‘SURFING THE SILK ROAD :A STUDY OF USERS’ EXPERIENCES

Second international Conference on Novel Psychoactive Substances

13th September 2013

Dr Marie Claire Van Hout

Tim Bingham

Retailing drugs online• The online promotion of ‘drug shopping’ and user information networks

is of increasing drug policy, public health and law enforcement concern. • The shift toward widespread global availability of all drugs is evident in

the recent online presence of drug marketplaces such as ‘Silk Road’; ‘Black Market Reloaded’, ‘The Armory’ , ‘Atlantis’ and the ‘General Store.’

• The development of usable interfaces, electronic currencies and anonymous networks has facilitated ease of access of these drug markets located on the ‘Deep Web.’

• The ‘Deep Web’ has secure and confidential communication lines by encryption of computer IP addresses using Tor anonymising software or web proxy to the Tor network (http://tor2web.org ).

• Most users use ‘PGP4Win Gpg4win’ a system which enables the secure transmission of emails and files with the help of encryption and digital signatures.

Transactions on the Deep Web• Buyers and vendors use ‘Bitcoins’ (BTC) to conduct all transactions,

which is a non-government-controlled anonymous and untraceable crypto-currency, used as peer-to-peer currency and indexed to the US dollar to prevent excessive inflation or deflation.

• For users transacting on ‘Deep Web’ sites, ‘Electrum’ is an anonymous Tor server used to access a virtual wallet containing BTCs and ensures payment anonymity via online verifiable transactions occurring without a central third party.

• BTC can be bought at many online exchanges such as the ‘Tokyo Mt.Gox’ and ‘Bitstamp’ and is indexed to the USD (27/08/2013 valued at USD100).

Silk Road: An online Candy Store?• Silk Road’ provides cyber buyers and vendors with the

infrastructure to conduct online transactions, with over 24,400 drug related products for sale.

• 220 distinct categories of drug and related products are listed for sale including cannabis, ecstasy, psychedelics, opioids, stimulants, benzodiazepines and dissociatives.

• It operates similarly to ‘Ebay’, by way of vendor and buyer ratings, and feedback on quality of transactions, speed of dispatch and profile of products.

• It has a professional dispute resolution mechanism and has a forum dedicated to drug safety and harm reduction practices.

• It has wisely maximised on its trust mechanisms by demonstrating it is not a typical counterfeit drug website scam.

Silk Road Front Page

Silk Road Forum Page

Silk Road: Vending• Vendor authenticity and member opportunity to commence vending on the

site are controlled through the payment of a refundable bond (at the present time USD500), and by the auctioning of new vendor accounts to the highest bidders.

• Commission fees range between 3 and 8.5% of the sales price.

• Comprehensive measurement analysis and site monitoring for a period of eight months during late 2011 and 2012 estimated total vendor revenue from public listings, as slightly over USD1.2 million per month; with approximately USD92,000 per month in commissions for the ‘Silk Road’ operators

• Transaction anonymity is optimised by use of “tumbler” services of dummy and single use intermediaries between buyer and vendor.

• The ‘Escrow’ system is used that releases payment to vendors on customer receipt of orders.

Silk Road: Vendor Roundtable

Silk Road: Vending• The dynamic site turnover of vendors is visible, with Christin (2012)

reporting that a majority of vendors disappear within three months of market entry, with most items available for less than three weeks.

• ‘Stealth listing’ and ‘custom listings’ exist whereby vendors may exit the visible online listings, and custom is directed at certain buyers by providing the URL or via private messaging.

• • Vendors active for over one month and with more than 35 successful

transactions are allowed to request buyers to ‘finalize early’ (release of payment before receipt of the product).

• This presents some concern for buyers, with potential for being ‘ripped off’ where vendors build an excellent reputation and relationship with its customer base and then exit, leaving a large number of paid but un-dispatched orders and offering little recourse for dissatisfied customers.

Silk Road: Vending• ‘Silk Road’s’ traffic and reputation had increased drastically with

expectations that it had doubled its transactions to somewhere between USD 30-45 million over the past 12 months.

• A June 2013 crawl of the site by ‘StExo’ (a ‘Silk Road’ member) revealed 1,239 active vendors selling at any given moment. This represents double the number Christin reported on in August 2012.

• At the time of writing this ppt in August 2013, we were able to view 13426 listings originating from EU countries, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ghana, Japan, Vietnam, South Africa and the Philippines, along with 17066 undeclared listings.

• • There is a clear bias toward English speaking countries. It is important

to note that countries may have several active vendors who may list or advertise more than once, and who dispatch to a variety of destinations.

Methods• The Project aimed to describe user motives and realities of accessing,

navigating, purchasing and vending on the ‘Silk Road’ marketplace.• Ethical approval for the Project was granted by Waterford Institute of

Technology, Ireland.• Tim Bingham was familiar with the use of Tor and private messaging

on ‘Silk Road’, and acted as ‘Privileged Access Interviewer’ .• Following a period of two months site navigation on ‘Silk Road’ and

active participation in the Silk Road’ forums, we requested permission from the website administrator to undertake research on its member experiences and to upload information and recruitment threads in the forums.

• The total project timeframe was 18 months in order to establish rapport and garner trust with vendors.

• Recruitment of site users was hampered by negative and suspicious reactions by forum participants.

Methods• Study 1: A single case study approach explored a ‘Silk Road’

user’s motives for online drug purchasing, experiences of accessing and using the website, drug information sourcing, decision making and purchasing, outcomes and settings for use, and perspectives around security. The participant was recruited following a lengthy relationship building phase on the ‘Silk Road’ chat forum.

• Study 2: Systematic online observations, monitoring of discussion threads during six months of fieldwork and analysis of anonymous online interviews (n=20) with a purposeful sample of adult ‘Silk Road’ users was employed.

• Study 3: A single and holistic case study with embedded vendor sub units (n=10) situated within the larger ‘Silk Road’ marketplace explored vendor accounts of account of their experiences on the ‘Silk Road’ retail infrastructure.

Study 1: Single Case Study of a Silk Road member• Interview topics and targets set for the single case study were

developed following the review of existing ‘Silk Road’ literature and media reporting, and in consultation with our experiences navigating the site itself.

• We focused on the following areas of interest; participant drug use history, motives for Internet drug sourcing and sites used, experiences accessing and using ‘Silk Road’, drug information sourcing and decision making on Silk Road’, ‘Silk Road’ drugs of choice, experiences of these drugs and settings for use, interaction with Silk Road’ chat forums and the online Silk Road’ community and future intentions for using Silk Road’.

• Complete anonymity was ensured as the case and Tim used online pseudonyms, with the interview conducted via visually deactivated ‘Skype’.

Single Case Study: Results• The single case study plot was presented in the form of a ‘hero’s journey’ within a sequence of events

leading to accessing ‘Silk Road’, subsequent interaction with the site, and experiences of drugs purchased.

• Accessing ‘Silk Road’ was described as a joyful ‘child in a sweet shop’ type experience by virtue of its host of quality products and vendors, and its capacity to offer an anonymous, safe, and speedy transitioning without any of the risks associated with street drug sourcing.

• The male participant described consumer experiences on ‘Silk Road’ as ‘euphoric’ and relatively easy once navigating the Tor Browser (encryption software) and using ‘Bitcoins’ for transactions, and perceived as safer than negotiating illicit drug markets.

• Online researching of drug outcomes, particularly for new psychoactive substances was reported.

• Relationships between vendors and consumers were described as based on cyber levels of trust and professionalism, and supported by ‘stealth modes’, user feedback and resolution modes.

• The reality of his drug use was described as covert and solitary with psychonautic characteristics, which contrasted with his membership, participation and feelings of safety within the ‘Silk Road’ community. (parallel life).

• His ‘expert’ account of experiences of ‘Silk Road’ and associated drug taking, was subsequently used to develop the interview guide for Study 2.

Study 2: Integrated Site Monitoring and User Interviews • The research team requested permission from the website

administrator DPR to undertake the fieldwork in the form of systematic observation of the site, the posting of discussion threads, and invitation to partake in anonymous online interviewing.

• Message board recruitment of ‘Silk Road’ site members was utilized. Requests to partake in the research were posted by the research team, along with information around the research objectives, informed text based consent, guidelines for acceptable behaviour in the discussion threads, and online referral options.

• The study involved online observation, discussions with members and online interviews with a convenience sample of participants agreeing to complete a series of open ended questions via a private messaging system supported by ‘Silk Road’.

Study 2: Integrated Site Monitoring and User Interviews • Systematic online observations of the site involved monitoring

the site and forums, using screen shots, and postings relating to the discussion thread.

• Discussion threads were uploaded in the form of ‘taster questions’ so as to interact with members, and stimulate participant interest and resultant discourse. Tim interacted with participants in order to answer any queries and for uploading of follow up threads. Text arising from postings and screen shots was included in the analysis.

• The data logged from the anonymous online interviews via the private messaging system formed the final integrated data set.

Study 2: Integrated Site Monitoring and User Interviews• The anonymous online interview questions were developed in

consultation with extant literature, researcher experiences of navigating the site itself and the single case study account.

• Interview topics were concerned with participant demographics, drug repertoires, settings and patterns of drugs used, motives for web sourcing of drugs, popular sites for drug related information and communication with other cyber users, ‘Silk Road ’user appeal, Tor software sourcing, Bit Coin purchasing, navigation of the site and its forums, interaction within the ‘Silk Road’ community, consumer informed decision making and purchasing experiences, risk management and future intentions to use the site.

Study 2: Integrated Site Monitoring and User Interviews • Analysis was conducted on the final anonymised integrated

data set of online observations, discussion threads, postings and interviews.

• In total, 168 screenshots, 4 threads, 1249 posts and 20 completed interviews were transposed, transcribed and managed using the software program QSR NVivo 8.0.

• • This integrated data set was analysed using a narrative-based

analytical method which grouped the data into macro groupings, subsequent themes and appropriate categories. The identified groups, paragraphs and sentences were then broken down into several codes of key incidents, concepts and relationships between same.

Integrated Site Monitoring and User Interviews: Results

• Majority of participants were male, in professional employment or in third level education. Members were described as educated and professional, and for the most part confined their drug consumption to recreational and psychonautic purposes.

• The conscious decision for users to access Silk Road necessitated computer access and technical expertise, and was observed to contribute to ‘responsible’ drug consumerism -time needed to wait for product delivery appears to exclude more vulnerable groupings of drug users (i.e. homeless, opiate dependents).

• The majority of participants reported commencing internet drug sourcing and purchasing on ‘Silk Road’, with little prior experience of cyber drug retailing prior to 2011.

• Reasons for utilizing ‘Silk Road’ included curiosity, concerns for street drug quality and personal safety, variety of products, anonymous transactioning, and ease of product delivery.

• Forums on the site provided user advice, trip reports, product and transaction reviews.

Integrated Site Monitoring and User Interviews: Results

• By virtue of its 24 hour and insular nature, the ‘Silk Road’ entrenched community with it’s user forums providing advice, product and vendor reviews was viewed as ‘addictive’.

• Some users reported solitary drug use for psychonautic and introspective purposes.

• The site was described as a ‘great community with lots of information’.

• Vendor selection appeared based on trust, speed of transaction, stealth modes and quality of product.

• Popular drugs bought included; cannabis, mephedrone, codeine, cocaine, nitrous oxide, MDMA, 2C-B, ketamine, heroin, LSD, amphetamine, NBOME, methylone, benzodiazepines, methamphetamine, morphine, PCP, 2C-I, and psilocybin.

• A general cautiousness toward untested ‘novel psychoactive substances’ was described.

• Comments were made around user concerns for fears for personal safety when buying drugs on the street. Ease of product delivery in the post was described.

• • Minority reported customs seizures, and in general a displacement away from traditional drug sourcing (street

and closed markets) was described.

• Several reported intentions to commence vending on the site.

Study 3: Vendor Interviews

• Threads requesting participation in the Vendor study were posted on forums, along with threads presenting information on research objectives, ethics and informed text based consent.

• Vendors willing to complete the online interview (n=10) via the ‘direct message’ facility through the ‘Silk Road Forum’, and via ‘Tor’ mail were provided with a series of open ended questions, and advised to complete at their convenience. All communication was encrypted using PGP encryption software

• Interview propositions included vendor demographics, prior experience of selling drugs, introductions to the site, year of commencement of vending, reasons for vending, type of drugs sold, the ‘Silk Road’ customer base, ‘Silk Road’ retail processes, market development, vendor competition, supply channels, quality assurance and harm reduction, interaction on forums BTC, and law enforcement interference.

• We analysed data within, between and across subunits of each vendor, so as to illuminate the unique vending experience within ‘Silk Road’ setting as bounded context.

• Pattern matching, linking back to propositions and building explanations was assisted by the software program QSR NVivo 8.0 which grouped the data into macro groupings, subsequent themes and appropriate categories.

Interviews with Vendors: Results • Vendors described themselves as ‘intelligent and responsible’ consumers of drugs.

• All participants described a personal interest in the ‘intelligent and responsible’ use of drugs, particularly ethno-botanicals, psychedelics and psycho stimulants with all reporting intense use of the internet to research drugs outcomes (i.e. sites such as ‘Erowid’, ‘Bluelight’ and ‘Topix’) and interact in user chat-rooms.

• They reported becoming aware of ‘Silk Road’ and its location on the ‘Deep Web’ in late 2011 via chat-room activity.

• No participants had purchased drugs online prior to accessing ‘Silk Road’ because of concerns around site credibility, scamming and counterfeit products.

• The site’s harm reduction ethos appeared centred on informed consumerism and responsible vending by availability of high quality products with low risk for contamination, vendor tested products, trip reporting, and feedback on the vending infrastructure.

• Decisions to commence vending operations on the site centred on simplicity in setting up vendor accounts, and opportunity to operate within a low risk, high traffic, high mark-up, secure and anonymous ‘Deep Web’ infrastructure.

• When questioned around personal purchasing histories on ‘Silk Road’, several participants had never purchased on the site, despite operating as vendors themselves.

Interviews with Vendors: Results • Operating on the Deep Web appeared to present vendors and consumers with a novel

way to circumvent drug market violence and create distance between vendor and buyer. They declined to describe the process of how dispatch of products occurs.

• The professional approach to running their ‘Silk Road’ businesses and dedication to providing a quality service was characterised by professional advertising of quality products, professional communication and visibility on forum pages, speedy dispatch of slightly overweight products, competitive pricing, good stealth techniques and efforts to avoid customer disputes.

• Vendors appeared content with a fairly constant buyer demand and described a relatively competitive market between small and big time market players. Concerns were evident with regard to BTC instability.

• Operating on the Deep Web appeared to present vendors and consumers with a novel way to circumvent drug market violence and create distance between vendor and buyer.

• Some wariness around the evolving of cyber security and the potential for coordinated attacks on the site itself were voiced.

Cyber dealing: Recent developments• The greatest threat to ‘Silk Road’ and other sites operating on the ‘Deep Web’ is not law

enforcement or market dynamics, it is cyber-technology itself.

• In late April 2013 and coinciding with the launch of the rival site ‘Atlantis’, ‘Silk Road’ experienced a sophisticated cyber-attack which overwhelmed its servers, taking advantage of previously unknown vulnerability in the Tor system.

• ‘Freedom Hosting’ the largest hosting service for sites operating on the Tor network was shut down in late August 2013, with subsequent disappearance of many sites relying on the Tor anonymisation service.

• BTC is increasingly under global regulatory focus. In May 2013, ‘Tokyos Mt.Gov’ the largest BTC currency exchange announced the requirement for identification for any individual intending to trade for real world currencies.

• Recent developments also include the emergence of a newer crypto-currency called ‘Litecoin’.

• Law enforcement efforts are also increasingly tightening the net, with dealers using ‘Silk Road’ in the US and Australia arrested in mid- 2013.

• We are aware that ‘Silk Road’ has recently created a new public site (www.SilkRoadLink.com ) located on the mainstream web and presenting an online guide to accessing ‘Silk Road’.

Conclusions• The studies provide an insight into ‘Silk Road’ purchasing processes, interplay between

street and ‘Silk Road’ drug markets, the ‘Silk Road’ online community and its communication networks.

• ‘Silk Road’ as online drug marketplace presents an interesting displacement away from ‘traditional’ online and street sources of drug supply.

• The conscious decision for users to access Silk Road necessitated computer access and technical expertise, potentially excludes more vulnerable drug users and contributes to ‘responsible’ drug consumerism.

• Member support and harm reduction ethos within this virtual community maximises consumer decision-making and positive drug experiences, and minimises potential harms and consumer perceived risks.

• Its member subcultures offers a viable means of enmeshing safer drug use and encouraging harm reduction amongst a very hard to reach and informed drug using population.

• The greatest threat to ‘Silk Road’ and other sites operating on the ‘Deep Web’ is not law enforcement or market dynamics, it is technology itself.

Acknowledgement• We are grateful to the ‘Silk Road’ administrator “Dread Pirate

Roberts” for agreeing to facilitate the research and the participating members and vendors who have provided a unique and illustrative account of their experiences on the ‘Silk Road’ retail infrastructure. In 2012 DPR wrote’

• “We are like a little seed in a big jungle that has just broken the surface of the forest floor. It’s a big scary jungle with lots of dangerous creatures, each honed by evolution to survive in the hostile environment known as human society. But the environment is rapidly changing, and the jungle has never seen a species quite like the ‘Silk Road’.

• Questions?