Buyer's Guide
Connecting to the site
If you are reading this now, you have at least figured out how to access a tor hidden service. Good job :) You have either installed Tor and configured your browser to use it, or you are using a proxy such as tor2web. We strongly encourage you to connect to the hidden service directly rather than going through a proxy as it is much more secure and anonymous. The Tor Browser Bundle is available for all major platforms and can be found here.
Getting Bitcoins
Click here for a list of reputable exchangers that will take many different forms of payment for Bitcoins. When they ask for your receiving address, give them the address on your account page that looks something like this:
1hRyhPaynHrWBysLx9yeRHqgTHso2Zcod
Your deposit will appear in your account once the Bitcoin network confirms your transfer. This can take up to 6 hours. If for some reason your transfer doesn't come through, just let us know and be sure to include the address you sent the coins to, as well as how many you sent.
Your account has a built-in eWallet for Bitcoins, so you can buy and sell here without ever having to worry about third-party services at all. When you sell something, your account is credited, and when you buy something, it is debited.
Please note that, while there are many vendors offering to sell Bitcoins directly from this site, we are not set up to facilitate this and it is very easy to get scammed this way. Until we are set up for it, we recommend you get Bitcoins from a third-party exchange. If you do get scammed we will have no way to help you.
Phishing
Phishing is a technique used by hackers to trick you into giving them your password and PIN. It is a serious problem on hidden services because the URL is so hard to remember and can be imitated. Fake URLs are often advertised on the hidden wiki and wikipedia.org. If you registered on a fake site pretending to be Silk Road, your account will be compromised and your money stolen. We HIGHLY recommend that you change your PIN and password before making your first deposit, just to be sure. Don't be another victim, change your PIN!
Shopping cart
The first step to placing an order is selecting the items you want to purchase by adding them to your shopping cart. From the cart, you may increase the quantity of your purchase, and select the appropriate postage option. See your vendor's page or the item description for postage instructions. When you've chosen your postage and quantity, click "update cart" to confirm the changes. Once your cart is ready, you must enter the address you would like your items sent to. This is the one point in the process where some kind of personal information is revealed. We take this very seriously and have taken every precaution to protect it.
Receiving address
From the moment you submit your order, to the moment it is displayed to your vendor, the information is fully encrypted and totally unreadable. Then, as soon as your vendor marks your package with the address and confirms shipment, the address is deleted forever and is irretrievable. For the extra cautious, you can encrypt your information yourself with your vendor's public key so that even we at Silk Road would be unable to view it, even if we wanted to. See below for more ways to be safe.
Payment
If you have enough funds in your account to cover your purchase, then your order will be validated instantly. If not, then you must deposit enough Bitcoins into your account to cover your total.
When your order ships, its status will change from "processing" to "in transit." Now just kick back and wait for it to arrive. Once it does, don't forget to click "finalize" next to your order and leave feedback.
NOTICE: If your seller instructs you to pay directly, outside of the escrow system, or with any other method than through the site checkout system, you should report it immediately to our support staff via the "contact us" link along with any evidence you can provide. If you do pay your seller directly, there will be no way for us to protect you from fraud.
Receiving packages
- Use a different address, such as a friend's house or P.O. box, that is unrelated to the one where your item will be kept. Once the item arrives, transport it discreetly to its final destination. Avoid abandoned buildings or any place where it would be suspicious to have mail delivered.
- Do not sign for your package. If you are expecting a package from us, do not answer the door for the postman, let him leave it there and then transport it as described above.
- Do not use your real name. This tactic doesn't work in some places because deliveries won't be made to names not registered with the address. If you think this is a problem, send yourself a test letter with the fake name and see if it arrives.
If you follow these guidelines, your chances of being detected are minimal. In the event that you are detected, deny requesting the package. Anyone can send anyone else anything in the mail.
Escrow
Our commitment is to total satisfaction for every purchase you make here. If your package never arrives or is not in the condition you expected, you may have a chance at a full or partial refund of the purchase price. Just click "resolve" next to your order. Our resolution center gives you total flexibility in working out a mutually agreeable outcome with your vendor, whether you want to request a full or partial refund, release payment to your vendor, or extend the time you wait for arrival. In the rare event that an agreement can't be made, Silk Road admins will be right there to mediate and investigate if necessary. The vast majority of orders are filled exactly as expected, but to avoid even the rare hang up, we strongly encourage you to read your vendor's feedback and ask questions of them ahead of time.
NEVER go around the escrow and pay a vendor directly. We will be totally unable to protect you in this event and the vendor will have much less motivation to serve you well. People HAVE been scammed this way. If a seller requests that you pay them directly, please let us know so we can address the situation.
Purchasing statistics
Because you are totally anonymous on Silk Road, the vendors here have no way of knowing if they can trust you at first. To help them judge whether they want to do business with you or not, some statistics are kept about your past purchases. When you purchase an item, before the order is accepted, your vendor can see how long you have been a member on the site, how many orders have been shipped out to you, and what percentage of the payments you made for those purchases were ultimately credited to your vendors. They can also see how many orders you ignored and allowed to "auto-finalize." So, the best way to keep a good reputation and eventually be accepted by all of the vendors here is to finalize your orders as soon as they arrive and you confirm they are good, and to only request a refund when you deserve it. The statistics are weighted toward the present, so you must keep up your good behavior, but if you have a bad streak, you can recover by doing well going forward. You can view your own stats at any time by clicking the link on your account page.
Tumbler
Just when you thought Silk Road couldn't be more secure, we went one step further. The tumbler sends all payments through a complex, semi-random series of dummy transactions, each with a new, one-use receiving address, making it nearly impossible to link your payment with any coins leaving the site. The quantity, frequency, and number of transactions are all varied chaotically in a way that mimics the transactions of the Bitcoin economy as a whole.
Escrow hedge
Unfortunately, the Bitcoin exchange rate isn't as stable as we would all like it to be, and can fluctuate wildly in a matter of hours, let alone the days or weeks it takes for a package to arrive. Because of this, there is a real danger that the Bitcoins being held in your escrow account will lose value by the time your vendor gets paid or you are refunded. So, we've given the option to vendors to hedge the future payments they are expecting from escrow such that the dollar value of the payment doesn't change as the Bitcoin exchange rate changes.
For example, a seller is hedging the escrow for a 10 btc order you place with them, and the dollar value of your order when you purchase it is $100. Now, let's say your order never arrives and your vendor agrees to a full refund, but those 10 btc are no longer worth $100, they're worth $50! Because your vendor hedged the escrow, you won't get a refund of 10 btc, you'll get 20 btc equaling the original value of $100. Of course, the opposite is also true. If Bitcoins appreciate in value while your order is in escrow, your refund will be fewer Bitcoins, but still equaling the original dollar value.
When checking out, you will see which orders will be hedged and which won't. After the order is placed, your escrow balance will reflect the dollar value of your hedged orders and the Bitcoin value of your unhedged orders. All hedged orders are hedged as soon as the order is placed. So when getting a refund for hedged items, don't be surprised if the number of Bitcoins you get back is not the same as the amount you paid.
If you need the most up-to-date USD/BTC exchange rate, we recommend mtgoxlive.com.
Final note
We do everything we can to protect your anonymity and ensure that your visits here bring you great satisfaction. However, you should understand the risks of possessing and using any of the items you purchase here. Research these matters before jumping in and be responsible for your actions. Learn how Tor and Bitcoin work so you can understand how to use them and where their limitations are. If you have any questions or concerns, we are here to support you. Please also send any suggestions for improving this guide to the "contact us" link below :)
