users to operate with a significant degree of secrecy. In addition to drugs, the site also hosted listings for forged documents, hacking tools, and other illicit services, although weapons and child exploitation content were banned by the site's rules.
Silk Road was shut down by the FBI in October 2013, and Ross Ulbricht was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, computer hacking, and drug trafficking. His arrest marked a significant turning point in the history of cybercrime enforcement.
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