Norwegian national daily Aftenposten had an article yesterday stating that Silk Road probably has doubled in size since 2012. Source is Nicolas Christin, who did a study of Silk Road's turnover last year.
The researcher Nicolas Christins work received international attention when he published a study of the digital, illicit trade market "Silk Road" last fall.
During the first six months of 2012, he gathered information about sales and purchases on the site, and could ultimately estimate that it was trading at over 90 million a year.
But traffic has increased tremendously after the study was completed, and purchases and sales in 2013 are much higher.
It says Christin told Aftenposten.
- I'll be very surprised if there is not at least twice as many transactions today. I think it's even more.
Christin reports that dopselgere the Silk Road over the last 12 months has increased from 564 to 1,200, while the number of available products has increased from 6,500 to 16,000.
The article continues with interviews of sellers on Silk Road, and finishes with speculation on how Atlantis might actually be a police operation.
Here's the original article:
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/Forsker---Internetts-storste-dopmarked-har-doblet-seg-siden-i-fjor-7260638.htmlGoogle translate:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aftenposten.no%2Fnyheter%2Furiks%2FForsker---Internetts-storste-dopmarked-har-doblet-seg-siden-i-fjor-7260638.htmlNote: When the article mentions "dopselgere" this means drug dealers/sellers on Silk Road.
When the article says Long he/guy this means the dealer (wrong translation from Norwegian "langer(en)".