INFOGRAPHIC: Is this how Bitcoin’s 15 minutes of fame ends?

Silk Road, an underground drug and weapons marketplace on the “dark web” or “deep web” that attracts about 20% of the global daily digital currency bitcoin trade, is being held ransom by hackers.

According to Australia’s News.com, the website — which is not indexed by standard search engines — posted Saturday an email from someone who goes by the handle “Lance G”, threatening to crash the site unless it fronted $5,000.

Silk Road is now offering $5,000 to anyone with any “information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever is behind this extortion attempt,” reports News.com.

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If hackers or anyone else put an end to Silk Road, which can only be accessed through an encrypted network and whose URL changes constantly, it could be the end of the hot new currency, some speculate.

This infographic, created by hosting review site WhoIsHostingThis?, analyzes one of the possible scenarios.