4 ms·

Ross Ulbricht regrets creating the darknet market website 'Silk Road'

18 points by dsr12 6y ago

chovybizzass 6y ago
yeah. two consecutive terms of life in prison.
wakahiu 6y ago
He ordered and paid for 2 people to be murdered. Do you still think Clemency should be granted?
- dsr12 6y ago
  Didn't know about this. His clemency petition [1] doesn't mention any serious crimes. It even lists over 250 organizations, eminent individuals and leaders have voiced their support[2] for clemency. [1] https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-clemency-for-ross-ulbricht-serving-double-life-for-a-website https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-clem... [2] https://freeross.org/support/ https://freeross.org/support/
- bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
  Yes, because those accusations were never proven in court.
- frankbraun 6y ago
  No, he didn't. These allegations were just made up and not even part of the court case later. But sure enough, for every story about Ross somebody brings this up as if it's a matter of fact.
  - masterofmisc 6y ago
    Damn man. I also heard the same thing. Also, I could have sworn it was mentioned in the audio book I read.
  - Barrin92 6y ago
    There's no reason to believe the allegations were made up. They were not part of the charges, but the alleged hitman himself, federal investigators, as well as journalists having studied everything related to the case are certain that Ulbricht did in fact pay for the hits on several individuals. The transcripts of the chats have been available for years. https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-boss-first-murder-attempt-mentors-idea/ https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-boss-first-murder-at...
    - frankbraun 6y ago
      Things like "due process" and "innocent until proven guilty" exist for a reason. If somebody is accused of something as serious as murder for hire they deserve a process about that or everybody should just shut about it. A Wired article and some chat transcripts are hardly proof. Ross got double life imprisonment and 40 years without possibility of parole for what is effectively building a website. Let that sink in for a moment. And if people bring up the craziness of this sentencing the standard reply is "but murder for hire". Which he wasn't even charged one. It's a classic bait and switch.
      - Barrin92 6y ago
        >Things like "due process" and "innocent until proven guilty" exist for a reason. In a court of law, yes. However we are currently not in a court of law so I don't need to pretend that there's no evidence of the fact that he tried to get multiple people killed even though it never formally made it onto the list of charges. And if you think 'a few chat logs' are the only thing connecting him to the murders, I suggest you familiarise yourself with the actual case. It also included an undercover FBI agent being asked by Ulbricht to kill Curtis Clark Green, which included a fake death and faked torture footage being exchanged with Ulbricht[1]. Green himself corroborated this. Al Capone was sentenced based on tax evasion, that doesn't mean I need to pretend that the mob didn't also kill people. [1]http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/7/is-this-the-man-whohelpedbringdownsilkroad.html http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/7/is-this-the-...
- gridder 6y ago
  As the story goes, he was scammed. The ‘2 people’ didn’t even exist... Anyway nobody will ever prove it’s true or not so it’s just hearsay.... I personally support his cause because he is a scapegoat.
coolspot 6y ago
How he tweets from prison? Does some friend/relative running it for him?
- mgerullis 6y ago
  I was asking myself the same thing
  - bmcn2020 6y ago
    From this article: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/08/16/silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht-is-dictating-tweets-from-prison/ https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/08/16/silk-road-founde... "his family opened a Twitter account for him in June, and they’ve been posting his tweets ever since."
donmcronald 6y ago
The thing I never understood about it was how he planned to cash out his Bitcoin. Isn't it a public ledger where anyone can see where the money is moving?
- weird-eye-issue 6y ago
  HN really is going downhill
- mgerullis 6y ago
  If his addresses have been identified then yes, that becomes harder to do.
- jdxcode 6y ago
  tumblers exist
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    But how effective are they if you’re putting in half of the tumbler’s pot? As in, if you put in a quarter of a million dollars, and others do too, you have a high likelihood of getting some of yours back. So the coins are still traceable to you.
    - jdxcode 6y ago
      A well written Tumbler wouldn’t connect any of your money to your own wallets, it’s not hard to think how an algorithm would do this. Just keep an internal ledger and make sure the money doesn’t come back to the source. Ross probably could’ve even made his own tumbler. Giving out his money to anyone that sends him some would be a naive way to think about it. In terms of amount, I don’t think it would be hard with all the illicit activity on bitcoin to launder even this amount of money, but it’s not like he would need all of it right away. Anyways, this is in response to “isn’t this a public ledger?” To which the answer is, “not if you make part of the ledger private—outside the blockchain—it isn’t.”
      - 6y ago

18 points by dsr12 6y ago

chovybizzass 6y ago

yeah. two consecutive terms of life in prison.

wakahiu 6y ago

He ordered and paid for 2 people to be murdered. Do you still think Clemency should be granted?

dsr12 6y ago
Didn't know about this. His clemency petition [1] doesn't mention any serious crimes. It even lists over 250 organizations, eminent individuals and leaders have voiced their support[2] for clemency. [1] https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-clemency-for-ross-ulbricht-serving-double-life-for-a-website https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-clem... [2] https://freeross.org/support/ https://freeross.org/support/
bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
Yes, because those accusations were never proven in court.
frankbraun 6y ago
No, he didn't. These allegations were just made up and not even part of the court case later. But sure enough, for every story about Ross somebody brings this up as if it's a matter of fact.
- masterofmisc 6y ago
  Damn man. I also heard the same thing. Also, I could have sworn it was mentioned in the audio book I read.
- Barrin92 6y ago
  There's no reason to believe the allegations were made up. They were not part of the charges, but the alleged hitman himself, federal investigators, as well as journalists having studied everything related to the case are certain that Ulbricht did in fact pay for the hits on several individuals. The transcripts of the chats have been available for years. https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-boss-first-murder-attempt-mentors-idea/ https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-boss-first-murder-at...
  - frankbraun 6y ago
    Things like "due process" and "innocent until proven guilty" exist for a reason. If somebody is accused of something as serious as murder for hire they deserve a process about that or everybody should just shut about it. A Wired article and some chat transcripts are hardly proof. Ross got double life imprisonment and 40 years without possibility of parole for what is effectively building a website. Let that sink in for a moment. And if people bring up the craziness of this sentencing the standard reply is "but murder for hire". Which he wasn't even charged one. It's a classic bait and switch.
    - Barrin92 6y ago
      >Things like "due process" and "innocent until proven guilty" exist for a reason. In a court of law, yes. However we are currently not in a court of law so I don't need to pretend that there's no evidence of the fact that he tried to get multiple people killed even though it never formally made it onto the list of charges. And if you think 'a few chat logs' are the only thing connecting him to the murders, I suggest you familiarise yourself with the actual case. It also included an undercover FBI agent being asked by Ulbricht to kill Curtis Clark Green, which included a fake death and faked torture footage being exchanged with Ulbricht[1]. Green himself corroborated this. Al Capone was sentenced based on tax evasion, that doesn't mean I need to pretend that the mob didn't also kill people. [1]http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/7/is-this-the-man-whohelpedbringdownsilkroad.html http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/7/is-this-the-...
gridder 6y ago
As the story goes, he was scammed. The ‘2 people’ didn’t even exist... Anyway nobody will ever prove it’s true or not so it’s just hearsay.... I personally support his cause because he is a scapegoat.

coolspot 6y ago

How he tweets from prison? Does some friend/relative running it for him?

mgerullis 6y ago
I was asking myself the same thing
- bmcn2020 6y ago
  From this article: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/08/16/silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht-is-dictating-tweets-from-prison/ https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/08/16/silk-road-founde... "his family opened a Twitter account for him in June, and they’ve been posting his tweets ever since."

donmcronald 6y ago

The thing I never understood about it was how he planned to cash out his Bitcoin. Isn't it a public ledger where anyone can see where the money is moving?

weird-eye-issue 6y ago
HN really is going downhill
mgerullis 6y ago
If his addresses have been identified then yes, that becomes harder to do.
jdxcode 6y ago
tumblers exist
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  But how effective are they if you’re putting in half of the tumbler’s pot? As in, if you put in a quarter of a million dollars, and others do too, you have a high likelihood of getting some of yours back. So the coins are still traceable to you.
  - jdxcode 6y ago
    A well written Tumbler wouldn’t connect any of your money to your own wallets, it’s not hard to think how an algorithm would do this. Just keep an internal ledger and make sure the money doesn’t come back to the source. Ross probably could’ve even made his own tumbler. Giving out his money to anyone that sends him some would be a naive way to think about it. In terms of amount, I don’t think it would be hard with all the illicit activity on bitcoin to launder even this amount of money, but it’s not like he would need all of it right away. Anyways, this is in response to “isn’t this a public ledger?” To which the answer is, “not if you make part of the ledger private—outside the blockchain—it isn’t.”
    - 6y ago