I believe the solid links that do things are onion links hand written or printed and passed to people. But something as big and as 'basic' in function as Silk Road smacks that theory in the face. Browsing on tor is the new black, I hope it continues to get use and attention so it either gets better or worse, I don't mind the old web looks of the sites on it, but the 56k speed needs to go.
Due to the way HTTP functions, and the way in which TOR works, you're probably not going to get it any faster unless there's some breakthrough in protecting anonymity at some point in the future.
Not MUCH faster. But you can always help by running an exit node.
Murders for US Dollars are conducted daily.
So the job is posted anonymously, but how do they collect the dollars in a secure way? Any sort of dead-drop is still subject to a stakeout. Looks like bitcoin is exactly what is needed for a black market; It's the last link that completes the transaction.
Bitcoin, ironically, makes black markets safer by solving this problem of making payment securely. It does nothing for ensuring that you get the product you paid for, of course. Currencies are incapable of this; it's the services built on those currencies, such as escrow, Silk Road, etc., which do this.