Don’t know or care about this guy but all drugs should be legal.
Then you should probably care about him. He gave people around the world access to medicine that was illegal
Silk Road wasn’t the first darknet market ya know. I helped launch the first couple that were .onion prior to Ross, but the movement has been about since the 90s at least and would’ve happened without any of us. We were working on a decentralised version that would’ve been unstoppable but people moved on and got other priorities when SR took all the media attention and spotlight. I’m guessing it’ll emerge out crypto soon now the tech has caught up with the theory.
I’m kind of curious to hear about this decentralized solution…
I lost touch with the guy who was working on it, but this was before smart contracts even came on the scene.
The original text that radicalised me; https://anarplex.sirion.io/hosted/files/Toward_A_Private_Digital_Economy/index.html
There was OpenBazaar, but flopped for obvious reasons.
Wow, holy fuck, I never thought it’d happen. Even a broken clock is right twice a day I guess.
This dude is about to have a very lucrative career.
You’re saying it’s the right move to release a man convicted of (I believe) several counts of attempted murder?
Absolutely, free Ross.
I’m not a trump fan
The dude’s a clown. Get better role models.
He wasn’t charged with any of that.
Because instead of paying a hitman, he was paying a scammer thinking he was a hitman. He’s still an asshole though.
We don’t actually know as those charges were dropped. In this country you’re innocent until proven guilty, therefore he’s innocent.
I’m not making any statements on his personality or character, just that he’s not guilty.
Absolutely, he is legally innocent of this, as the charges were indeed dropped.
However, it’s all publicly documented. You can read the DMs where all of this occurred if you’d like. It includes the transaction IDs and wallets this all occurred. The paper trail is all there. This happened, whether legally recognized or not. I do completely agree with you that he is legally innocent, but the evidence that this happened is overwhelming.
The reason he wasn’t found guilty of this specifically is because the prosecution, in the case in which he was found guilty, didn’t even include this in his charges, but instead used it as an example of his character in relation to the charges he did receive. Considering there was no actual murder that took place, they probably felt they had significantly better odds with other charges that they could easily get a guilty verdict (and significant sentence) with. This isn’t uncommon procedure.
Meanwhile, the Maryland case in which he was being charged in relation to this, was dropped once he’d already been found guilty in NY and sentenced to two life sentences.
Because of bitcoin I’m sure.
Yeah, you know the kids smart enough to have some hidden like thousands of them or something crazy and made a deal.
It’s not out of the kindness of his heart.
Tough on drugs… For people who aren’t white
Someone should really convince him to legalise all drugs to stick it to the cartels.
Anyone else remember the panic when you logged in and saw the notice that the site was seized by the feds?
I mean, certainly not something I experienced but I’m sure if I had it would’ve been terrifying to think the feds could find your info
All sellers had pgp keys published, everyone just used these and feds could not see shit.
Not like the later honeypots where the market published fake pgp keys on sellers’ profiles and MITMed the communications.
the market published fake pgp keys on sellers’ profiles and MITMed the communications.
Daaaaamn
Okay i remembered it wrong, not PGP keys but close
Trump said he had called Ulbricht’s mother to tell her he would pardon her son “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly”.
Wildy transactional.
So… does “full and unconditional” mean he’s also pardoned for the murders-for-hire? Or just for being a drug lord and America’s Next Top Website Boy?
He was never convicted on murders for hire, charges were dropped
Yeah, it’s insane that he’s just openly being like, “I promise to use the powers of my office to solely benefit myself,” and the Supreme Court’s just like, “Get it, grrrrrl”
Although, to be fair, it did also benefit a guy who tried to murder five people.
I’m actually kind of impressed he kept his word. That’s unexpected
His part is signing a piece of paper with a Sharpie that one of his handlers puts in front of him. That phone call had to be horrible, Trump trying to explain to a mom he is setting her son that he knows nothing about, free because he once said he would to a large group of people he wants to grift.
Because 0% he knows the guy’s name, who he was, or why he was in prison.
Edit - autocorrect =(
I mean, I’m just going to go with the most obvious grift. Ulbricht is going to go right back to operating a crypto street pharmacy. Hell, he’ll do it on the open web now. He’ll call it “The New Silk Road” or similar.
And then there’s an agreement for the feds to not go after them. In exchange, Ulbricht uses a good portion of his earnings to become the largest single investor in Trumpcoin ever. If asked, the feds can either ignore the question or hide behind some fig leaf excuse they come up with.
It’s not like Trump didn’t run blatant undeniable cons in the last administration.
Having something like that as a government honeypot is also a great way to get kompromat on people.
I remember this guy being a fucking idiot that paid for several fake assassinations of fake rivals. It was pretty funny.
It is funny in hindsight, knowing the assassinations were a scam. But he thought they were real, he talked in great detail about them and payed for them. This is missing from the article, I believe it was part of his indictment.
Oh yeah, he’s a piece of shit for sure. I just think it’s funny that he’s also a moron. What kind of drug lord gets a message saying “Hey, I heard of a guy who wants to take you down, wire me a cool mil and I’ll kill him for you, k?” and just… sends the money? More than once?! He definitely tried to rescue an overthrown Nigerian prince as a kid.
Yeah, when I watched a synopsis of the story, multiple alarm bells rang in my head midway through watching it. He’s so gullible for how rich he fucking was
So the twist that was that they were all the same person, didn’t even surprise me, you could see that it was a scam a mile away if you were paying attention
The scammer was pretty good, though, I will give them that. Too bad the scammer was also pretty dumb about how the handle the money after the fact, and got caught lmao.
Don’t forget, he was caught because he posted his email in a public forum while advertising the Silk Road. That email address contained his real name.
lol I totally forgot about that. He should be used as evidence that meritocracy isn’t real.
Honestly, the only reason he’s famous at all is because the Silk Road was used to drum up shock by the media, so the government used him as an example to those who would make them look bad. Otherwise, he would have faded into obscurity like every other idiot criminal who stumbled into short term riches.
Don’t forget, he was caught because he posted his email in a public forum while advertising the Silk Road
Even better, he asked a question on StackOverflow lol
Don’t you know? All the best darknet marketplaces are cobbled together from code strangers gave you on SO.
Amazing
Of course he would, that’s who Mike Lindell wants to get his dope from!
Probably made a deal and wants all his Bitcoin. Smart kid, you know it’s hidden somewhere. Thank God he’s out there double life without parole. It’s inhumane.
Not to mention that undercover basically set him up to look bad.
If he didn’t wanna look bad he shouldn’t have sent a person he believed to be a hitman $300,000 to murder someone.
He was never charged or convicted of those charges, he’s innocent of that.
Well, you’re half correct. He was charged in Maryland for attempted witness murder, but the charges were dropped once he’d been sentenced so harshly in New York. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, and there’s plenty of conspiratorial debate about them.
I strongly doubt that the prosecution would have brought the charges if they didn’t have traceable evidence (through blockchain transaction records, undercover police chat logs, and data seizure) that coins, sent to an undercover agent for the purposes of murder, originated from wallets that were owned by Ulbricht. You can read more about one of the employees Ulbricht allegedly tried to have murdered (Curtis Green, who was sentenced for his own crimes) here and here.
You’re right, though, he’s technically innocent as the charges were dismissed. Perhaps it was all a huge setup/honeypot but the truth of whether or not he sent the coins should be discoverable with enough due diligence scouring the blockchain records. Intent matters, even though it didn’t end up getting tried in this instance.
🙂
You’re right, I should’ve said never convicted. There’s a ton of conspiracies around it all, was he actually the first Dread Pirate Roberts or was it actually a title passed down? At the time everyone was saying parallel construction but in hindsight he was probably just sloppy. It was a really exciting time.
People can watch his wallets right? And they suspect/know what ones they are? And this is something people are hotly following now?
I should look this up. It’s fascinating if we can just watch it happen, on the chain.
Can’t watch Monero. Which is what he should have been using instead of Bitcoin.
Yeah, he really should have set that up before he went to prison, you know, before Monero existed, lol.
Ok. But Bitcoin didn’t suddenly become transparent the moment Monero was created.
Uh…okay then?
How was he set up to look bad?
Why though?
I mean, who is looking at this and calling it an injustice?
Side note: does he get his bitcoin wallet back?
It was an injustice. He deserved time in prison for hiring fake hitmen in an attempt to get back at people, but he sure as hell didn’t deserve life in prison for it. And nobody should be in jail for selling drugs.
Ross is an idiot, but his punishment was the government making an example of him, and was way out of proportion to his crimes. The definition of injustice.
The US already auctioned off his coins. But its possible that maybe he had some more on a backup somewhere
He got more time than actual gang bangers without committing any violent crime. His sentence was way longer than it should have been.
I think the pot sales were probably not a huge deal, and some of the other recreational drugs too (I don’t think anyone should do those drugs, but I’m not going to restrict everyone else).
The hitman services listed and other illegal stuff was definitely an issue he deserved time for.
He was never criminally tried for those charges. That means just selling drugs have him two lifetimes in prison plus 40 years without possibility of parole
Interesting, I didn’t know that, though I didn’t follow the case too closely, but the arrest was big news
Side note: does he get his bitcoin wallet back?
Dude was deep into Bitcoin back when it was less than a dollar. If he diversified and stashed just a fraction of his holdings, he might now be one of the richest people on the planet.
Who says crime doesn’t pay? :/
Prison = forced hodling
Yay drugs!
Wow that brings me joy. Silkroad is where I bought my first drugs
Could someone explain like to an non American why the president gets to pardon people at all?
If someone committed a crime they’re guilty, if there’s new evidence that they’re not guilty then that’s what appeals are for.
My best understanding is that it was a historic right of kings, governors, etc. The idea was to show mercy to those who may have been convicted wrongly, or to people convicted of laws that have been overturned.
Trump is abusing it in ways never done before to payback political supporters.
TBF Biden abused it as well in pardoning his son.
Carter’s blanket pardon of Vietnam War draft dodgers was pretty important
Yes - exactly. That’s the sort of high-minded use that I believe the framers were considering.
Sounds like a rule that very much should have been left in the 17th century
Wasn’t there a situation where he did not pardon his son?
Same situation, he just waited until later in his presidency
In a perfect system, the pardon is meant to be a “check” on the powers of the other branches. (Legislative and judicial). Each branch is meant to both support AND check the others.
Obviously we are watching it all unwind. Certain things were a “gentleman’s agreement” in that a president normally wouldn’t over do it and just pardon tons of people. We are finding out lots of things were just assumed to be ok, but are easily abused by bad actors
Yeah the number of pardons Biden performed raised the bar like crazy.
Between Biden and trump we are in a new era.
Similarly McConnell holding up supreme court nominee hearings for months, the way he did represents the erosion of another “gentleman’s agreement” between the branches of government.
That kinda makes sense, but aren’t some of your top judges appointed by the president. Which would mean the office of the president automatically has 2/3 of the things under their control.
Congress/Senate has to confirm judge appointments, but they mostly rubber stamp the appointments if the Senate is the same party as the president.
Just FYI this is not just an American thing. In Italy for example the President of the republic can cancel or amend sentences too, and it does happen relatively often, although not in the same partisan way as in the US (but that’s also because the president in Italy is a neutral and representative position).
Some example from few years ago when the president graced 33 people (each with a specific articulated motivation) https://www.ilpost.it/2021/12/10/mattarella-grazia-sette-persone-sebastian-oberleteir-heinrich/ (in Italian, but you can translate if you wish).
