Silk Road by Eileen Ormsby

Author:Eileen Ormsby [Ormsby, Eileen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Computers, Internet, Non-Fiction, True Crime
ISBN: 9781743518113
Google: 1TuSAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00HTWDEK0
Goodreads: 23502744
Publisher: Macmillan Australia
Published: 2014-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Right now we are reading Defending the Undefendable . . . The author is biased in favor of defending the drug pushers and addicts, downplaying for example the negative effects of heroin use in [and] of itself, but overall I think he paints a vivid picture of why we have nothing to be ashamed of in what we are doing here at Silk Road, and in some cases should even be proud.

– Dread Pirate Roberts post in ‘DPR’s Book Club’ forum thread, 26 November 2012

Nice Guys

By the end of 2012, it was clear that, more than just a marketplace, Silk Road had become a close-knit community of people from all around the world with one thing in common: illicit drugs.

In 1.2 million posts in over 70,000 topics, discussions on the site’s forums covered everything from sophisticated methods of evading law enforcement to favourite movies to watch when stoned. But they covered much more than that.

One thing that continually struck newcomers, journalists and researchers alike was how civil and intelligent the majority of contributors to the Silk Road forums were. For a place that prided itself on libertarianism and free speech, it remained remarkably troll-free much of the time. And some of the most popular threads were the particularly warm and fuzzy ones.

For one thing, the users of the site were surprisingly charitable. One of the lengthiest and longest-running threads was ‘The Spare Coins Thread’. People would often miscalculate the amount of bitcoin they needed to transfer into their accounts for a purchase, forgetting about the minuscule transaction fees or being caught by an unexpected shift in the exchange rate against their currency of origin. They would find themselves unable to place an order due to a deficit of sometimes just a few cents.

As this was a reasonably regular occurrence, one of the members started a thread in which such people could ask for a loan or donation of bitcoin that could be transferred instantly between members, rather than having to wait for currency deposits to appear in their account, which could on occasion take twenty-four hours. It was similar to the ‘take a penny, leave a penny’ movement seen at some shops, with a ‘pay it forward’ vibe. The thread became a lovefest that ran to 12,500 posts. Although some people were put on the shit list when they failed to repay their loans, the vast majority of people who took advantage of the good nature of their forum buddies did so in good faith.

Even Dread Pirate Roberts couldn’t explain why a community that could be a den of conniving drug dealers and desperate addicts worked so well with little oversight. ‘Honestly I don’t know,’ Roberts said. ‘It could have something to do with camaraderie. While there is some infighting, most people understand that our best chance is to stick together and help each other out.’

Dread Pirate Roberts may have been at a loss, but most of the community attributed the warmth and comradeship to the site’s founder and the

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