How long before the price tanks sharply because Silk Road is down?

[molecular]

DoS attacks are really easy against Tor hidden services. The service can't block the attacker because all clients are anonymous. Tor hidden service introduction points can sometimes also be DoS-attacked. I wouldn't use Tor to run a site like this.

what would you use to run a site like that?

[lucif]

DoS attacks are really easy against Tor hidden services. The service can't block the attacker because all clients are anonymous. Tor hidden service introduction points can sometimes also be DoS-attacked. I wouldn't use Tor to run a site like this.

Sorry, but its a bullshit. ddos attacks on Tor isnt effective because of connection latency (ping is from 1 up to infinity seconds).

Defending from attacking bots making 1 connection per second isnt a problem.

The problem is to run Tor software on large botnet for attacker.

[ElectricMucus]

Tor should protect against certain DDOS attacks but certainly not all of them.

Usually a DDOS exploits the resources allocated by the webserver not the IP stack because it provides a larger area of attack.

[notme]

DoS attacks are really easy against Tor hidden services. The service can't block the attacker because all clients are anonymous. Tor hidden service introduction points can sometimes also be DoS-attacked. I wouldn't use Tor to run a site like this.

Sorry, but its a bullshit. ddos attacks on Tor isnt effective because of connection latency (ping is from 1 up to infinity seconds).

Defending from attacking bots making 1 connection per second isnt a problem.

The problem is to run Tor software on large botnet for attacker.

Sorry, but that's bullshit.  Latency does not make one lick of difference if one physical computer can create as many simultaneous requests as it is capable of sending with no way for the server to detect they are from the same machine.  Now imagine 1,000 such machines and you have a very small botnet taking out silkroad.

[theymos]

What would you suggest? I2P, Freenet?

Freenet is probably the best, though I'm not confident enough in its security to use it for anything serious. I like the design of GNUnet a lot, but the software sucks. I2P or Tor with a distributed data store would be good.

I wouldn't run a site like this at all with the currently available tools.

[niko]

SR volume is a tiny fraction of Bitcoin economy. There are convincing estimates based on the academic study of SR published about four months ago.

I call bullshit on that. If you were writing the truth you'd cite that study in detail. But you didn't.

Two million per month. http://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.7139v1.pdf

That, and welcome to my "ignore" list.

[BC12345]

Relax:

http://(link to SR forum removed)/index.php?topic=70572.0

Quote from the SR forum:

"I am so sorry to leave you guys hanging for so long wondering what is going on with the site today. Let me just make everything clear and reassure you all that Silk Road has NOT been compromised, DPR has NOT been busted, and EVERYTHING IS OKAY!

Yes, we are having some technical difficulties. We have been making some serious overhauls and changes to the system, server, and website. While I cannot tell you exactly what is wrong today, I can assure you that we will fix it and have it back up soon. By soon, I mean I would be shocked if we didn't have it back up by Monday.

Please, I beg of you, don't start spreading any unnecessary rumors that will surely stir up chaos, fear, and confusion amongst out community.

..."

[ElectricMucus]

SR volume is a tiny fraction of Bitcoin economy. There are convincing estimates based on the academic study of SR published about four months ago.

I call bullshit on that. If you were writing the truth you'd cite that study in detail. But you didn't.

Two million per month. http://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.7139v1.pdf

That, and welcome to my "ignore" list.

Too bad you didn't read my response, since somebody went ahead and linked it before you.
But anyway: If you read this... you are doing it wrong.. harharhar   (seriously I like to be on your ignore list and stay on it if you are that ignorant)

[AndrewBUD]

What would you suggest? I2P, Freenet?

Freenet is probably the best, though I'm not confident enough in its security to use it for anything serious. I like the design of GNUnet a lot, but the software sucks. I2P or Tor with a distributed data store would be good.

I wouldn't run a site like this at all with the currently available tools.

I would bet dude's making a nice chunk of "Coins" doing it......

[Spekulatius]

"How long till we tank?"

Probably till DPR or someone with say announces some serious trouble (like that they were busted, hacked, decided to run with the purse,..) or till 1 week without communication of any officials and no uptime, my guess.

[thebaron]

It just realized that sellers are unable to dump their coins on the market too. I assume most of their coins are sold off-exchange, so as that market dries up for those coin buyers they may seek on-exchange purchases. Makes me wonder if it could actually make the market go up, hmm.

[ElectricMucus]

It just realized that sellers are unable to dump their coins on the market too. I assume most of their coins are sold off-exchange, so as that market dries up for those coin buyers they may seek on-exchange purchases. Makes me wonder if it could actually make the market go up, hmm.

It's a zero sum game besides the fundamental effect since most SR costumers buy their BTC and immediately spend them.

[SistaS0uljah]

DoS attacks are really easy against Tor hidden services. The service can't block the attacker because all clients are anonymous. Tor hidden service introduction points can sometimes also be DoS-attacked. I wouldn't use Tor to run a site like this.

what would you use to run a site like that?

I'd use i2p if Tor was compromised.  Setting up i2p is only a little more challenging than downloading Tor tools, since these are usually pre-configured for the user.  I2P requires some study to understand how it works and how to use it, and a lot of i2p services are hacked together from different projects, so they take some effort to learn how to use them effectively.  This can also make i2p seem significantly more secure, so it seems like a logical place to launch a service similar to SR.  Getting vendors to sign on to an eepsite instead of an onion website is the real challenge, but when there is a market niche to fill, smart entrepreneurs will step up to the challenge.

[smoothie]

NEVER! 

[Rudd-O]

(seriously I like to be on your ignore list and stay on it if you are that ignorant)

You are now on my ignore list too, because you respond to good arguments with verbal abuse, condescension and anger, and we all here need to see less of your behavior.

[ElectricMucus]

(seriously I like to be on your ignore list and stay on it if you are that ignorant)

You are now on my ignore list too, because you respond to good arguments with verbal abuse, condescension and anger, and we all here need to see less of your behavior.

No I'm not, but again since you responded to me, you are doing it wrong. But one thing: Please continue posting with this account so that you receive an "established member" status and I receive my ignore point.

[ElectricMucus]

NEVER!  

Because it will tank slowly since if SR would be gone for good people would still believe it would come back up eventually.

Sorry if I spoiled it now

[niko]

If it continues to be down, this weekend? Next week?

Not sure if SR is still down, but btc exchange rate has increased almost 4% since this thread started.

[Micon]

prolly gonna be fine / page is loading / or DEA took 3 days to install pots and fill them with honey:



IMO everything seems fine on DPR's ship.

[MysteryMiner]

DoS attacks are really easy against Tor hidden services. The service can't block the attacker because all clients are anonymous. Tor hidden service introduction points can sometimes also be DoS-attacked. I wouldn't use Tor to run a site like this.

Theymos You shocked me! Where You will host Silk Road if not Tor for it to not be found and taken down? Freenet, I2P?

The .onion server cannot block the anonymous traffic, but also the attackers cannot utilize several orders of magnitude superior bandwidth because they are forced to use Tor and nodes have varying speeds. They can set up own nodes and force Tor to connect though them but even then only the guard nodes will be DDoSed.

With clearnet server also the blocking helps only partially. With powerful enough botnet the upstream links will fail. If someone set us up the botnet, we are on our way to destruction