The story of Silk Road and its creator Ross Ulbricht are inextricably linked to bitcoin’s historical past. In February 2011, the darkish internet black market was one of many first internet shops to go bitcoin-only, offering an plain use case for the bitcoin community as a fee rail. On the opposite hand, the Silk Road stained bitcoin by linking it to medicine and different illicit merchandise. A stench that the cryptocurrency is barely starting to shake.
On the first of October 2013, Ross Ulbricht was arrested to a lot fanfare. A couple of days later, the unique Silk Road closed. The bitcoin community didn’t even blink. Culturally, although, the arrest and Silk Road’s disappearance marked the top of an period. A couple of years later, Ross Ulbricht’s extraordinarily exhausting sentence shook the bitcoin world to the core. And it’s nonetheless a scorching matter wherever bitcoin is mentioned.
Tomorrow I’ll start my tenth 12 months in jail.
I don’t know what to say. I screwed up. I ruined my life and prompted a whole lot of ache. When I look again and see my many errors, I really feel immense remorse.
— Ross Ulbricht (@ActualRossU) September 30, 2022
In a current tweet from Ross Ulbricht’s official account, which is “run by a loved one in the free world,” he wrote: “Tomorrow I’ll begin my 10th year in prison. I don’t know what to say. I screwed up. I ruined my life and caused a lot of pain. When I look back and see my many mistakes, I feel immense regret.”
Silk Road’s Creator’s Extremely Hard Sentence
The man often known as Dread Pirate Roberts bought not one however two life sentences, plus 40 years. For what? For every thing Silk Road’s customers did. The seven prices had been: distribution of narcotics, distribution of narcotics over the Internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, furthering a legal enterprise, conspiracy to hack a pc, conspiracy to smuggle utilizing false identification, and cash laundering. Notice that not one of the convictions implies violence of any variety.
However, in Ross Ulbricht’s sentencing, the decide claims:
“Ulbricht’s directed violence here is and relates to the murders for hire which he is alleged to have commissioned and paid for. The Court must determine whether these allegations have been demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence and I find that there is ample and unambiguous evidence that Ulbricht commissioned five murders as part of his efforts to protect his criminal enterprise and that he paid for these murders.”
They didn’t convict the Silk Road creator for the alleged murders for rent, although.
In (*9*), his defendants current a powerful case:
“Ross is condemned to die in prison, not for selling drugs himself but for creating a website where others did. This is far harsher than the punishment for much worse offenses. All other defendants related to the case―including the actual drug sellers and the creator of Silk Road 2―received sentences from 8 months to 10 years and nearly all are free today.”
BTC value chart for 10/04/2022 on FX | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Ross Ulbricht On Ross Ulbricht
At the Bitcoin 2021 convention, the Bitcoin Magazine team premiered a phone interview with the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. The Silk Road creator spoke from a most safety jail and mentioned, amongst different issues:
“I thought with Bitcoin, I could try and do something that actually makes a difference… Back then, I was impatient. I rushed ahead with my first idea, which was Silk Road… That’s a 26-year-old who thinks he has to save the world before someone beats him to it. I had no idea Silk Road would work, but now we all know it caught on. It was used to sell drugs, and now I’m in prison.”
In a letter to the Court quoted on the Free Ross website, Ulbricht evoked the identical sentiment:
“Silk Road was supposed to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices, to pursue their own happiness, however they individually saw fit. [It] turned out to be a naive and costly idea that I deeply regret.”
Nine years after Ross Ulbricht’s arrest & Silk Road’s closing, how’s bitcoin doing? Fine, thanks for asking. Tick tock, subsequent block. Ross Ulbricht, alternatively, may use your help. If you assume the Dread Pirate Roberts’ punishment doesn’t match the crime, take into account donating and signing the petition.
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