The story of Silk Highway 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 simple use case for the bitcoin community as a cost rail. Alternatively, the Silk Highway 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. Just a few days later, the unique Silk Highway closed. The bitcoin community didn’t even blink. Culturally, although, the arrest and Silk Highway’s disappearance marked the tip of an period. Just a few years later, Ross Ulbricht’s extraordinarily exhausting sentence shook the bitcoin world to the core. And it’s nonetheless a sizzling 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 lots of ache. After I look again and see my many errors, I really feel immense remorse.
— Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) September 30, 2022
In a latest tweet from Ross Ulbricht’s official account, which is “run by a liked one within the free world,” he wrote: “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 lots of ache. After I look again and see my many errors, I really feel immense remorse.”
Silk Highway’s Creator’s Extraordinarily Exhausting Sentence
The person also referred to as Dread Pirate Roberts bought not one however two life sentences, plus 40 years. For what? For all the things Silk Highway’s customers did. The seven prices have been: distribution of narcotics, distribution of narcotics over the Web, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, furthering a felony enterprise, conspiracy to hack a pc, conspiracy to smuggle utilizing false identification, and cash laundering. Discover that not one of the convictions implies violence of any variety.
Nevertheless, in Ross Ulbricht’s sentencing, the decide claims:
“Ulbricht’s directed violence right here is and pertains to the murders for rent which he’s alleged to have commissioned and paid for. The Courtroom should decide whether or not these allegations have been demonstrated by a preponderance of the proof and I discover that there’s ample and unambiguous proof that Ulbricht commissioned 5 murders as a part of his efforts to guard his felony enterprise and that he paid for these murders.”
They didn’t convict the Silk Highway creator for the alleged murders for rent, although.
In Ulbricht’s change.org clemency petition, his defendants current a robust case:
“Ross is condemned to die in jail, not for promoting medicine himself however for creating an internet site the place others did. That is far harsher than the punishment for a lot worse offenses. All different defendants associated to the case―together with the precise drug sellers and the creator of Silk Highway 2―obtained sentences from 8 months to 10 years and practically all are free immediately.”
BTC value chart for 10/04/2022 on FX | Supply: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Ross Ulbricht On Ross Ulbricht
On the Bitcoin 2021 convention, the Bitcoin Magazine team premiered a phone interview with the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. The Silk Highway creator spoke from a most safety jail and mentioned, amongst different issues:
“I assumed with Bitcoin, I may try to do one thing that really makes a distinction… Again then, I used to be impatient. I rushed forward with my first concept, which was Silk Highway… That’s a 26-year-old who thinks he has to save lots of the world earlier than somebody beats him to it. I had no concept Silk Highway would work, however now everyone knows it caught on. It was used to promote medicine, and now I’m in jail.”
In a letter to the Courtroom quoted on the Free Ross website, Ulbricht evoked the identical sentiment:
“Silk Highway was imagined to be about giving individuals the liberty to make their very own selections, to pursue their very own happiness, nevertheless they individually noticed match. [It] turned out to be a naive and dear concept that I deeply remorse.”
9 years after Ross Ulbricht’s arrest & Silk Highway’s closing, how’s bitcoin doing? Advantageous, thanks for asking. Tick tock, subsequent block. Ross Ulbricht, alternatively, may use your help. In case you suppose the Dread Pirate Roberts’ punishment doesn’t match the crime, think about donating and signing the petition.
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