Hi everyone, There has been quite a bit of discussion about the commission that is charged to vendors on Silk Road and I'd like to do my best to put some misunderstandings to rest. Many things were changed in a recent update to accommodate displaying and pegging prices to many currencies. One of those changes was the way the commission is calculated. This change had virtually no effect on the vast majority of sales on Silk Road that occur in the less than $1000 range. The commission did rise on larger volume orders. I've always felt that the 2% or so that was being charged on high priced orders was kind of low and decided to make the minimum commission 4%. I intended to inform our vendors of this through a message, but for some reason the message did not go through. I don't know if this was human error, or a technical error of some kind, but despite what some of you might think I am a normal human being and capable of error. In any case, the warning of the commission change did not make it to the vendors, so when they realized the commission had been raised by about two percentage points on high priced orders without warning, they we're rightfully upset. However, this soon spiraled out of control with people making unfounded claims that the commission had doubled or tripled across the board, causing further outrage. I attempted to respond within the thread where this was being discussed, but multiple threads have been started now and the misconception has even spread to other websites. Hopefully this post will put the matter to rest. As I've said all along, the commission that is charged is subject to change at any time, but because it is such a hot topic I am more than happy to reveal the commission schedule as it stands at this very moment. Keep in mind, this is subject to change at any time, and vendors have been equipped to handle changes in the commission without being warned ahead of time. The percent commission charged at this point can be found with the following formula: 6.7 x e^(-p/6) + 4 where p is the price of the listing in Bitcoins. So, for example, a 10 btc listing has a total commission of 5.27%, or 0.5265 btc. To give a little more perspective, at the current exchange rate of $75 per btc, a $1000 item under the former schedule now costs $1007.26. A $2000 item now costs $2028.07. And as said before, lower priced items are virtually unchanged. I think we can all agree that the service being provided by Silk Road to bring together a multitude of buyers and sellers and provide a safe platform for multi-thousand dollar deals is more than worth an extra 28 bucks. That being said, I take full responsibility for any and all misunderstandings up to this point. I didn't deliver the forewarning as I had intended and I am sure none of this would have been necessary had my message been delivered. I'm sorry for wasting everyone's time with all of this and I hope you can forgive me this slip up. Yours always, Dread Pirate Roberts