Silk Road Forums

Well, I'm glad most people have everything cleared up and their questions answered. And as I said in the past, theres a lot of shit I can't get into and explain because it would seriously piss off the powers that be everyone has worked so hard first in October gettings things running again, and now regrouping and doing damage assesment after the new wave of arrests.

Let me address a couple things - everyone is human, right? Even people with the strongest sense of OPSEC and practical security.. are human. When an operation that has many moving parts, several official (and unofficial) stakeholders, and everyone performing/tasked a specific role..even in GOOD times there are miscommunications and "lag". Not to mention the fact that people are in different time zones. Anyone who's been in an organization (wether legal or illegal) knows that getting all the stakeholders on the same page, at the same time, with the same message can be hard. Now, take into account unknown variables thrown into the mix quite suddenly (Libertas's arrest for SR1 activities + DPR2 making a conscious decision to clean house and go dark), and now it becomes exponentially harder for everyone to be on the same page of the same script at the same time! Theres some tinfoil on the forums.. and that's always been the case. But please folks, also be realistic. DPR2 told Eiley from AllThingsVice that he was not gonna be sticking around. I'll get my head chopped off for speaking in detail about it, but from a techincal point, DPR2 did what he privately had said he'd do to allow contiuum from an admin POV. And most importantly, had DPR2 been comrpomised and/or taken, it'd be in the news. It's not, because thankfully he's not. Just know, that it does take certain amount of time coordinating with an entire team across different timezones, during the holidays, and making sure everyone sticks to the same plan agreed upon months ago.. it's not like people can jump on a conference call and wrap up the process steps in 15 minutes (on the heels of knowing 3 of your comarades just got busted worldwide). This is not IBM or Amazon.

Someone mentioned "I saw this post and then it was deleted". Yes..because when you go back and read something or somebody elses catches somethign that shouldn't be publicly viewable and breaks opsec, it gets deleted! This place has eyes on it 24/7, make no mistake about it. There's a very brief window you get to remove something you realize would only give fuel to your enemy. Not sure how better I can spell it out for ya.

Someone else brings up the point of "you were screaming and making a huge fuss in October, you were screaming and making a huge fuss a few days ago, etc etc" Right.. I'm laying it all out now. From the beginning, the goal was to have a "gruntled insider" (not staff) who was (to an outsider/LE's POV) close enough to people in official positions, yet was not worried about retribution/reprisal in case he did go rogue. Initially, the idea of having an actual staff member make grumblings and express misgivings seemed improbable.. but having a "friendly" who would teeter between "loyal" and "disgruntled"  would be an interesting experiment in weeding out the enemies intentions, and also be a source of credibility in the event of a catasrophe, to buy everyone some time to regroup while creating a massive distraction. Most of you get this.. but that's the crux of the matter.

And finally, the issue of "drama" & "threatrics": Someone wrote "It would have been nice if oracle had posted an SHA256 hash of the text that explained what was really going on before starting all his psy-ops..."  And to be very frank, yes, I should have. I honestly didn't think about that, but that would have been spot on. I did make a few threads with "I will be making an important announcement" or "I will shed some light" .. but I should have taken it a step further and posted a SHA256 hash. You must realize, it's a monumental task doing damage assesment, coordinating with many people across many borders, and making sure everyone "sticks to the script" yet tweak it as you go. But come on guys, I think everyone did a pretty good job? I was posting at will, yet mods and Def weren't deleting my posts, and explicitly not adressing them/me. The goal was to seriously distract. Backstage however, there was a lot of back&forth on when to make sure all loose ends are tied up and the site infrastructure is sound. When I was told everything was triple tested and there's confidence that SR2 is fine, and the scope of the arrests were only SR1 related, and DPR2 was not compromised (and had taken certain measures to make sure Defcon has no issues), then I could kill the act.  If I was really some lunatic Coachella type (*shudders*).. you'd all know it by now. I'm just a friend with benefits

I hope the community's at ease and knows that SR2 is completely safe, for the interm time period Defcon is running the show (and I can vouche for his/her competence as I have had complex conversations with him/her that date back months.. he/she knows their shit), Cirrus, ChemCa,t V, and DoctorClu are the only moderators that the community will deal with, and every one of these people is absolutely un-tainted/outside the scope of Ross/SR1 in any way.

And the most important thing - EVERYONE is responsible for their own security! When the site resumes, or even during Christmas break on the forums, always, ALWAYS be pro-active with your security. Use PGP only, make sure javascript is turned off in Tor, think before you type, and maintain good OPSEC. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if 1 person or 10 people are running Silk Road. If you're practicing standard security you're pretty much 99.9999999% safe.

You all have a Merry Christmas, while keeping our fallen comrades in your prayers and thoughts, and reflect hard on how amazing it is that we have such a brilliant thing known as "Silk Road" .. that's been tested and put under massive stress, yet it's still around and will hopefully be around a long time. And by Silk Road, I don't mean SR1 or SR2 or the site/forums/servers whatever. I really mean this fucking awesome community. Forum peeps,vendors, buyers, lurkers, jounrnalists, trolls and everyone else. We are part of living history.

Well damn.. was spending Christmas with family! Didn't even plan to hop online today/tomorrow.. but get on and see this.

I'm not sure why you'd say I'm misinformed. As I've stated, there are several key elements and facts that have been left out for the security/safety of individuals, the site, the community and of course as not to annoy SR leadership.

Heres the thing, you're damned if you do, damned if you dont. If you're too vague, people get pissed and start demanding to know each and every detail of whats going on and why the silence. If you're too specific, people don't like the truth because it doesn't sit well with the narrartive they've concocted in their heads.. so.. what do you do? I know what I do.. go have another drink!

Merry Christmas everyone

He might be the new DPR2. In fact, he's the defacto DPR2 until the alleged DPR3 mentioned by Oracle takes on his new role.

This is the darknet. Who knows if DefCon creates a new account or if Stexxo is indeed DPR2 like what another thread claims.

I personally care about a functioning marketplace and wish all leaders here protect themselves and decentralize operations.

Another good read:
http://silkroad5v7dywlc.onion/index.php?topic=10943.0

Right on, that's the point. It doesn't even matter "who". If you're using  TOR and PGP and practicing standard security protocols.. a site could theoretically be run on Tarbells laptop with the NSA standing over his shoulder and it would mean't jack shit.

So, your role was to spread misinformation on the forum, right? This misinformation was about the real identity of DPR2, right?
Well, but wouldn't teling us that make this operation useless? What was the sense in that? How could it throw off LE?

On a side note: Were there a lot of people who really believed Defcon to be SR2?

Kind of. It was (amongst other things I was tasked to do over time) to appear to be a disgruntled insider. That confuses LE/gives them tailspsins. they think oh, this guy knows something, lets give him some credence.. while in reality it's sending them goose chases.
It's the "good kind of FUD". It was more then about DPR2.. it was to cause a distraction on who/where to give enough time to asses what was going on..

Telling you doesn't make the operation useless.. it makes it over. Finally

To answer your question.. honestly.. nah. They'd see he's an old account, created in November, and he had been active here and there.. but hey, I tried.

Questions:     Can the arrests of Libertas, Inigo, SSBD, and possibly others do anything to threaten the existing infrastucure and security of SR 2.0 ?  Or were they not privy to the essential functioning of the site, and if they in fact "squeal"  do they have anything of value to squeal about to LE ?   (Unlike Ross did with perhaps the true identities of his staff members?)

                     Oracle, Thanks for the ginormous summary of recent events and general "strategery" behind the psyops...I doubt anything you told us would not already be known by LE.......but it seems like you kind of wrapped things up in nutshell with a bow on it for LE to look at and say, "By gum, why didn't we think of that?"      It seems too tidy.   Not necessarily questioning its validity though.     Hmmm.......
                     

To answer your questions: No, it can't. They're accounts and access were killed. They have no idea where the servers are. They were absolutely not in any position to be privy to anything that would harm the integrity of the site/infrastructure/servers/forums. There's a lot I cannot get into, but I will say that an audit was done and there's no way that anyone of them could techincally do anything to SR2 servers. As for squealing, that's on their consience.. but they're being charged in connection with activities on SR1 only and activities during a certain time period (before SR2 existed). So no. Ross, like you said, had identification on his staff. Again, I can't get into specifics, but rest assured that same mistake/potential failure point was not repeated.

No need to thank me. Enough time had passed to enter into the next logical phase of SR2, damage assesment was done, and the individuals charges with crimes unrelated to SR2 had their accounts killed. 

Quote from: Akon on December 24, 2013, 10:53:31 am

Quote from: ihnZ on December 24, 2013, 10:45:57 am

If even part of that is true, it clears up a shitload of standing questions to date..but..How could we be sure this thread's announcement isn't just more misinformation/spreading of distrust.. what a paradox
the mindfuck continues

huh? You dont see the point? Every, well most people just wanted to be assured that everything is under controll.

It doesnt matter if this is true or not. As long as the market can breath and operate, then there is no problem...

This market is being treated as a business, thats most importent. No unrational moves.

As long as you plan ahead, you will come out as a winner.

what is under control? this announcement is coming from a disgruntled member who claims to have insider info and waited til nobody else of importance in SR community was online to post this crap.

I don't think you read me properly. I am not disgruntled. LOL. Everyone is assigned a role to play, and I played mine. I'm not claiming to have "insider info".. I was privy to things and that's a fact. No member of staff will dispute this..
As to why nobody of importance in SR posted this.. um.. you don't think I'm important? That hurts my feelings, man! It's Christmas.. ya know. Where's the love?

Jokes aside.. I'm assuming most "important members" aka staff/administration are either sleeping (depending on timezone), having sex (depending on virility), with family or maybe just... offline?

And in any case.. I'm the one who made the thread to make an announcement, not them, so I made it, with the required go-ahead. I was the one creating a (engineered) rucous.. so I have to gauge when it's time to call it quits and be straightforward with everyone so people stop panicing and speculating etc. That's all there really is too it. I'm still hurt you don't think I'm important. My mom thinks I'm important.

     Well done guys!  I'm very appreciative that there was a plan in place & im proud that it seems to be working out.  For the ones who are locked up i appreciate the sacrifice & i hope things work out as good as possible for them in a real shit situation.  I just received an order today from a new vendor, my Christmas will be high and fun, and i'll be ready to place another order when the Christmas break is done. 
     Thanks for keeping us in the loop Oracle!

No problem. Hope it clears shit up. Have a merry Christmas and yep, site should be back up for orders as planned.