SilkRoad

Silk Road was an online marketplace launched in 2011 that operated on the dark web, utilizing anonymizing technology like Tor to protect users' identities. It facilitated the illegal sale of goods such as drugs, weapons, and counterfeit items, functioning similarly to traditional e-commerce platforms but outside government oversight. Silk Road used cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) for transactions, ensuring a degree of financial privacy. Its existence highlighted the challenges of digital privacy and law enforcement in cyberspace, ultimately leading to its closure by authorities in 2013 and the arrest of its founder.