Finally visited the SilkRoad

[finway]

Because of the Great FireWall in China, you can't imagine how hard it is to connect to the Tor network.

Finally found a way , somehow i am so disappointed

There's only 5000 users registerd,
1000 pieces of goods on sale (90% are drugs),
concurrently less than 50 users online top,
and i bet less than $1k goods are sold everyday.

...

[damnek]

Of those 5000 registered users, probably most of them make real use of SR considering that they went through all the pain to reach it.

[kokjo]

Of those 5000 registered users, probably most of them make real use of SR considering that they went through all the pain to reach it.

there is no pain reaching SR, i have been there, to see what people are talking about. it was easy.

[herzmeister]

Finally found a way , somehow i am so disappointed

sry 

[Xenland]

Because of the Great FireWall in China, you can't imagine how hard it is to connect to the Tor network.

Finally found a way , somehow i am so disappointed

There's only 5000 users registerd,
1000 pieces of goods on sale (90% are drugs),
concurrently less than 50 users online top,
and i bet less than $1k goods are sold everyday.

...

No satellite providers in china?

[genjix]

There's only 5000 users registerd,
1000 pieces of goods on sale (90% are drugs),
concurrently less than 50 users online top,
and i bet less than $1k goods are sold everyday.

This is great news. I've never been on there but you've confirmed my suspicion that it's a small part of the bitcoin economy.

Where did you get those numbers from? Are they on the site?

[finway]

This is great news. I've never been on there but you've confirmed my suspicion that it's a small part of the bitcoin economy.

Where did you get those numbers from? Are they on the site?

google keywords  "Travelling down SilkRoad", it's on the image.

[genjix]

Thanks, finway.

[jimbobway]

I wonder how many of those 5000 users are law enforcement.  Now investigators must use bitcoins. ;-)

[kangasbros]

Well, I don't know. I have visited it couple of times just for interest, and the amount of drug ads went from 1000 something to almost 1500 in a couple of months. (last time checked couple of days ago). Let's see if the trend grows.

I haven't used tor before, and I think the effort of getting to the site is easy - you just install tor browser bundle, the address of Silk Road is in wikipedia easily found with googling.

I also checked the feedback of one seller - he had 100+ pages of positive feedback. From my software business I have learned that only about 1-10% of my customers leave feedback in app store/android market. This is very different market of course.

Also it is very hard to estimate the amount of sales on silk road - you can estimate it by following the feedback, but i think feedback isn't required. (Somebody correct me if I am not right)

Speculators also like to think that the silk road business will increase bitcoin price - that is actually not the case, at least the effect isn't that big. Silk road and the sellers don't need to hold their bitcoins. During the escrow process the funds are hedged to dollars. Also probably now most sellers just sell their bitcoins as soon as possible, because of longtime downward trend.

[bulanula]

Well, I don't know. I have visited it couple of times just for interest, and the amount of drug ads went from 1000 something to almost 1500 in a couple of months. (last time checked couple of days ago). Let's see if the trend grows.

I haven't used tor before, and I think the effort of getting to the site is easy - you just install tor browser bundle, the address of Silk Road is in wikipedia easily found with googling.

I also checked the feedback of one seller - he had 100+ pages of positive feedback. From my software business I have learned that only about 1-10% of my customers leave feedback in app store/android market. This is very different market of course.

Also it is very hard to estimate the amount of sales on silk road - you can estimate it by following the feedback, but i think feedback isn't required. (Somebody correct me if I am not right)

Speculators also like to think that the silk road business will increase bitcoin price - that is actually not the case, at least the effect isn't that big. Silk road and the sellers don't need to hold their bitcoins. During the escrow process the funds are hedged to dollars. Also probably now most sellers just sell their bitcoins as soon as possible, because of longtime downward trend.

Exactly. BTC is just a proxy currency ATM. It is often said that more adoption = huge price rise. That is simply not the case etc.

[kangasbros]

There's only 5000 users registerd,
1000 pieces of goods on sale (90% are drugs),
concurrently less than 50 users online top,
and i bet less than $1k goods are sold everyday.

...

I guess you are looking at the silk road discussion forum numbers, which are separate from actual Silk Road. The actual silk road doesn't disclose those numbers (I didn't see them anywhere).

The silk road forums and actual silk road are entirely different sites. You need to create separate accounts for the discussion forums. I would guess that most people who are customers on silk road might even not be registered on the forums.

[kangasbros]

OK, so I had to check it again now and there 1611 advertisements in the drugs section. Two days ago it was a little under 1500. So about 150 new advertisements in two days.

If the current growth continues, it is very interesting phenomenon. Let's see if law enforcement can do something about it. According to the wikipedia the site has been online from february, and I guess the LE should have known about it for at least 4-5 months.

[RodeoX]

Why is everyone so obsessed with SR? Can't you get drugs where you are?

[kokjo]

Why is everyone so obsessed with SR? Can't you get drugs where you are?

yes i can. but not as pure, and anonymous, and cheap.

[sadpandatech]

OK, so I had to check it again now and there 1611 advertisements in the drugs section. Two days ago it was a little under 1500. So about 150 new advertisements in two days.

  The growth rate of advertisements does not necessarily represent the number of advertisers.  It is just as likely there could be less people with more adverts per person. Who knows, only SR owners do. Maybe try asking them?

[finway]

After some digging, i found there's dozens of SR like sites,  all use bitcoins.

[genjix]

OK, so I had to check it again now and there 1611 advertisements in the drugs section. Two days ago it was a little under 1500. So about 150 new advertisements in two days.

  The growth rate of advertisements does not necessarily represent the number of advertisers.  It is just as likely there could be less people with more adverts per person. Who knows, only SR owners do. Maybe try asking them?

How can I contact the Silk Road guys? I have a case I want to put before them about putting out some rough figures to help bitcoin. I have some questions to ask them.

[sadpandatech]

How can I contact

  I'll PM you..

[Elwar]

SilkRoad will do for Bitcoin what porn did for VHS (and the Internet). But on a much smaller scale.