Just one after the FBI seized and shut down Silk Road the Internet site known as the Amazon.com of drugs, weapons and worse it’s back month. Yup, in the annals of criminal history, that one has to be up there in the chutzpah department; it’s like the powers behind the website are totally thumbing their collective noses at U.S. authorities that are federal.

Are Bitcoins and Silk Path Founders Aligned?

Even more shocking, new allegations tie Silk Road’s founder Ross William Ulbricht aka Dread Pirate Roberts until his FBI takedown last month towards the still publicly unidentified original creator of Bitcoins, the digital currency exclusively used to fund illegal items and services on the old and site that is now new.

The allegations found light after two Israeli boffins one a cryptographer readied a soon-to-be-published paper that claims that the FBI seizure in fact just got their fingers on roughly 22 percent of the $80 million in commissions Ulbricht’s site had garnered from sales of an estimated $1.2 billion; product sales on everything which range from assault tools to illegal narcotics of any kind and even for hit men services for hire.

Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir are the two researchers who’ve brought these allegations to light, incorporating that they on their own have actually only been able to trace one-third of the total commissions your website pulled in.

Nevertheless the tale gets more fascinating; the two boffins have additionally been searching for a possible connection between Ulbricht and ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, the shrouded and never-seen creator of the Bitcoin digital currency exclusively used on the unlawful web site, largely because of its general untraceability, since it is not tied in to any banking system that is central. Bitcoins’ value is completely determined by market demand, and lately, that demand was curiously skyrocketing, with one Bitcoin being respected at over $800 and climbing recently. Exactly What does it all soon add up to?

Connecting the Dots

The two Israelis have been able to trace some paths back and have now made some connections between Silk Road and Bitcoins that are more than simply business usage. They’ve been in a position to do so because although the marketplace that is actual may present anonymously, the transactions themselves are totally public. The pair created their own graph so they could track statistically how users interacted on the Silk Road site after getting their hands on a complete listing of all the Bitcoin transactions made this year.

In this way considerable research, the scientists uncovered an individual transfer log that followed Bitcoins deposited into an account now known become Ulbricht’s. That deposit stemmed from another account, created in January 2009, which placed the latter at very early Bitcoin system time; it had all only gone public per year prior. And while the Israelis say they can’t definitively prove that that early Bitcoin account was ‘Nakamoto’s’, there is good reason to believe it extremely possibly could indicate an ‘investment’ of sorts in the 1st Silk path site. Does this aspect up to a dark connection between Silk Road and Bitcoins?

It might. Another compelling piece of data uncovered by the Israelis had been a 1,000 Bitcoin transfer made in March of this year. That amount would have translated to about $60,000; but with the current insane value surge in the cryptocurrency, it’s now about $847,000 worth at the time of transfer.

‘Such a single transfer that is large not represent the conventional behavior of a buyer whom starts an account on Silk Road in order to buy some narcotics (such buyers are required to produce a preliminary deposit of tens or hundreds of dollars, and also to top the account off whenever they buy additional product). It could represent either large-scale activity on Silk path, or some type of investment or partnership, but this is pure speculation,’ note the researchers.

Even more damning is that the unidentified depositor once had some 77,600 Bitcoins apparently obtained through ‘mining’ operations; that quantity would now equal about $64 million in U.S. currency.

‘ The path that is short found suggests (but does not show) the presence of a surprising link between the two mysterious figures of the Bitcoin community, Satoshi Nakamoto and DPR,’ wrote Ron and Shamir. ‘DPR’ relates to Ulbrict’s Silk path code name, Dread Pirate Roberts.

In a few ways, it turns out that Bitcoins’ perennial claim so it exists beyond the arm that is long of law has proved become correct. The researchers state the design that is cryptographic veiled movement associated with currency causes it to be more difficult for law enforcement to seize it than, say, a drug dealer’s stash of thousands hidden in a household. The duo also speculate that there could have been a 2nd up to now computer that is undiscovered to your Silk Road founder that the FBI has not yet had the oppertunity to track down.

Therefore far, the feds, not interestingly, have no comment on any of it. And if we know anything about anything, someone is in a production meeting in Hollywood right now, casting ‘The Long and Winding Silk path’ for the cable series that is new.

Silk Path 2.0: How Were They In A Position To Get a Revised Web Site Up Therefore Right After Power Down?

How could a high-profile, illegal website seized by the Feds be up and operating again 30 days later? Apparently, where there’s a will, there’s an easy method. A few billion bucks at stake does not hurt either.

It took hardly a moment, it seems, for the anonymous formerly active Silk path user to email top that is former about the intention to have the site alive once again. A forum called the ‘Vendor Roundtable’ ended up being formed, and on it, the framework for recreating the illicit website began.

The forum’s admin even put up a ‘Help Wanted’ ad for the ‘communication specialist’ an individual who would oversee and coordinate the pieces that are various of the rebuilding process. ‘You will be assigned work to perform centered on what needs to be done,’ read the cryptic ad; no reference to what kind of money was included, apparently.

And therefore, final week, voilà! Silk Road 2.0 showed up; the only difference ended up being in its absence, some competitive web sites had cropped up to fill the void, all run using the secretive Thor server. The new Silk Road is a cornucopia of illegal goods and services, from heroin to hit men like its predecessor.

‘Silk Road was a thing that had appeal,’ a shrouded and anonymous user told CNNMoney in a TV interview where even his voice was disguised. ‘That made it simple for individuals to carry on down that path. As long as you can convince the bulk of the greatest purchasers and sellers to go over to this new platform, no matter what it is called.’

Word regarding the street is the fact that in this revised variation, information security will closely be much more guarded and certainly will also be ‘baked’ into codes. The FBI did crack the last site, so whether or not they could do therefore on Silk Road 2.0, remains to be seen. FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbel who helped split the site that is initial say that Silk Road in its original structure had been possibly the largest and most sophisticated unlawful marketplace on the online world today.