Online black market Silk Road 2.0, the marketplace leader in drug listings and total listings, has revealed a new update on the status of its ongoing customer repayment efforts.
The reimbursement plan was put in motion by Silk Road 2.0 after the site suffered a serious hack in February that resulted in the loss of 4,476 BTC in customer funds ($2.6m at then-market prices). Undeterred, Silk Road 2.0 proposed a seven-point plan that would find moderators going without payment and the site charging a markup on purchases to recoup the losses.
Moderator Defcon issued a lengthy statement on a community forum and reposted on Deep Dot Web regarding the status of the plan on 27th May, saying that 82% of customer funds have been repaid thus far, adding:
“In less than 30 days, I will be drafting an unprecedented announcement that your resilience made possible: the announcement that Silk Road has repaid all victims of our February hack.”
In late April, the Silk Road 2.0 moderator indicated that all customers could be expected to have received compensation for lost funds by 18th June. That news followed the announcement that 50% of hack victims had been repaid as of 8th April.
Defcon ended the message by claiming that Silk Road 2.0 cannot release exact user counts or BTC sales figures, citing “security reasons”.
Revolutionary message
Defcon framed the announcement as a vindication of his operation, which has faced criticism since the initial hack, stating:
“We are sending a clear message of integrity and justice, louder than the slander our oppressors can push into the news. History will prove that we are not criminals, we are revolutionaries.”
Defcon also took aim at “economic oppression”, contrasting the actions of Silk Road 2.0 with economic giants like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, which Defcon criticized for “steal[ing] the people’s money”.
Updated sales
As noted by recent research, Silk Road 2.0 has become larger than even the original Silk Road at the time the website was seized by US law enforcement officials.
Still, Silk Road 2.0 has seen setbacks. Defcon noted that sales figures have still yet to recover, and that volume currently totals just 68% of pre-attack weekly sales.
Should sales rise, Defcon suggested, the repayment plan could be completed before its scheduled date.
Thief counting money image via Shutterstock