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He was working for "Defcon" or Blake Benthall (his roommate in the story). Defcon was running Silk Road 2.0 after the second "Dread Pirate Roberts" left. Blake

He was working for "Defcon" or Blake Benthall (his roommate in the story). Defcon was running Silk Road 2.0 after the second "Dread Pirate Roberts" left. Blake had been working for SpaceX, and left to work on Silk Road. This is his HN account: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=blakeeb https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=blakeeb

qz_ 10y ago
That's crazy. Is he in prison now?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
emodendroket 10y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7277371 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7277371 Prophetic.
- dmix 10y ago
  Defcon was always much more hateable than DPR. There's probably a reason no-one came to his defense the way they did with Ross. And buying a Tesla with Bitcoin? He was begging to get caught. And he complains about greed. He should have watched Breaking Bad and learned the basic lesson of not buying a flashy car when you're trying to keep a low profile.
  - emodendroket 10y ago
    I admit I haven't kept up with the whole Silk Road 2.0 story, but I don't see DPR as sympathetic considering the only reason he didn't have a hitman kill people was that he was too bumbling to hire a real one.
    - phpnode 10y ago
      This DPR is not the original DPR and as far as anyone knows never invoked hitmen, but he didn't last long.
    - EdHominem 10y ago
      I don't see the potential victim as very sympathetic because they were trying to blackmail someone who they knew had no legal recourse. You can make anyone want to kill you (and attempt it) by threatening them appropriately.
      - emodendroket 10y ago
        Well, personally, I don't consider that a justification for homicide, but to each his own.
        EdHominem 10y ago
        Wait until it happens to you. There are many crimes that don't actually hurt anyone which would still ruin your life if you were caught committing them. Blackmail pulls someone from the innocent-citizen category and puts them into just-another-gangster category in a way that smoking some pot does not. But also, there's a big difference between giving someone an absolute 100% pass and simply being able to empathize.
        emodendroket 10y ago
        But he wasn't just smoking pot (and it's hard to imagine anyone really caring about unsubstantiated allegations of some guy smoking pot), he was running a massive drug dealing enterprise.
        EdHominem 10y ago
        Right, which existed to let people buy things they wanted, like pot. He didn't sell near schools, or fight turf wars, etc. Our silly laws, and the greed of the blackmailer, created this situation. The person attempting to pull the trigger is nearly blameless.
  - dpiers 10y ago
    Funnily enough, I watched the Breaking Bad series finale with him at his house. I also confronted him about his spending 9 months before he was arrested, but he lied to me and I bought it because his story made more sense than "my friend is running the Silk Road". In the time since he was arrested, I've moved from coding to fraud investigations, and my time with him is a constant reminder to trust my observations over anything I am told. I disagree that he was more hateable than Ulbricht. He never tried to have people tortured/murdered.
    - dmix 10y ago
      > He never tried to have people tortured/murdered. Good point. He really screwed himself with that stuff anonymous hitman stuff.
      - meowface 10y ago
        Yeah, he had the potential for a lot of public support but squandered it when evidence of the hits came out. (And the evidence looks very convincing to me.) An argument can be made for SR's value to humanity. But he was a megalomaniacal asshole with shitty opsec, and he got what he deserved. Running a large "enterprise" doesn't give you the right to play dice with people's lives.
- slezakattack 10y ago
  I'm not sure why, but that comment gave me a few chills.. I think that comment was made about 9 months before he got caught[1]. I imagined he was already running the site if not developing Silk Road 2.0 at that time. I'm unsure if ironic is the right word but it's bizarre to see yourself "progressing humanity" while working on something completely opposite.. [1] https://www.wired.com/2014/11/feds-seize-silk-road-2/ https://www.wired.com/2014/11/feds-seize-silk-road-2/
  - wongarsu 10y ago
    > it's bizarre to see yourself "progressing humanity" while working on something completely opposite.. I'm very ambivalent about sites like the Silk Road, but I'm sure some people view them as progressing humanity. If you see it as a platform that enables "evil" activities, like illegal gun purchases, then it might be regressing humanity. Alternatively you can view Silk-Road-like websites as disrupting existing illegal markets by moving them from the street to the internet. This enables these services to be offered with less violence, more competition, better "regulation" (banning frauds, community checking quality etc.), etc. With the primary market apparently being drugs, it seems likely that these online platforms save more lives than they cost. Then again, more readily available drugs likely decrease humanities overall productivity. Depending on what "progressing humanity" means to you, that's bad. It's a complicated subject, but as far as startups go it has some very compelling arguments why it is progressing humanity (even though the counter arguments are surely not without merrit).
    - nommm-nommm 10y ago
      I am extremely skeptical that silk road like sites reduce violence to any significant degree. I'm under the impression that most of the violence is further up in the supply chain.
      - meowface 10y ago
        I'd suspect they likely do reduce drug deaths and fraud, though. Their escrow and reputation systems guarantee that the vast majority of drug sales are pure products and at the correct dosage listed.
- _andromeda_ 10y ago
  >Why is enabling our species to be interplanetary often a harder sell than the prospect of trading years of your life for a small chance that you might exit with a few billion dollars? Demand and supply people. The answer is very simple. No matter what amount of wishful thinking you may undertake, if you don't satisfy that simple principle of demand and supply, it just won't matter.
lukealization 10y ago
Here's his Reddit account too. https://www.reddit.com/user/blakeeb https://www.reddit.com/user/blakeeb I was contacted by Blake (as a SpaceX employee) when he worked for SpaceX saying how much he appreciated my work (related to reddit.com/r/spacex).
ufmace 10y ago
Thanks, that's interesting. Sounds like Blake's story could be much better than this one. We can only wonder how many thousands of HN readers have read these DarkNet stories and thought they could make one secure enough to withstand an FBI investigation.

qz_ 10y ago

That's crazy. Is he in prison now?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

emodendroket 10y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7277371 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7277371 Prophetic.

dmix 10y ago
Defcon was always much more hateable than DPR. There's probably a reason no-one came to his defense the way they did with Ross. And buying a Tesla with Bitcoin? He was begging to get caught. And he complains about greed. He should have watched Breaking Bad and learned the basic lesson of not buying a flashy car when you're trying to keep a low profile.
- emodendroket 10y ago
  I admit I haven't kept up with the whole Silk Road 2.0 story, but I don't see DPR as sympathetic considering the only reason he didn't have a hitman kill people was that he was too bumbling to hire a real one.
  - phpnode 10y ago
    This DPR is not the original DPR and as far as anyone knows never invoked hitmen, but he didn't last long.
  - EdHominem 10y ago
    I don't see the potential victim as very sympathetic because they were trying to blackmail someone who they knew had no legal recourse. You can make anyone want to kill you (and attempt it) by threatening them appropriately.
    - emodendroket 10y ago
      Well, personally, I don't consider that a justification for homicide, but to each his own.
      - EdHominem 10y ago
        Wait until it happens to you. There are many crimes that don't actually hurt anyone which would still ruin your life if you were caught committing them. Blackmail pulls someone from the innocent-citizen category and puts them into just-another-gangster category in a way that smoking some pot does not. But also, there's a big difference between giving someone an absolute 100% pass and simply being able to empathize.
        emodendroket 10y ago
        But he wasn't just smoking pot (and it's hard to imagine anyone really caring about unsubstantiated allegations of some guy smoking pot), he was running a massive drug dealing enterprise.
        EdHominem 10y ago
        Right, which existed to let people buy things they wanted, like pot. He didn't sell near schools, or fight turf wars, etc. Our silly laws, and the greed of the blackmailer, created this situation. The person attempting to pull the trigger is nearly blameless.
- dpiers 10y ago
  Funnily enough, I watched the Breaking Bad series finale with him at his house. I also confronted him about his spending 9 months before he was arrested, but he lied to me and I bought it because his story made more sense than "my friend is running the Silk Road". In the time since he was arrested, I've moved from coding to fraud investigations, and my time with him is a constant reminder to trust my observations over anything I am told. I disagree that he was more hateable than Ulbricht. He never tried to have people tortured/murdered.
  - dmix 10y ago
    > He never tried to have people tortured/murdered. Good point. He really screwed himself with that stuff anonymous hitman stuff.
    - meowface 10y ago
      Yeah, he had the potential for a lot of public support but squandered it when evidence of the hits came out. (And the evidence looks very convincing to me.) An argument can be made for SR's value to humanity. But he was a megalomaniacal asshole with shitty opsec, and he got what he deserved. Running a large "enterprise" doesn't give you the right to play dice with people's lives.
slezakattack 10y ago
I'm not sure why, but that comment gave me a few chills.. I think that comment was made about 9 months before he got caught[1]. I imagined he was already running the site if not developing Silk Road 2.0 at that time. I'm unsure if ironic is the right word but it's bizarre to see yourself "progressing humanity" while working on something completely opposite.. [1] https://www.wired.com/2014/11/feds-seize-silk-road-2/ https://www.wired.com/2014/11/feds-seize-silk-road-2/
- wongarsu 10y ago
  > it's bizarre to see yourself "progressing humanity" while working on something completely opposite.. I'm very ambivalent about sites like the Silk Road, but I'm sure some people view them as progressing humanity. If you see it as a platform that enables "evil" activities, like illegal gun purchases, then it might be regressing humanity. Alternatively you can view Silk-Road-like websites as disrupting existing illegal markets by moving them from the street to the internet. This enables these services to be offered with less violence, more competition, better "regulation" (banning frauds, community checking quality etc.), etc. With the primary market apparently being drugs, it seems likely that these online platforms save more lives than they cost. Then again, more readily available drugs likely decrease humanities overall productivity. Depending on what "progressing humanity" means to you, that's bad. It's a complicated subject, but as far as startups go it has some very compelling arguments why it is progressing humanity (even though the counter arguments are surely not without merrit).
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    I am extremely skeptical that silk road like sites reduce violence to any significant degree. I'm under the impression that most of the violence is further up in the supply chain.
    - meowface 10y ago
      I'd suspect they likely do reduce drug deaths and fraud, though. Their escrow and reputation systems guarantee that the vast majority of drug sales are pure products and at the correct dosage listed.
_andromeda_ 10y ago
>Why is enabling our species to be interplanetary often a harder sell than the prospect of trading years of your life for a small chance that you might exit with a few billion dollars? Demand and supply people. The answer is very simple. No matter what amount of wishful thinking you may undertake, if you don't satisfy that simple principle of demand and supply, it just won't matter.

lukealization 10y ago

Here's his Reddit account too. https://www.reddit.com/user/blakeeb https://www.reddit.com/user/blakeeb I was contacted by Blake (as a SpaceX employee) when he worked for SpaceX saying how much he appreciated my work (related to reddit.com/r/spacex).

ufmace 10y ago

Thanks, that's interesting. Sounds like Blake's story could be much better than this one. We can only wonder how many thousands of HN readers have read these DarkNet stories and thought they could make one secure enough to withstand an FBI investigation.