Well, if the Road is up for long enough, e.g. a decade or so, it could happen. After a while, everything becomes part of the status quo.There's lots of circumstances in which the white and black markets get along relatively amicably e.g. the Yakusa in Japan. It is a lot more common in the developing world though, where countries deliberately use the black market as a developmental strategy to bootstrap the economy.Even in the United States, there have been circumstances where LE and entities within the black market cooperated under the table e.g. tracking down terrorists, child molesters etc. If SR could guarantee they wouldn't sell to minors, have a 'stop' rule for addicts (perma-ban vendors impose on customers who want it), have mandatory drug kits sent with items (not actually expensive to do), paid a tithe to the Government etc, then a large section of the population would be totally A-OK with the existence of the Silk Road. It does, after all, reduce the propensity to violence, that is just a fact, you'd have to be willfully blind not to see that. The interface and reputation system really matter.Don't get comfortable though, it's not going to suddenly happen tomorrow. N.B!The main problem, is that it's not in the DEA's interest to solve the problem. You notice how people who are genuine at their problem solving efforts are always lateral thinkers, keen to work out a new hack or experiment. The irony is we see that the DEA's absolute objective to prevent drugs hitting the streets has transformed to a drug distribution regulation process, where smugglers 'plan' for shipments to get caught so the DEA 'gets their tax'. Corruption, but not in the common sense of the word. Organizations like the Silk Road could put entire swaths of the black market out of business, reduce the number of drug overdoses, reduce gang related violence and so forth. Eventually they will, but it'd be a much faster process if the Government was smart enough to keep a hands off approach. You've got to ask yourself, at the end of the day, who is the real enemy here?