Silk Road forums

You can do it every time if you wish, but sometimes there are delays that cannot be avoided by getting a new deposit address.  Sometimes there are just site-wide delays or other issues.  If you haven't seen your coins within 24 hours, you'll need to send a message to SR Support on the main site so that they can look into the issue for you.

Maybe I've just been lucky in that case! As scout says, messaging SR Support if there is a problem is the proper course of action to take.

Libertas

Libertas,

Thank you for the warm welcome!  It is an expensive lesson to learn, but I will not be Finalizing any orders in the future.  I have been buying for a while and have been so careful.  This time I just should have used better judgement.  I just wish everyone was honest!     Maybe a bit much to expect.  It makes me feel better to rant about it in here anyways.  I hope they shut this guy down.  I did report him, if others do then maybe he will stop at least.   

Muse2013

I'm glad this experience hasn't turned you off Silk Road; there are plenty of excellent, legitimate vendors out there willing to work within escrow. Always do your research here on the forums before purchasing from a vendor on the Road, and don't ever feel pressured into FE'ing. It is your right to stay within escrow, remember that!

I hope you enjoy your next purchase on the Road, and hope you have a great weekend to make up for losing out this time. Karma has a way of working things out!

Libertas

Thanks for responding, Libertas.

I googled Silk Road tumbler and now I think I get it, the essence is that transfers are rerouted through the system several times over so they can't be traced back to the source? And so I shouldn't be too worried that my transfer went out to an address I don't know and hasn't come back to me yet? That's reassuring.

However, I saw on some other threads people mention that the 'get new address' button might mess things up in the middle of a transfer, but I haven't changed my SR address or Bitstamp address since I started to use SR a couple of months ago, so it's not that. Hopefully nothing is really wrong and the system is just slow or backlogged because of the downtime.

I've sent a message to SR support as you suggested, so now I guess I'll just have to wait and see what they say or if the money turns up.

Cheers.

Hi TTa803,

No problem, that's what I'm here for! Yes, the BTC themselves are 'tumbled' or 'mixed' so you don't actually get the same bitcoins that you actually sent credited to your account. Until it has passed 48 hours I wouldn't worry too much about not receiving them, assuming you're 100% sure you did send them to your Silk Road deposit address.

After about 24 hours I would send SR Support a message inquiring as to the status of the transaction (along with all necessary information such as deposit address and date / time of the transfer). They will respond when they get a chance to read your message - they are currently swamped due to the recent site issues - and will credit your account manually if needs-be.

Hitting 'get a new address' during a transfer can indeed cause problems, but so can not changing your SR deposit address for each new deposit! I believe that may be the case here. In future, always hit 'get a new address' before making a deposit, and wait 'til it reaches your account before hitting it again and making your next deposit.

As you've already messaged SR Support all you can do now is play the waiting game. If it's any consolation you're not the first person to experience a delay with a deposit, and you won't be the last (usually due to not following the correct deposit methodology); besides that, anyone that has ever had an issue like this where they did indeed send the BTC to their SR deposit address has had the issue resolved and their account credited..

Libertas

Assuming (s)he is human, and all humans die then DPR will die and
unless DPR is really a small elite group (doubt it) then this one person will die and it could happen with or without warning.
Someone has to take over operations, the vendors have to pay tribute to someone...
Will Scout, the next in command take over? Will there be a totally new person, that the IRL version of DPR trusts take over? Maybe an election on the forums based on previous posts, and perceived trustworthy-ness by other long term members?

Maybe a committee will be formed but these are questions that need to be answered because its only a matter of time.

DPR has been the best so far and obviously we'd need to ensure that the next leader is equally as trustworthy and not greedy, not a rat etc.

But i do think that we, as a community (albeit anonymous) need a contingency plan.

I believe that if the unspeakable were to occur, then inigo - as self ascribed first mate - would take over the running of the good ship Silk Road. I'm sure DPR is smart enough, and involved enough in the idea of a free market that will endure, to have a contingency plan in place.

This is just my opinion, of course, but it would seem to be the most likely scenario were the events that you have outlined to transpire.

Libertas

Hi, I bought a small amount of Bitcoin yesterday (.6), and transferred from my Bitstamp wallet to my SR account address around 1pm ET yesterday, but it still isn't showing up in my account.

I looked up my Bitstamp wallet ID on blockchain as some of the other threads here suggested, and it shows my Bitstamp account sending out the BTC, but the destination address isn't mine, and it appears to be part of a ~30 BTC transaction, along with 5 other addresses, to some account I have nothing to do with. Which is confusing, but then on the other hand, the last time I successfully funded my SR wallet (also via Bitstamp) blockchain shows it as part of a huge transaction involving about 40 different addresses, so maybe routing my transfer through a bunch of other people is standard practice?

That said, both times before that I've funded my account, the blockchain record just shows [my bitstamp address] ----> [my SR address].

So I'm confused. Anyone that can help explain this mess to me or help it get sorted out, I'd be very grateful. I assume even with the downtime on SR lately, having BTC floating in limbo somewhere for almost 24 hours is not usual?

Edit: I've also sent a message to support at Bitstamp, but haven't heard anything back yet.

Hi TTa803,

What you're seeing is the Silk Road tumbler in action. However, if you have changed your SR deposit address since making the Bitstamp withdrawal (by clicking 'get a new address') there may be an issue with the system not automatically crediting the correct Silk Road account; as a result, the transaction would have to be pushed through manually which does take some time depending on how busy SR Support are. Due to the recent downtime and ensuing issues, you can imagine how busy they are right now.

The BTC will likely hit your address eventually but it wouldn't do any harm to send SR Support a message to see exactly what's happening with it. I reckon it will have been credited even before they can get back to you though.

Libertas

Hi EnzymeX,

Please make sure that the 'Domestic only' box is unchecked when you're browsing listings. If it is checked, you will only see listings that ship within the country selected in your account settings.

Libertas

How is it possible that Samgiancanas ratings could now be at 99, up from before, when the loser is just ripping people off (for proof just search his name on here and you will see). Is this showing me/us that the rating thing is just bullshit? SR ovibously you know about this piece of shit yet you allow him to continue selling on this site???WTF?

Hi rommelkeitel,

The feedback score is determined by a number of variables; you can read more about these, and the feedback score in general, on the SR Wiki here:
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/wiki/index.php?title=Feedback_Score

I presume his high rating is coming from the large number of people FE'ing and leaving a rating of 5.

As far as possible scamming goes, SR Support is incredibly busy and will get to the reports about this vendor when they have a chance. People need to stop Finalising Early and they won't get scammed. Silk Road can do nothing for buyers that choose to do this.

Libertas

So, I'm a bit confused as to how the feedback percentage thing works - I've had 84 5/5 feedbacks and one 3/5 (meh, you can't please some people  ), and that's apparently worked out to 97.5%? How does that work? Is it weighted towards the most recent feedback or something?
Vendor page:
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/user/53909a1737

Hi MDUK,

You can read more about the feedback score, including the formula used to calculate it, on the SR Wiki:
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/wiki/index.php?title=Feedback_Score

I have quoted it here for your convenience.

Feedback Score

What is Feedback Scoring?

You may have noticed the (100) next some vendors names, this is their Feedback Score. This is a quick way of finding out how reputable a vendor is, a step to take before reading some of their actual feedback. This score is a weighted average, based on many aspect of their transactions. The weights are determined by a few factors, and here they are, in order of importance:

    How active a buyer is in rating other vendors
    The age of the rating
    The price of the transaction

In order for a vendor's rating to appear next to their name, they must be reviewed enough for it to be a meaningful average. This requires roughly 10 reviews per month, but can be more or less depending of the weights of the reviews.

The Formula

The buyer activity weight is determined by finding the average and standard deviation of the log of the number of vendors reviewed by buyers who've ever left a review. If the log of the number of vendors reviewed by the buyer who left the feedback is greater than the average, the review has a "buyer activity" weight of the number of standard deviations above the average plus one. If it is below average, then the weight is the inverse of the number of standard deviations below the average minus one.

The age weight is found by raising 1.02337 to the power of the review's age in days and then inverting it. We got 1.02337 by making a review half as valuable after one month as one that's just been posted.

The price weight comes from the following formula: 0.2*log(0.02*($price)+1)+1 where $price is in dollars.

You then multiply the weights together to get the total weight for that review. Add up all of the weighted reviews and divide by the total weight to get the weighted average, then do 25*(1-avg) to get "percent positive reviews" metric.

To get the seller rank, we find the averages and standard deviations of the "percent positive feedback" and the log of the total weight of the reviews for all active sellers. We then average the number of standard deviations a seller has above or below the average with a 4 to 1 weight on their average feedback over their total weight. This is a seller's rating, and we rank everyone according to this rating.

There are a few little details left out for brevity, but that's basically it.

Libertas