user26: I have read a lot about the silk road and I am still unsure what it is. I went to http://silkroadmarket.org but it just says that the site is down.  

user365: Silkroad is a Tor Hidden Service enabling supply and demand of/for (mostly illegal) goods & services to meet. Its onion address is http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/
Silkroad does not itself engage in selling goods or services, but merely offers a marketplace for doing this. Neither does it engage in handling payment or delivery.
A reputation system is in place to weed out the bad suppliers.
To be able to visit Silkroad you must make use of the Tor Network and Onion Name Resolution. There are many HowTos on this, here is one.

user5: Silkroad is an anonymous online marketplace inside the Tor network which became famous for selling illegal drugs.
They don't have anything to do with the Bitcoin project, except for the fact that they accept bitcoins as a payment method.

26: <p>I have read a lot about the silk road and I am still unsure what it is. I went to <a href="http://silkroadmarket.org" rel="noreferrer">http://silkroadmarket.org</a> but it just says that the site is down.  </p>
 365: <p>Silkroad is a <a href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/hidden-services.html.en" rel="nofollow">Tor Hidden Service</a> enabling supply and demand of/for (mostly illegal) goods &amp; services to meet. Its onion address is <a href="http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/" rel="nofollow">http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/</a></p>

<p>Silkroad does not itself engage in selling goods or services, but merely offers a marketplace for doing this. Neither does it engage in handling payment or delivery.</p>

<p>A reputation system is in place to weed out the bad suppliers.</p>

<p>To be able to visit Silkroad you must make use of the <a href="http://www.torproject.org/" rel="nofollow">Tor Network</a> and Onion Name Resolution. There are many HowTos on this, here is <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorifyHOWTO" rel="nofollow">one</a>.</p>
 5: <p>Silkroad is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_%28anonymous_marketplace%29">anonymous online marketplace</a> inside the <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor network</a> which became famous for selling illegal drugs.</p>

<p>They don't have anything to do with the Bitcoin project, except for the fact that they accept bitcoins as a payment method.</p>
