Ross Ulbricht & The Silk Road

read time 6 mins

Welcome to Bit Education. A weekly newsletter where I provide simple, informative articles to enhance your knowledge, protect your investments, and feel at peace with cryptocurrency.

Today at a Glance:

• My personal introduction to Silk Road

• How the Silk Road is able to exist as an anonymous e-commerce website

• The unfair/unreasonable sentencing of Ulbricht

Ross Ulbricht & The Silk Road:

When I was no older than 13 years old, I remember going around to my friends house one day. He had his own computer, free rien on the internet. He showed me this site where you could buy drugs.

The site was just a cool thing to explore at that age, and we later brushed it off and went to play video games.

It wasn’t until almost 10 years later that I now realised what site it was.

The Silk Road!

Created by Ross William Ulbricht in 2011. Silk Road was an anonymous e-commerce website. With the emphasis on user security and privacy, it used two key pieces of technology. Tor and Bitcoin.

Tor is a network of computers that route traffic in a way that is nearly impossible to trace. It allowed users to conceal their identity and data. Along with Bitcoin, it provided an anonymous marketplace, with decentralised payment systems.

Ross devised the Silk Road as a “free market economic experiment”. An open platform driven by its users. The idealistic libertarian, free market. Ulbrict believed “people should have the right to buy and sell whatever they wanted, so long as they weren’t hurting anyone else”

The silk road allowed consenting people to buy and sell what they chose, so long as no third party was harmed. The site had rules and some listings were prohibited, including stolen items, child pornography, counterfeits and firearms.

Arrest & Trial of Ulbricht

Ross is a first time offender, charged with all non-violent crimes. Yet was given two life sentences plus 40 years without parole. He was not convicted of ever selling drugs or illegal items himself, but was held accountable for the actions of others on the site.

This sentence is unheard of for someone like Ross. Ulbricht will never be given a second chance, regardless of his rehabilitation and attempts to make amends.

None of the other arrested individuals involved in Silk Road received sentences greater than 10 years, this included the biggest drug sellers, and even corrupt federal agents on Silk Road.

Ross is continuing to seek clemency, and is a model prisoner. I suggest you show support for Ross here + sign the petition: