Agora Shutdown Shows Need for More Decentralization
On August 25, 2015, Agora announced that it would go offline as the result of “suspicious activity,” which it believed to be attempts at breaking through their security protections. The online drug market uses the anonymous communication software, Tor, to protect its servers and customers from third-party, and more specifically, government snooping. Tor works through a decentralized network of volunteer computers that encrypts user’s data and IP’s with an extensive series of relays. According to Agora administrators, the marketplace needs this hiatus so the team has a chance to implement....
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According to research done by the Digital Citizen’s Alliance, The shutdown of the Silk Road marketplace only temporarily reduced online drug sales. When the Silk Road was shutdown in October of 2013, it looked like a crushing blow against online drug-dealing. At the time, Silk Road accounted for more than 70% of the online drug market, giving users access to basically any illegal items, such ash drugs, weapons, and fake documents. Within months of the Silk Road’s closure, Silk Road 2.0 popped up and was subsequently busted. Two smaller sites — Evolution and Agora — then took up the slack....
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This last Tuesday, Agora announced it was halting their operations. The online black marketplace revealed that due to security concerns the site administrators decided to cease the market operations. However, contrary to what the community is used to see Agora is calling upon its users to finish up transactions in a timely manner before it closes down. Agora is an online black market or underground economy market in which goods or services are traded illegally. The goods or services themselves may or may not be illegal to own, or to trade through other, legal channels. Because the....
Dark web marketplace Agora has announced it will shut down temporarily while it explores defense mechanisms against potential attacks. The marketplace attributed its decision to recent research that highlighted vulnerabilities in the Tor protocol that could lead to the identification of its servers and operators. Agora is believed to be the largest dark market website by daily transaction volume, and uses bitcoin to facilitate payment for both legal and illicit items listed by vendors. In its online announcement, Agora's anonymous administrators reported they had moved servers following....