On October 2, 2013, the FBI raided a San Francisco public library and arrested thirty-year-old Ross Ulbricht on drug trafficking charges.Ulbricht was not your average drug dealer but rather a digital drug kingpin who, under the pseudonym ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’, created the anonymous darknet marketplace Silk Road, best known as a platform for buying/selling illegal drugs.In May 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.During its two-and-a-half years of operation, Silk Road reportedly facilitated roughly $200 million of anonymous online drug sales.In spite of numerous attempted by law enforcement to shut it down, Silk Road, much like the fictional Dread Pirate Roberts, continues to resurrect itself across the dark web, and the dark economy lives on.In an era of online surveillance both by governments and internet companies, how did such a darknet marketplace come to exist?Answer: Bitcoin + Tor.And while proponents of “cryptocurrencies” like Bitcoin trumpet their benefits in an increasingly interconnected global economy, the online black markets such virtual currencies facilitate pose significant hurdles to its mainstream adoption.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is not backed by any central authority such as the US Treasury.A person purchases bitcoins with traditional, nation-backed currencies through an online exchange and stores them in a private, virtual “wallet” that can only be accessed with the owner’s private key.She purchases goods or services from other parties by transferring bitcoins from her wallet to theirs.Every transaction is recorded on a publicly available master ledger called the block chain, which is too complicated to get into here.Suffice it to say that every Bitcoin transaction that has ever occurred can be looked up by anyone at any time through the block chain.Some of the benefits of Bitcoin are: This last point has proven to be the second edge to the Bitcoin sword and is (in part) what made darknet marketplaces like Silk Road possible.The figure on the right shows how Bitcoin fits into the Silk Road payment system.Traditional currencies (even in cash form) can be tracked by law enforcement, making it risky to engage in illicit commerce.

With its untraceability and instantaneous, global transaction capabilities, Bitcoin is the perfect currency for crime.In fact, the price of Bitcoin “plummeted” as soon as Ulbricht and his site were shut down.The exchange rate rebounded over the next few days as fears of governments cracking down on the currency subsided, but the  relationship between the currency and Silk Road became clear.And while the FBI criminal complaint against Ulbricht alleged that Silk Road accounted for only 5% of overall Bitcoin transactions, the currency’s association with Silk Road (justified or not) continues to plague Bitcoin as its proponents strive for its mainstream acceptance.bitcoin tavsiyeStill, it’s unfair to pin all the blame for Silk Road on Bitcoin.bitcoin miner flagEven with anonymous account information, if law enforcement could track where Bitcoin transactions originated (say, with a user’s computer’s IP address) they could bust drug dealers/purchasers relatively easily.linux bitcoin wallet location

However, Silk Road users could only access the site through Tor, a computer network which anonymizes users’ data, including their IP addresses, by bouncing their data across the network numerous times, making it extremely difficult to trace Internet activity back to the user.Combining Tor with Bitcoin’s account anonymity made Silk Road users essentially untouchable by law enforcement.As long as Bitcoin remains a completely anonymous currency (when paired with Tor), dark economies like Silk Road will continue to exist in the shadowy corners of the Internet.bitcoin value divesUlbricht and other fanatical libertarians feel that Bitcoin should be unfettered by regulation even if that means allowing for shadow marketplaces that facilitate crime.bitcoin exchange torWe are witnessing the nascence of a new body of law – “The Law of Digital Currency” – which seeks to regulate virtual currencies to prevent criminal behavior.bitcoin value graph uk

If virtual currency proponents want Bitcoin to achieve mainstream adoption they will likely need to accept that some regulation is required to win over skeptics.If they don’t, then anonymous virtual currencies and the digital dark economy will continue to be viewed as two sides of the same bitcoin.If you know two things about the deep web (perhaps based on new knowledge from House of Cards), then you know that it’s full of (A) shady characters and (B) illegal stuff for sale.You can browse the online aisles for drugs, child porn or the services of hitmen, or even tool up to do the task yourself by buying guns from a darknet arms dealer.In the past, hunters, survivalists and criminals had to source guns from legitimate dealers, obtain them through gun conventions, or seek out a connection of some kind on the street if they wanted to remain outside the legal system.Now the middleman has been almost entirely removed for that last group, who can avail of click-to-buy convenience for untraceable firearms.

Transactions take place at varying levels of anonymity.Facebook is unindexed but remains largely in the open; it boasts more than 1,500 pages, groups and networks by which traders can make firearm transactions.Facebook’s own rules do not allow sponsored ads to promote the sale of firearms or ammo, but that does not prevent the sale or advertising of guns from taking place on the platform.Whole networks of gun enthusiasts have sprung up where people can easily post their contact and arsenal details and come to an agreement on who gets what and for how much.While this sounds inherently illegal, it really isn’t; Allison Price, a spokesperson for the U.S.Justice Department, clarified to the Daily Beast: “There is no federal law prohibiting sales of firearms over the Internet, and the ready availability of firearms through social applications presents yet another avenue for unlicensed sellers to transfer guns anonymously and without background checks.This loophole underscores the need for a universal background check requirement, so we can keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and other persons prohibited from having them.” As such, even Instagram is being used to sell guns.

At any one time, thousands of posts are tagged with #GunsForSale.But if you’re looking to stay way under the radar, the dark web is your place.We found chatter on a subreddit for dark web deals discussing the best place to buy guns.The links led us to The Armory, an online storefront for real-world weapons depot.We approached The Armory with questions to see how they can possibly get away with it.Below is the complete, unedited and startlingly frank Q&A.The dealer describes how they hide guns inside power tools for shipment, and how Ireland is a surprisingly active seasonal market for firearms.Interesting, to say the least.It’s a better option for most of us than regular civilian life, as we know the trade and were “raised” with it, if you will, for enough time that we never really wanted to leave the Arms Trade once we got into it.We don’t do much business face-to-face, so the unscrupulous characters you may expect from Hollywood are far and few in between.Most communicate via email or personal contacts.

However we do have a few trusted contacts that border on “friendship” that we do trust and occasionally enjoy a face-to-face meeting for business.Most of us don’t see much outside of work, although that is not to say we are withdrawn.This is simply a very busy business, and usually it’s a 50-plus-hour workweek for each member.We have eight people working in our shop, for reference.More working with transportation and acquisitions.Well, we only got into selling online around 2010 with an attempt at a website, but that failed.We used TOR for some time for emails and communication, but no sales until around 2011.We started on Black Market Reloaded (BMR) and Silkroad (SR) when they allowed weapons, using our site (RogueArms at the time, same name as our “Company”) for sales and using BMR/SR as escrow.2011 to 2013 were somewhat stable, although our BTC banks did net us some very good profit—around a 2,500 percent increase—over the two years, and late 2013 saw the market fiasco.

That’s when we started making our name more public, prior [to that] we never even advertised our site—current site, which has been up since some time in July 2013—or services.To be honest, the last six months have brought more change than the entirety of our time on the darknet.We are the only ones that deal nearly all products online.Sure, there are other onion services but most are either scams that won’t use escrow or [providers of] subpar weapons.There is Sterling Cooperate Services which has a TOR site, RUVA which has a TOR and a nonfunctional I2P site, but other than those two we don’t have any public competition.As for outside the Internet, then yes we do.However we do not wage war, that’s for our clients to do.While it can become competitive when you have a client looking to two or more suppliers for bulk orders, it’s nothing we’d ever lose sleep over.Not good for business if you are known for being violent towards competition.The darknet is only around 10 percent of our sales.

Most of our sales still comes from the Middle East, although we have had a large increase in Russian exports.Generally sales are private contacts that have done prior business.Most range from $7,000 to $30,000.However we had several requests for darknet operations when we started a forum on SR1 (we think) for online sales so we gave it a try.The first time it failed miserably, the second time it was a huge success.We have had a few customers use bitcoins outside of the darknet, although this was a small order with a close contact that asked if he could “get rid” of the bitcoins for a additional firearm, in which we were all too happy to accept.Rifle: Soviet AK47 Gen3 for unique sales, Colt M4 series for bulk.Shotgun: Remington Super Shorty.Out of two shotguns bought in the past three months, both have been the Super Shorty.Our favorite is power tools.Take the tool apart, mill out space for the firearm component and seal it back up.If done carefully, the item can even continue to operate.

We’ve used Drills, saws, other power tools, tanks, engines, computers, furniture, and even some items costing well over several thousand dollars.The key is to find a item that has a similar density to the metal as to skew the X-ray taken in customs.Not a complete preventative measure, but helps.All firearms are 100 percent free of gun oil for chemical detection systems (for explosive material), so the customer has to oil the firearm when received.We’ve had reports that clients have “scratched” their guns getting them out of the decoy items, but to be honest we’d rather have a client with a scratched gun than a client without a gun at all.We have a few locations we cannot ship, although the major locations are covered (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Ukraine temporarily).Our top locations are USA, Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland.Only the USA is easy to ship to, the others cost well over $200 to have a single item mailed.Our largest non-shipping country (a country we don’t have a shipping location in) would be Norway.

It could all be lies, but we assume our clients are telling the truth.Not much we can do, just like normal gun shop owners we can’t really tell the murderers from the customers.Based on the shipping locations, personal details, and some stories we assume most are for self-defense with Private Security Forces being the largest for bulk.Right now we’ve seen a large increase in Russian Arms trades.However, Ireland is the most interesting.It seems that there has been a steady rise and fall of activity.We never get any orders during the summer months for Ireland, but around 10 to 15 during the winter each year.We assume it’s due to actions of the IRA but that region’s conflicts doesn’t really effect our sales.Generally the Summer (South of the Equator) seems to be busier, although recently we’ve had a large increase of sales online although that could be due to advertising.Online: 30 to 70 sales per month in the past, but now that most of the markets got shut down and many online customers scared away, we’ve been down to 10 to 40 sales per month.

Real world: 70 to 120 sales per month.We just use cold storage for bitcoin profits made, and since we’ve been doing that for two years it has greatly increased our past profit.Here’s a list: Abdullah Azzam Brigades Abu Nidal Organization Abu Sayyaf Aden-Abyan Islamic Army Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj Al Aqsa Foundation Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades Al Badr Al Gama’a al-Islamiyya Al Ghurabaa Al Haramain Foundation Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya Al Qaeda Al Qaeda in Iraq Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Al Shabaab Takfir wal-Hijra Al-Umar-Mujahideen All Tripura Tiger Force Ansar al-Sharia (Tunisia) Ansar al-Islam Jamaat Ansar al-Sunna Ansar Bait al-Maqdis Ansar Dine Ansaru Armed Islamic Group of Algeria Army of Islam Osbat al-Ansar Aum Shinrikyo Babbar Khalsa International Balochistan Liberation Army Boko Haram Caucasus Emirate Communist Party of India (Maoist) Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Communist Party of the Philippines/ New People’s Army Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei Continuity Irish Republican Army Cumann na mBan Deendar Anjuman Dukhtaran-e-Millat East Turkestan Information Center East Turkestan Islamic Movement East Turkestan Liberation Organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad El Kaide Terör Örgütü Türkiye Yapılanması ETA Fianna Éireann Great Eastern Islamic Raiders’ Front Hamas Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades Haqqani Network Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Harkat-al-Jihad al-Islami in Bangladesh Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Harakat-Ul-Mujahideen/Alami Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin Hezbollah Hezbollah Military Wing Hezbollah External Security Organisation Hilafet Devleti Hizb ut-Tahrir Hizbul Mujahideen Hofstad Network Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development Indian Mujahideen International Sikh Youth Federation Irish National Liberation Army Irish People’s Liberation Organisation Islamic Jihad – Jamaat Mujahideen Islamic Jihad Union Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Jabhat al-Nusra Jaish-e-Mohammed Jamaat Ul-Furquan Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh Jamiat al-Islah al-Idzhtimai Jamiat ul-Ansar Jamiat-e Islami Jemaah Islamiyah Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid Jund al-Sham Jundallah Kach and Kahane Chai Kangleipak Communist Party Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup Kata’ib Hezbollah Khalistan Commando Force Khalistan Zindabad Force Khuddam ul-Islam Komalah Kurdistan Democratic Party/North Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Kurdistan Workers’ Party Lashkar-e-Taiba Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Libyan Islamic Fighting Group Loyalist Volunteer Force Manipur People’s Liberation Front Maoist Communist Centre of India Marxist–Leninist Communist Party Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group Muslim Brotherhood National Democratic Front of Bodoland National Liberation Army National Liberation Front of Tripura Orange Volunteers Palestine Liberation Front Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine Party of Free Life of Kurdistan People’s Congress of Ichkeria and Dagestan People’s Liberation Army of Manipur People’s Mujahedin of Iran People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command Provisional Irish Republican Army Real Irish Republican Army Red Hand Commando Red Hand Defenders Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Revolutionary Organization 17 November Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front Revolutionary Struggle Saor Éire The Saved Sect Tevhid-Selam (Kudüs Ordusu) Shining Path Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage Stichting Al Aqsa Students Islamic Movement of India Supreme Military Majlis ul-Shura of the United Mujahideen Forces of Caucasus Taliban Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Tamil Nadu Liberation Army Tamil National Retrieval Troops Ulster Defence Association Ulster Volunteer Force United Liberation Front of Assam United National Liberation Front United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia Vanguards of Conquest World Tamil Movement World Uygur Youth Congress This list is maintained by the list of U.S.-designated terrorist groups/cells.