I see the problem with Silk Road not essentially being with the currency or the network mode itself, those both seem effective and appear to have been functioning properly at the time of its shut down (in so far as we know). I think the main issue is the trying to get physical items from point A to point B without getting intercepted/apprehended. It's all well and good to move digital items without getting noticed, but once you start shipping things you have to used pre-existing structures (ie: USPS, Fedex, et al.) which, if not run by the government, has no issue with giving any and all information to them. How to solve this is more complicated than the other parts, IMO.<p>Secondly, the arbitration through a third party I could see as being corruptible, if that third party is known and has no legal ramification/justification for just acting on their own good recognizance. It's like there needs to be a black market escrow that can't be bribed and won't steal the money.<p>Also, I'd just like to add that there are other potentials for connectivity outside of Tor & I2P. Older networks such as Freenet allow this kind of node hosting without having to "invent the wheel" and use some kind of new way to host a forum -- it probably just needs some oil added to the wheels. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet</a>