[h=1]Silk Road Reloaded launches, but not on Tor[/h]
[h=2]Uses a lesser-known anonymity network and accepts Dogecoin.[/h]
by James Temperton
A new version of Silk Road has appeared on the darkweb, but it doesn’t rely on Tor or Bitcoin. Silk Road Reloaded uses the little-known I2P anonymity network and accepts a range of cryptocurrencies including the meme-inspired Dogecoin.
The site, which has no relation to the two previous versions of Silk Road, is one of a series of copycat marketplaces trying to tap into the lucrative online trade in drugs and other illegal items. Silk Road Reloaded has been in development for a year and can only be accessed using the I2P anonymity software.
I2P, which has been around since 2003, works in a similar way to the more widely used Tor network and hides what people are looking at online. Unlike conventional websites, all I2P sites ends in .i2p. A “clearnet” version of Silk Road Reloaded can also be accessed from normal browsers.
Unlike many online marketplaces that only accept Bitcoin or a limited range of cryptocurrencies, Silk Road Reloaded claims to accept pretty much any form of payment. Bitcoin, Anoncoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin are all accepted, with transactions being converted into Bitcoin before being processed.
Dozens of copycat marketplaces have cropped up on the darknet trying to cash in on Silk Road’s success. The alleged founder of the original Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, AKA Dread Pirate Roberts, is soon to face trial in New York. During the site’s lifespan, more than one million transactions were made, totaling $1.2 billion. It is estimated that Dread Pirate Roberts took $80 million in commissions from these transactions. Both Silk Road and Silk Road 2.0 have been shut down by the FBI.
The founder of Silk Road Reloaded has been promoting the new site on reddit, but people have criticized the site for trying to cash in on the Silk Road name. One user said that nobody would touch a website named Silk Road “with a ten foot pole.”
This story originally appeared on Wired UK.
