Silk Road forums

Please see this thread:
https://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion.to/index.php?topic=168353.0

Just a heads up that some users have been unable to consistently connect to the forums for the past 24 hours or so.  We have been reconfiguring the forum such that we can use the backup addresses mentioned in the following thread:

https://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion.to/index.php?topic=155554.0

We ran into a couple of problems doing this and are working to make the forums fully accessible again.  Thank you for your patience.

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In order to fight off the recent DoS attack we had to do substantial reconfiguration to the entire Silk Road system.  We are still working out the kinks, and there are a couple of isses that have to be addressed.  One is deposits and withdrawals not showing up in a timely manner.  We found one problem the new config was causing to this system and fixed it today, so deposits/withdrawals should be flowing now.  If you still don't have yours, please message support on the main site.

The other issue is being logged out seemingly at random.  We are still looking for the cause of this problem, but I assure you it is a top priority and we will get it fixed soon.

Thank you for your patience as we recover from the recent attack.

- -DPR

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OP updated

OP updated

OP updated...

UPDATE (05/04/2013 2120 UTC): The site is back up.  I'm not going to say we are out of the woods yet, but unless something unexpected happens, we should remain up for the foreseeable future.

UPDATE (05/05/2013 0100 UTC): We're still doing battle with this attacker.  It seems he has prepared for this for a long time and has many tactics.  We continue to use every resource at our disposal to overcome this situation.  Thank you for your patience.

UPDATE (05/03/2013 0545 UTC): The attacks have been coming non-stop since my last update.  We've been able to keep the site open more than half the time with only minor issues such as limited image uploading for vendors.  Every hour we are making progress and I am feeling much more confident that we will come out on top within the next few days.  Still, expect some unannounced down-time here and there.

UPDATE (05/01/2013 0238 UTC): Silk Road is open and accessible.  As soon as the attacker finds out, he will likely change his tactics and try to take the site down again.  Hopefully he won't be able to, but time will tell.

UPDATE (04/30/2013 2022 UTC): Still working on a solution.  I haven't given up hope that we will be able to go forward as a public market without limiting access.  We are putting all of our efforts into making that a reality.  If that changes, I will let you know here.

UPDATE (04/30/2013 0035 UTC): We have come a long way in the battle, but still do not have the upper hand.  It's looking more and more like a restructuring of the tor software or even the tor network will be required to mitigate the kind of attack we are under.  If this can be solved by modifying the tor client software running the silk road .onion, then it will be a matter of patching and redeploying the hidden service.  If it is a network issue, it will require the cooperation of the Tor developers, or running a new network of nodes.  I haven't given up hope for a faster solution, but if one can not be found, then we will move to a semi private scheme where users will be given access through many private URLs.  I'll keep everyone updated on how we will move forward, but please be prepared for a few more days at the least of no access.

UPDATE (04/29/2013 0715 UTC): Just want to let you all know I'm still here and we're still doing battle behind the scenes to get the forums and main site running again.  It is incredibly discouraging to have everything we've worked so hard for taken down by some anonymous and malevolent person, but your kind words of encouragement do wonders for our moral.  We are on the cutting edge of anonymity technology here.  The attacks being used against us MUST be overcome if Silk Road and any anonymous public sites are to have a future.  Thank you again for your patience with all of this, and pray that we make it through stronger than we started.

We are being attacked once more.  This time the forums are under attack as well.  Access is intermittent, so hopefully some of you can read this.  We are doing everything possible to overcome this latest attack.  Please be patient while we find a solution.

As most of you are aware, Silk Road has been under a denial of service (DoS) attack for the last few days with the site being virtually inaccessible for about 36 hours.  This was the most sophisticated attack we've seen in the history of the site by far.  I want to thank my team, and several volunteers from the community who quickly came to my aid and provided excellent support.  You know who you are   Ironically, I would also like to thank the attacker.  "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" couldn't be more true here.  We were forced to rethink our entire security system and configuration and are substantially more robust and hardened for having gone through this.  I have zero respect for the attacker's tactics, but I have huge respect for his intellect, giving me confidence that we can and will overcome any future technology-based attacks on Silk Road.

I want to mark this victory as a milestone in the ongoing story of our market by doing two things.  One, we'll be having a sale effective immediately until midnight (UTC) on the 27th.  All items on the site are commission free.  I encourage any vendors who wish to join me in this to mark down their listings as much as they can.

I am also publishing a document that is very important to me, the Silk Road Charter.  It has been a work in progress for a very long time, and I am at last ready to share it with all of you.  It has guided many incredibly difficult decisions I've had to make along the way and will continue to do so hopefully for years to come.  Hopefully many of you can identify with and find inspiration in it.  Here's the link:

silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/charter

Your faithful servant,
Dread Pirate Roberts

UPDATE (04/26/2013 2130 UTC): FYI some vendors have their prices set AFTER including the commission, so their prices didn't change when I reduced the commission to zero.  There are only about 7 vendors doing this, so it shouldn't be a widespread effect.  Hopefully they and others will manually reduce their prices and pass on the savings to their customers.  Either way, this is an impromptu sale and I'm not going to sweat it.