Quote from: Bradypizza on March 06, 2013, 08:21 pmIf silkroad went offline, I bet the drop would be violent.Silk Road has gone offline before for a period of time with less than a 1.5% change in Bitcoin's overall value - a change which could also have been attributed to a number of other factors occurring in the Bitcoin world around that time.Silk Road's annual sales are estimated to be around $22,000,000 USD.The 30-day Volume (Currency) on Mt.Gox alone (as the largest BTC exchange) is $49,940,882.67 USD.Multiplying that by 12 to get a very crude annual figure, the annual Volume on Mt.Gox would be $599,290,592.04.This means that Silk Road represents 3.67% of overall Bitcoin trade on Mt.Gox alone, as the largest exchange.A more likely figure, counting all other exchanges, would be more in the range of 1.5% to 1.7%.Going by those figures, if Silk Road went offline for good, there would be little to no impact on the overall Bitcoin price or value.There will be a series of minor corrections in the near future, but Bitcoin's value won't "crash" as it has done in response to various scenarios in the past. There is simply too much money circulating in the Bitcoin economy for that to happen.Within 5 years, if Bitcoin continues its current adoption trends, I would be very surprised if 1 Bitcoin could not buy you an ounce of gold (currently trading at $1582.95 USD).- grahamgreene