Refreshed Silk Road Drug Market Launches On Dark Web

The much-anticipated successor Silk Road has launched, a month after the original drug and illicit services bazaar was shut down.

The new Silk Road has already attracted over plenty of sellers, offering some minor improvements over its predecessor, including the option to use PGP as part of a two-step authentication process for added seller security. The login screen contains a mock FBI seizure notice, but the site itself looks similar to the original.

Silk Road returns

The site, only accessible over the Tor network, was supposed to launch on 5 November, but the administrators chose to delay the project due to technical difficulties.

A new chief has been elected, using the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, the same one used by the old leader, allegedly Ross Ulbricht, who was arrested in October.

According to the AllThingsVice blog, the cut Silk Road administrators take will be calculated on overall sales rather than on a per-transaction basis, ranging from 8 percent  for sales under $500 to four percent for sales of over $20,000.

The new Dread Pirate Roberts has been bragging about the updated Silk Road in recent weeks, but believes the site is more than just a place to buy and sell drugs. “Somebody come and torn away our home, but like the faithful people we are, we are now standing our ground to rebuild it again not to be put down because we were knocked back,” they wrote in one blog post.

“I think when you look past the money aspect, that is where the true wealth is, knowing you have stood for something you have believed in and that even if it is your downfall, you were not afraid to defend to the death everything you have come to love.”

The Dread Pirate Roberts had a welcome message for users visiting the Silk Road today. He claimed  that new security measures included “emergency strategies to ensure that, in the event of Silk Road’s demise once more, no member will lose their coins”. The FBI has struggled to recover the funds said to belong to Ulbricht.

“We have learned hard lessons from the unfortunate events of recent weeks, and the man hours that have gone into this new release are phenomenal,” the message read.

Most items currently on the site are drug-related, with Cannabis being the most popular product. Apparently legal items, such as hard drives and books, are also up for sale.

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