Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: imaginetheutopiaworld on March 18, 2012, 01:25 am

Title: If government have the power....
Post by: imaginetheutopiaworld on March 18, 2012, 01:25 am
Then why dont they shut down silk road website.... I dont understand how does that work.. I need to know, if i m using tor and sr website, will i be safe 100%??
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: jochem on March 18, 2012, 01:45 am
Using tor the communication between you (the client) and the website (the server) is encrypted, but also the encryption is used so the server doesn't know where you are and the other way around (you don't know where the server is). You don't know it, but the government doesn't know either. This should be slightly nuanced, but I think this is a good starting point in understanding how this work.

If you're safe or not, depends highly on what you do. Your security is not really based on technology, but more on what you do. Most fuck ups will be from errors made by the user, not because the technology is insecure.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: GoodGuyGreg on March 18, 2012, 02:07 am
If you're safe or not, depends highly on what you do. Your security is not really based on technology, but more on what you do. Most fuck ups will be from errors made by the user, not because the technology is insecure.

Could you elaborate on fuck ups caused by the user?  I'm not debating this fact, just curious what examples of it would be.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: Holly on March 18, 2012, 02:13 am
Giving a fake name for delivery, causing complications in the delivery portion.  Interceptions.  Not choosing your vendors wisely.  Things like that.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: jochem on March 18, 2012, 02:29 am
Could you elaborate on fuck ups caused by the user?  I'm not debating this fact, just curious what examples of it would be.
In addition to Holly's examples (which are all true, but mostly for SR), there are some general things you shouldn't do on Tor. Anything that gives away your identity, like making your real name public. Or by not blocking scripts that can record your real IP (using java, for instance). Anything that links your ID from a clearnet site to an illicit hidden site (by transferring bitcoins directly from a exchange to SR, for instance) would be pretty stupid too.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: asymmetric on March 18, 2012, 12:02 pm
Anything that links your ID from a clearnet site to an illicit hidden site (by transferring bitcoins directly from a exchange to SR, for instance) would be pretty stupid too.
Shit....

I've been doing this for about a month now as I found it took too long to transfer to my wallet and to then transfer again to SR. If I knew there was a security risk then I would have been able to live with that minor time delay but I didn't think it would be a problem.

How screwed am I if that is the case? Is there anything I can do to rectify the situation? I've changed my receiving address on SR but I know that the old addresses can always still be used I think so not sure if that's actually done any good....

Feel stupid now but if you have any advice on how I can cover my tracks on this occasion would be appreciated, and I'll make sure to transfer to my wallet first from the exchange site I use from now on.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: asymmetric on March 18, 2012, 12:56 pm
Intersango was the one I used incidentally, which from just skim reading a few pages of the security pages seems like an even worse idea... Panicking that I'm fucked now...
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: Oldtoker on March 18, 2012, 02:56 pm
Chill out dude.  You aren't totally screwed.  Your probably just a "small time buyer" and the feds are that interested in small time buyers.  Probably the most that would happen to you would be to have your exchange lock your account down for suspected money laundering. 

Just stop doing it.

I find it best to go from my exchange -> bitinstant -> bitcoinfog -> SR. 

Bitcoinfog is a bitcoin mixer.  Makes it very difficult to track where your coins are going.  They throw all your coins and others coins into a big pot and move them around in different denominations before sending them on to their destination.  Takes an additional six hours but, it gives you a good feeling of safety.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: Kandi on March 18, 2012, 06:51 pm
I think the only way to be 100% safe is by not using this site at all.
We all take some kind of chance by just being here
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: zubic09 on March 19, 2012, 12:56 am
^yuup, classic example of risk vs. reward
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: AbraCadaver on March 19, 2012, 11:07 am
I understood that Silk Road uses a system similar to bitfrog's to try and make life harder for those analysing where the money's going to

The following is quite possible: the address you send coins to on the Road isn't necessarily the actual address the coins are residing at once they're in your Silk Road account. It could be ANY ADDRESS. Your Silk Road addresses are only what's used to get the money into your account.

I'd quite like some official clarification on this at some point (not every single detail obviously, but it would be nice to know that at the very least, Silk Road's tumbling/obfuscation mechanism starts with bitcoin addresses OUTSIDE of the Tor network)


Anyway, the king of RL excuses when it comes to this is any variation of "I sold bitcoins to a stranger". No one can fuck with that excuse
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: kidx on March 28, 2012, 10:46 pm
Intersango was the one I used incidentally, which from just skim reading a few pages of the security pages seems like an even worse idea... Panicking that I'm fucked now...

Jesus, dude, just don't do it again. You'll be fine.

Wow, maybe you shouldn't do drugs, because you're really paranoid.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: thedoctorisin on March 29, 2012, 02:04 am
Then why dont they shut down silk road website.... I dont understand how does that work.. I need to know, if i m using tor and sr website, will i be safe 100%??

NO!  You will not be 100% safe unless you are not engaging in the activity in question.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: cacoethes on March 29, 2012, 03:18 pm
Three of the most important things you can do, in my opinion:

1) Use an encrypted USB drive to access the Road.  Liberte, TAILS, your favorite Linux distro...  Whatever your preference.  ONLY use that drive for accessing the Road.  Do NOT USE THE TOR BROWSER BUNDLE DIRECTLY FROM YOUR COMPUTER  Do not allow ANYTHING Silk Road related to be written to your computer, only the USB drive.  Do not ever get lazy and break this rule.

2) Do not EVER sign for a package.  Have packages sent to some form of your name that you'll immediately recognize as Road related-  For example, if your name is John Smith, have them sent to J. Smith.  If ever you are asked to sign for a package addressed to J. Smith, you'll know.  Refuse.

3) Other than sending your address, encrypted, when placing an order with a vendor...  Do not EVER link ANYTHING having to do with your real identity to your Silk Road activity.  Example:  Do you have a tormail email address?  Great.  Don't send yourself test emails to and from your normal, everyday email address.  Do not email your buddies from this address to tell them how cool it all is.  Keep it separate and isolated.

IF you should ever encounter a problem, and have to deal with LE, you do not want them to be able to corroborate ANYTHING.  You were sent a package.  You didn't request it.  You didn't know it was coming.  You don't know who sent it, or why.  Say nothing, because you know nothing.  As long as nothing else can tie you to that delivery, it is highly unlikely that a case can be made against you.

In addition:

Relax, have fun, and choose your vendors wisely.

Please, please, please...  Learn the etiquette of the Road.  If there's a problem, try working it out with your vendor BEFORE plastering it all over the forums.

Reserve using the words "scam" "scammer" and "scammed" until you have PROVED it to be the case

The experience of postal joy is as addictive as any opiate.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: Jimmy245 on March 29, 2012, 09:04 pm
The experience of postal joy is as addictive as any opiate.

+1
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: bananatinpots on March 30, 2012, 09:19 am
@cacoethes

So downloaded Tor to my HD and accessed SR from home. Yes I'm stupid.

Now to fix the problem can I wipe my HD and start over as indicated with tor on a usb drive and linux or do I have to throw my laptop away?

I'm seriously considering selling on here and I want to do it right.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: clixor on March 30, 2012, 11:38 am
I'm seriously considering selling on here and I want to do it right.

I'm not the person to advise you in that area but i what i DO recommend is to do some serious research before you start selling here. As a customer i wouldn't like my info compromised due to vendors carelessness.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: cacoethes on March 30, 2012, 01:43 pm
@cacoethes

So downloaded Tor to my HD and accessed SR from home. Yes I'm stupid.

Now to fix the problem can I wipe my HD and start over as indicated with tor on a usb drive and linux or do I have to throw my laptop away?

I'm seriously considering selling on here and I want to do it right.

I guess it depends on your level of paranoia.  I'm no expert, but feel like I've read and learned enough in these forums, and others, to remain safe.

When you run a live distro from USB, nothing is written to your HDD.  Installing the Tor Browser Bundle to USB accomplishes the same thing.  When you install it directly to your HDD, Windows writes shit all over the place.

I would re-format the computer, then use a free program like Eraser to overwrite any free space with pseudo-random data.

And definitely read these forums before you start vending.  Stay safe!
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: cache on March 30, 2012, 02:07 pm
Lesson #1 - Use Linux as your OS, please. Windows is far too unsafe as a starting point.

You can do everything that you need to in order to vend on here from a live USB of Liberte. You can even run it from a MicroSD card in an adapter, there is nothing much smaller than a MicroSD and it would take a VERY determined search team to find one when hidden.
As long as you take some basic precautions you will be ok, if you do not live in a large city look in to getting a VPN to access Tor through, otherwise you may be open to location based profiling:
If you are in a city of 5 million and a few hundred use Tor then you can blend in to the crowd somewhat.
If you live in a village of 5 hundred and you are the only Tor user then it will pretty obvious who is up to no good.

Do you see where I am coming from? Using a VPN you can be seemingly accessing legitimate HTTP sites from your home computer whilst using Tor through the VPN.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: Reseller on March 30, 2012, 10:38 pm
I think the only way to be 100% safe is by not using this site at all.
We all take some kind of chance by just being here
Smartest response I've seen all day.
Title: Re: If government have the power....
Post by: cacoethes on March 31, 2012, 12:09 am
I think the only way to be 100% safe is by not using this site at all.
We all take some kind of chance by just being here
Smartest response I've seen all day.

Ahhh, very true...  And yet, still we remain.

I've never been a fan of living safely through abstinence.  I'd rather minimize the risk to whatever I consider to be an acceptable level!


Lesson #1 - Use Linux as your OS, please. Windows is far too unsafe as a starting point.

You can do everything that you need to in order to vend on here from a live USB of Liberte. You can even run it from a MicroSD card in an adapter, there is nothing much smaller than a MicroSD and it would take a VERY determined search team to find one when hidden.
As long as you take some basic precautions you will be ok, if you do not live in a large city look in to getting a VPN to access Tor through, otherwise you may be open to location based profiling:
If you are in a city of 5 million and a few hundred use Tor then you can blend in to the crowd somewhat.
If you live in a village of 5 hundred and you are the only Tor user then it will pretty obvious who is up to no good.

Do you see where I am coming from? Using a VPN you can be seemingly accessing legitimate HTTP sites from your home computer whilst using Tor through the VPN.

This is also very sound advice.