I think Midas is right, this would be a good way to find high volume sellers.Getting a commodity still isn't a bad idea in of itself, it's just the circumstances that make it a problem (have to give up your rough geographical location at any rate).Some advantages of gold, is that it wouldn't suffer as a result of any currency changes (hint hint european sellers).Also, I think it would be pretty easy to swop gold for hard cash.A disadvantage is that although Gold is a good long term way of hedging inflation (it's basically a store of value, like a savings a/c), its price has risen dramatically in the last decade... So, that seems like bubble-like behavior, who knows if it really is or not.I still would prefer it as a store of value as opposed to Bitcoins though. But get it outside the Silk Road.I think you should diversify your capital between lots of different currencies in cash, non-perishable physical commodities etc Not only is that less suspect to LE, but it ensures safety of capital against dramatic market fluctuations outside the Silk Road.