FBI seizes Silk Road. BTC backbone broken.

[Viceroy]

They didn't break TOR, he posted on stack exchange asking for help with TOR specific code using his real name.  Once they starting looking at him, it was easy to tie him to SR and then find the servers.

He did not post on stack exchange using his real name and yes, they probably broke TOR before it was released in the 90's.

[lucasjkr]

When I first saw the headlines , I thought this was going to be a big deal. Bitcoin dies have lots of issues, but I don't think this is one if them; maybe a year or two ago when sr was alledgedly a much bigger percentage of bitcoins transactions, but it made it over that hurdle. And the amount of BTC seized is minuscule, will make no difference what government chooses to do with it

Bigger concern was an issue with Tor, which has gained a lot of new users post snowden... They did manage to track down a few of his servers, and scraped a LOT of info there...  

So, bitcoin, fine. The tor network? Very interested in what the experts have to say about this.  

Update: just seeing btcs movements today; again, I think it has a LOT of issues , but this isn't one if them. So the markets behaving like stocks do at times; a rush to the door while assessing damages... Yes, SR was a big player, but fortunately for BTC, lots of other avenues for its use have opened up in the last year+

My opinion. Unsolicited.

They didn't break TOR, he posted on stack exchange asking for help with TOR specific code using his real name.  Once they starting looking at him, it was easy to tie him to SR and then find the servers.

Yes, he posted on stack exchange, and many other forums that contained links to his real identity. But that doesn't explain how they came across two of his actual servers. Those weren't at his house - at least one was in a foreign county. Yet the FBI was able to locate the ISP and image the servers long before they got him. To me that says there's a flaw in Tor that was taken advantage of, along with his own carelessness about his identity that more or less sealed the deal.

Reading his interviews in forbes, I'd always assumed his to be 40's or 50's, and certainly not living in a major us city. Sone rural us locale ? Sure. Australia? Yes. European?

But no, 29 year old kid in San Fran.

Snowdens also 29. This year is the year of the 29 yr old.

[tempt]

They didn't break TOR, he posted on stack exchange asking for help with TOR specific code using his real name.  Once they starting looking at him, it was easy to tie him to SR and then find the servers.

He did not post on stack exchange using his real name and yes, they probably broke TOR before it was released in the 90's.

No, they didnt broke TOR.

[cr1776]

If you didn't know already. This will help you understand why BTC price is gonna crash for days now. Where do you think BTC will settle at now?

You may want to get that crystal ball checked.

[notme]

When I first saw the headlines , I thought this was going to be a big deal. Bitcoin dies have lots of issues, but I don't think this is one if them; maybe a year or two ago when sr was alledgedly a much bigger percentage of bitcoins transactions, but it made it over that hurdle. And the amount of BTC seized is minuscule, will make no difference what government chooses to do with it

Bigger concern was an issue with Tor, which has gained a lot of new users post snowden... They did manage to track down a few of his servers, and scraped a LOT of info there...  

So, bitcoin, fine. The tor network? Very interested in what the experts have to say about this.  

Update: just seeing btcs movements today; again, I think it has a LOT of issues , but this isn't one if them. So the markets behaving like stocks do at times; a rush to the door while assessing damages... Yes, SR was a big player, but fortunately for BTC, lots of other avenues for its use have opened up in the last year+

My opinion. Unsolicited.

They didn't break TOR, he posted on stack exchange asking for help with TOR specific code using his real name.  Once they starting looking at him, it was easy to tie him to SR and then find the servers.

Yes, he posted on stack exchange, and many other forums that contained links to his real identity. But that doesn't explain how they came across two of his actual servers. Those weren't at his house - at least one was in a foreign county. Yet the FBI was able to locate the ISP and image the servers long before they got him. To me that says there's a flaw in Tor that was taken advantage of, along with his own carelessness about his identity that more or less sealed the deal.

Reading his interviews in forbes, I'd always assumed his to be 40's or 50's, and certainly not living in a major us city. Sone rural us locale ? Sure. Australia? Yes. European?

But no, 29 year old kid in San Fran.

Snowdens also 29. This year is the year of the 29 yr old.

But somebody who has to ask on stack exchange how to connect to TOR via curl probably does explain how they found it.  Unless you have a very robust setup with multiple layers, hidden servers are easy to locate by those who can initiate millions of connections to it and see which routers in the world light up like crazy.

[viboracecata]

The final results have proved the fake backone.

Now most money are in the IPO market, mining rigs...

[safeminer]

Ok so now that we know Silk Road is not the backbone of bitcoin (Doh)
lets get the value up

[clock27]

I don't see SR closing as hurting BTC that bad i noticed the price is basically back at pre shutdown prices

[maursader]

Yeah, I'm surprised someone didn't mention close to the OP that there are countries who have little to no dependence on SR as a bitcoin backbone.

[shuttleclock]

As for now, seems like the value of Bitcoin has almost been back just like before The Silk Road being seized..

[Nagle]

As for now, seems like the value of Bitcoin has almost been back just like before The Silk Road being seized.

Right. It's surprising how little effect the Silk Road seizure and the US Government shutdown have had on Bitcoin prices.

The Mt. Gox default probably has more effect on the price of Bitcoins. There's still that big spread between Mt. Gox and other exchanges because almost nobody can get USD out of Mt. Gox.

There's a key data item we don't have about the Bitcoin market - the exchanges don't report how much of each currency is flowing in and out of the exchange. Most of the trading is the same money going back and forth.

[polarhei]

The backbone is not broken, It is just getting stronger as Some law enforcement like FBI, adapt with Bitcoin and the relatives.

I have read the today's graph, the price is still on USD 130 or even more.

[safeminer]

Silk road might be gone, but there are tons of alternatives out there
http://q.gs/4udH0 read this blog post, as i don't know if i can promote illigal activities in this forum

[Leehoya]

If one silkroad is down, another comes in, just like megaupload. Its pretty much impossible to stop those people. They can just move to other country and open another silkroad. From what i see, bitcoin economy is not pretty much impacted except on that day, it went alot lower but climbed up again to its original price. As of now, bitcoin is currently $150.45 at MtGox.

[Hyena]

OP doesn't seem very intelligent, no answers to replies either.

[escrow.ms]

BTC is fine, this is just typical panic selling. Value will increase steadily over the coming days, mark my  words.

True.
MTgox last 150$ 

[Hawker]

...snip...
But somebody who has to ask on stack exchange how to connect to TOR via curl probably does explain how they found it.  Unless you have a very robust setup with multiple layers, hidden servers are easy to locate by those who can initiate millions of connections to it and see which routers in the world light up like crazy.

I must admit that is one part of the story I don't understand.  It seems more likely to me that they found that post AFTER they found DPR's email addy and googled it.    Are we really to believe that all posts on stackexchange were searched on the off chance that someone setting up a TOR drug mall would post there for technical help?

[lucasjkr]

He started a thread here for heavens sake! And on the SR forum, he said that this was the only "advertising" that he had ever done. before he started that thread, he made a post from his non SR account  (altoid) "asking" if people had heard of it. Later on, he posted his real email address on here from the altoid account.

So, if the FBI scanned the SR forums, theyed go "oh , he posted to bitcoin talk, let's check that out!"

Then, supposing they could grab a copy of the sites database, if they searched it for the SR onion address, they would discover the first reference to it came not from his Silk Road account, but from the altoid account. Then, months later, they see altoid asking for web developers who know bitcoin, with his real name and email as the reply address. That alone would make him front and center the most suspicious person out there. Search out his name and theyed end up at his linked in page talking about "economic simulations" And the same state violence credo that DPR
 used. At that, he's close to
sunk.

But then, they see no programming at all in his college era, and a search of the major programming forums for Tor and bitcoin couldn't yield too many results. And the bitcoin address he referenced on stack exchange went on to accumulate thousands of bitcoins after he posted to it. He used a made up email address on stack exchange. Supposing that they require email validation for new accounts, they could have demanded additional info from stack exchange, and that brings them his real name/email address again. Who knows, I bet he used his real email for his altoid account here as well.

So, any investigator worth his salt would wind up at his doorstep if only to ask a couple of questions, like " hi ross, you're the first person to ever mention Silk Road, can you tell us where you heard about it?"

Or "hey, you seem to be interested in tor website and bitcoin, and your address has acculturated a ton of bitcoin, what site are you running anyways?" 

Or, going further, "you like building tor sites that use bitcoin. What's your interest in DHL, FedEx and USPS shipping methods (from his google+ profile)"

So no, I don't think that stack exchange was even close to the first thing they looked at. The only thing that baffles me is why it took them so long to track him down; I mean he left his fingerprint EVERYWHERE. That they got him in Oct 2013 rather than June 2012 when senator schumer was demanding his head isn't exactly impressive, once the facts became known. And certainly no fishy "reverse whatever" tactics were needed by the nsa to unravel the mystery.

[tkbx]

BTC backbone broken

People like you are the people who prevent good things from lasting for a long time. Sure, Silk Road was one of the first major acceptors of bitcoin, but it's far from the only or the most important. Can you imagine if everyone renounced their US citizenship (sold out) as soon as George Washington (first "major" president) died?