The early bird gets the worm. Silk Road was the first site of its kind to GET IT RIGHT. There were several places online you could get drugs (IRC Channels, and even BBS's before that).. but there were all kinds of problems. Safety issues, payment protection (escrow), quality control, no feedback etc. But DPR got it right with Silk Road and hit a fucking home run. Apple wasn't the first company to come out with a portable music player.. (Sony Walkman anyone? Or even those little mp3 portable pieces of shits), but Jobs managed to nail every issue and BOOM.