SilkRoad was probably the most popular ever Darknet marketplace, or even Darknet website in general that ever existed, this SilkRoad 3.1 review is a review of a marketplace whose true nature or affiliation (if any) to the actual SilkRoad is unknown.
That’s so because after the original SilkRoad was shut down, quite a few marketplaces popped back up with similar names to leverage the name and reputation that the fallen giant had made for itself.
As far as SilkRoad 3.1 goes it doesn’t seem to say anywhere that it’s run by the same group/individual behind the former SilkRoad, however its tagline – “The Darknet’s most resilient Marketplace” does create some confusions.
Another fact which points towards the affiliation is the fact that the marketplace is extremely rich in products, user-base, features and also has a professional Bug-bounty program.
However, for the purposes of this SilkRoad 3.1 review, I’d urge you folks to not consider them to be the same and rather take SilkRoad 3.1 to be an individual marketplace.
SilkRoad 3.1 Overview
So here’s an overview of the marketplace which will get you the features, limitations, and abilities of the marketplace at a glance:
- Primary URL: silkroad7rn2puhj
- Registration: Optional
- Supports MultiSig, FE, 2-FA, PGP, Pincode.
- Vendor Bond: USD $200 / USD $50 (Autoshop only vendors)
- Currency: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero, and Ethereum
- 5000+ Products available.
- Auto shop Available.
- Stealth Orders Available.
SilkRoad 3.1 User-Interface
The SilkRoad 3.1 user-interface is quite different and unique than most other traditional Marketplaces. For starters it’s slightly more congested but also more detailed and with lesser graphical elements.
It has the top-bar which acts as the navigational bar and helps users get to different sections of the marketplace, the links include Home, Stealth Order, Mixer, Login, 2-FA, Register etc.
Then a graphical bar displays the real-time prices of each acceptable mode of payment for user-convenience. Then there’s a notifications tab followed by a slider of featured products.
The next tab consists of featured vendors with one-liners about their products along with the number of sales, negative and positive reviews about the vendors.
Then there’s the search-bar which lets users search for products manually (detailed review of the search bar included in the later sections) and then finally it lists a number of products from established vendors.
The left-sidebar is what hosts the product-categories helping users narrow their hunt for products with ease.
As for products, it lists the most crucial information about the products including support for Escrow, price, accepted currencies, and vendor-ratings right next to the product-listings making it extremely easy to make decisions regarding purchases and vendors there and then.
So in a nutshell, it’s not complicated or hard to understand infact it’s simpler just different than what most users are probably used to.
Registration at Silkroad 3.1
Most Darknet markets out there do require registration before a purchase can be made, which even though isn’t a major problem is still something I’d like to get away with.
Well at SilkRoad 3.1 the registration is optional meaning users can place orders both by registering an account and without it. Without the registration, users place “Stealth orders” which we will discuss later after we’re done with this registration section.
As for registrations, users can simply go to the platform and click on “Register” from the top-bar and this is what the registration page would look like:
As is evident, it’s minimum-data requiring infact the only fields required are a username, a password and the pin. Couldn’t be any less demanding and more anonymous, could it? Account activation is instant as well.
What Products are Available at SilkRoad 3.1?
The exact number of products on SilkRoad 3.1 is unclear as it’s nowhere mentioned clearly, and counting manually is impossible considering its 20+ categories and 20-50pages/category.
However, on a rough estimate, it easily has over 5,000+ products and the available categories are primarily drug-related such as:
- Cannabis
- Stimulants
- Opioids
- Benzos
- Dissociative
- Psychedelics
- Prescriptions etc.
Each of these primary categories have sub-categories as well, for e.g. Cannabis has Weed, Hash, Seeds, Edibles,; Psychedelics has 2C, DMT, LSD and Opioids hosts Oxycodone, Heroin, Opium, Methadone, Fentanyl etc. and so on which does make finding the exact products somewhat easier.
However, it also has a range of “Digital” as well as “Physical” products. The Digital products include CC, VCC, Banks, Drops, Accounts, Scans, Dumps, Paypal etc. and the Physical goods have Carded and Counterfeit items for sale.
So in a nutshell, it’s primarily a drug-centric marketplace (no surprise) but also includes other darknet products, even though the two categories of Digital and Physical products aren’t as heavily stocked, ironically they have more “highly sold” items than in any other individual drug category.
Not everything is allowed and material related to Rape, Child Porn, Poison and Terrorism are banned. Fentanyl (something that’s banned on most Darknet markets) however is allowed.
How can you Pay on SilkRoad 3.1?
The payment mode plays a major role in deciding user privacy, anonymity as well as effects the overall price and time required to purchase goods as every currency has its own fee for transactions and time-requirements.
As for SilkRoad 3.1 it supports Bitcoin for starters which is the like the Father of Cryptocurrencies and is one of the most anonymous and secure currencies on the planet.
However it does have some minor drawbacks such as a higher transaction fee, and slightly longer transaction times in which case SilkRoad 3.1 can also be paid with Monero, Litecoin, as well as Ethereum.
Although note that the currency choice depends on the vendors and hence not all vendors may accept all currencies.
How Good is the Security Features on SilkRoad 3.1?
User-security is one of the main factors any darknet market should concern itself with considering how it’s highly illegal to trade on such marketplaces.
As already seen registration on SilkRoad 3.1 isn’t only extremely anonymous (doesn’t require any identity proofs or verifications) but also optional.
Then, it supports 2-Factor authentication for accounts using PGP and hence users can enable it upon which they’d be required to decrypt an encoded message using their PGP key in order to access the accounts.
They also auto-delete sensitive information on finalized orders after 7days, or when an order awaits refund for more than a month, or if the vendor/buyer remains inactive for a month.
Furthermore, all information in the “shipping information” box is auto-encrypted, regardless of independent encryption by the users using the Vendor’s PGP key which makes sure it can’t be intercepted no matter what.
Also changing password requires the “recovery key” which is provided instantly after registration, this makes sure that your password can’t be changed by a third-party without authorization.
And finally, it also lets users set a “pincode” which is used to make major changes to the account acting as an additional firewall in addition to the recovery key and the password!
Needless to say, it does offer an active Escrow to protect both parties from being scammed by the other.
How to be a Vendor on SilkRoad 3.1 and What is the AutoShop?
Users need to register a normal, free account on SilkRoad3.1 and then they can upgrade it either to “Buyer Pro”, or the “Vendor” account.
Being a Vendor on SilkRoad 3.1 is comparatively much cheaper than most other Darknet Markets and costs a meagre amount of USD $200 for normal vendor accounts.
While if you need an Autoshop-only vendor account it can be obtained for as low as USD $50 but it also offers limited features.
The auto shop is basically the section of SilkRoad3.1 which doesn’t need “physical shipments” and includes items such as Credit Cards, E-books, Paypal accounts and so on. It auto-dispatches products once buyers make the payments. Vendors can’ sell physical products with the Vendor account.
Also, the Vendor-fee (in both the cases) is completely non-refundable.
What are Stealth Orders?
Stealth Orders are the orders placed without registration. These get buyers ultimate anonymity as there’s no account behind any order and hence they get to place unlimited number of orders without having to worry about ratings, feedback, inbox message or anything else.
Although, it also has drawbacks such as Stealth orders can’t be placed on the Autoshop and support tickets can’t be initiated for such orders. Some amount of help however if and when required is provided but the communication isn’t well-organized.
28 days after a stealth order is placed, everything related to the order is permanently deleted.
How Good is the Search Functionality on SilkRoad 3.1?
I use this section in my Darknet market reviews to review the search-bar of any marketplace. My criteria for deeming one search-console better than others is based on the filters it offers, and the accuracy of the results.
The SilkRoad3.1 search-console consists of only four primary filters:
- Keyword
- Escrow
- Ships from
- And Order by
In my personal opinion, it’s missing quite a few search filters such as currencies accepted (as not all vendors accept all currencies, and not all users will be comfortable with all currencies either), Vendor rating (so users can find trusted and established vendors easily) and most importantly, the price-filter.
So yes the search-functionality does disappoint a bit but it’s not exactly a deal-breaker either.
Final Words on SilkRoad 3.1 Review
So that’s about it for this SilkRoad 3.1 review folks. I suppose I’ve covered just about everything that the marketplace comprises of, starting from user-interface, payment modes, security features, stealth orders, vendor accounts, autoshop and the search functionality.
There however may be some points which I missed in which case do make us aware in the comments and we’d update this piece as soon as possible.
Finally, in my personal opinion, SilkRoad 3.1 does miracles when it comes to user anonymity or security. It also is pretty well-stocked. The only disappointment was the search-console which doesn’t really matter. So yes the Marketplace is definitely worth a try in my opinion.
But do let me know you think of the marketplace, as well as of this SilkRoad 3.1 review in the comments.
