= Silk Road
{disambiguate=marketplace}
{c}
{title2=2011-2013}
{wiki}
= Silk Road
{c}
{synonym}
<Ciro Santilli> has become slightly obsessed with this story, and the main mastermind <Ross Ulbricht>.
\Image[https://web.archive.org/web/20190629084608if_/https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/GX-201C-640x853.png]
{title=Ross Ulbricht's open laptop shortly after his arrest at the Francisco Public Library}
{description=He was running some GNOME based distro, could be <Ubuntu> from that photo, and likely is given that Ross once recommended Ubuntu to his flatmate.}
{source=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/the-incredibly-simple-story-of-how-the-govt-googled-ross-ulbricht}
The best article available so far is: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/29/how_i_caught_silk_road_mastermind (https://web.archive.org/web/20191008142214/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/29/how_i_caught_silk_road_mastermind[archive]) which summarizes what one of the investigators said in a 2019 French computer security conference.
The key living posts are:
* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15445285/how-can-i-connect-to-a-tor-hidden-service-using-curl-in-php (https://web.archive.org/web/20191121133952/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15445285/how-can-i-connect-to-a-tor-hidden-service-using-curl-in-php[archive]) which was originally asked under the real name, and then the username was changed to "Frosty", which matches one of the server's logins after the laptop was captured
* altoid early Silk Road mention: https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=175.70;wap2 (https://web.archive.org/web/20190628133852/https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=175.70;wap2[archive])
The big question is of course how libertarian free market ideologically motivated the website was, and how purely criminal greed it was.
The magnitude of the early <operational security> mistakes does make Ciro think that Ross did it "because he could" and https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=i%20did%20it%20for%20the%20lulz["for the lolz"] in a real world <Breaking Bad> way.
The entry in Ross' diary does <Ciro Santilli's selfish desires>[resonate a lot] with Ciro and any entrepreneur, full diary at: https://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal-laptop-ross-ulbricht/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20190613011454/https://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal-laptop-ross-ulbricht/[archive]).
\Q[
\[i\]n 2011," \[I believe I will be\] "creating a year of prosperity and power beyond what I have ever experienced before,
Silk Road is going to become a phenomenon and at least one person will tell me about it, unknowing that I was its creator."
]
Having this kind of feeling, is the greatest thing any human can have, and what motivates all great things.
Capitalizing in <illegal> things though is a cheat, big things take longer than a few years to reach, but reaching them is that much more satisfying as well.
Other interesting quotes:
\Q[I hated working for someone else and trading my time for money with no investment in myself.]
which Ciro also feels, see <don't be a pussy>, and:
\Q[Everyone knows I am working on a bitcoin exchange. I always thought honesty was the best policy and now I didn't know what to do. I should have just told everyone I am a freelance programmer or something, but I had to tell half truths. It felt wrong to lie completely so I tried to tell the truth without revealing the bad part, but now I am in a jam. Everyone knows too much. Dammit.]
Also very worth reading is the San Francisco flat mate account: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ae3q8g/my-roommate-the-darknet-drug-lord (https://web.archive.org/web/20191201090353/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ae3q8g/my-roommate-the-darknet-drug-lord[archive]).
The murder for hire allegations are also interesting: https://mashable.com/2013/10/03/silk-road-hits[], he paid 80k dollars to undercover DEA agents!
Except for the fact that Ross was an 80 million <Dollar> <drug lord>, those accounts sound exactly like what you would expect from any other nerdy startup founder! The:
* "just do it" strategy effectively going to a minimal viable product (manual transaction management!), while making many mistakes along the way, including hiring mistakes and successes when scaling is needed
* the hardship of self bootstrapping your own social network (here with some kilos of mushrooms)
* the variety of periods, from relatively calm, to hair pulling stress during big changes
It is also amusing to see very concretely the obvious fact that the FBI can get a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpoena[subpoena] for all accounts you ever had, e.g. they knew his <laptop> model from <Amazon> and brought a corresponding power cable to the arrest! If you are going to be a cyber criminal, don't use your real name, ever!
Should justice be blind? Maybe. But it does hurt for mere non-blind men to see it sometimes. Especially when <drug liberalization> is involved.
\Video[https://youtu.be/HBTYVVUBAGs?si=Qjb4x8iXcgvoPK_Z]
{title=One Mistake Took Down a 29-Yr-Old Dark Web Drug Lord by Newsthink (2022)}
{description=Wow nice video, covers most of the interesting annecdotes and the (alledged) investigation procedure.}