The founding father of the darknet market Silk Road which dealt solely with Bitcoin, Ross Ulbricht, just lately announced that he had spent 10 years in jail. Regardless of his fraudulent actions, Ulbricht is a well-liked determine within the crypto group as he’s believed to have contributed to the accelerated adoption of the flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
Silk Highway And Bitcoin Adoption
Silk Highway was a web based black platform that was used to facilitate unlawful actions, together with drug commerce and cash laundering. Apparently, Bitcoin was the one forex used to facilitate these transactions, as Ulbricht is alleged to have been an enormous proponent of the flagship cryptocurrency.
In accordance with Ulbricht’s mother, her son created the Silk Highway with the intention of offering a “actually free market.” She mentioned he used Bitcoin because the platform’s forex as a result of he believed within the “financial freedom” that the forex offered.
His actions undoubtedly helped to extend Bitcoin’s utility and recognition (though not essentially in a great way). In actual fact, some think about Silk Highway as Bitcoin’s “first important use case” because it exemplified what may very well be achieved (the great and the unhealthy) with the decentralized forex.
Silk Highway is alleged to have processed as a lot as $45 million yearly in gross sales (all in Bitcoin). There isn’t a doubt that the platform offered early liquidity to the ecosystem as such determine means that there was an enormous demand for the forex simply on account of transactions on the Silk Highway platform.
Ulbricht Silk Highway was even rumored to have been one of many largest holders of BTC sooner or later. Regulation enforcement is said to have confiscated a complete of 174,000 BTC from Ulbricht and the Silk Highway syndicate.
Using Bitcoin on the platform additionally offered perception into how Bitcoin (and different cryptocurrencies) might disrupt the monetary system and develop into the go-to possibility for each day transactions, particularly because the world continues to undertake decentralized techniques.
Ross Ulbricht Exhibits Regret
In the meantime, the Silk Road founder has continued to specific regret for his actions on his X (previously Twitter) platform. Nonetheless, it’s believed {that a} relative manages the web page, contemplating that Ulbricht remains to be in jail.
In his newest submit, saying 10 years in jail, he admitted that his “poor decisions” led him to the place he’s now, and all that he might do was pray for mercy.
Many have additionally jumped to his protection and proceed to clamor that injustice was carried out in how his case was dealt with. Some consider he didn’t deserve the punishment as a result of it didn’t match the crime. Ulbricht’s sentence is life imprisonment with out the potential of parole.
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