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> He's lucky I'm not sure about that. I don't know the details; but I strongly suspect that while Shrem very likely knew he was laundering 'illegal' money (at

by eof 12y ago

> He's lucky I'm not sure about that. I don't know the details; but I strongly suspect that while Shrem very likely knew he was laundering 'illegal' money (at least, I think he would have done it whether he knew or not), he was not ripping people off on purpose. Personally, I find it hard to feel too bad for Shrem; since he was sloppy and loud.. and kind of just had it coming. That being said, I don't think he did anything morally wrong w/r/t what is he is being convicted of. This is more a case of a bad law and a stupid person than a bad person. In a more reasonable world where people are legally allowed to enter into mutual, private contracts without a nanny state policing people's morals.. what Shrem did could not even be considered a crime. His fault? sure. Stupid of him? Sure.. but laundering money for drug dealers is not morally reprehensible in its own right (unless they are violent drug dealers); it's just dumb to do in an obvious way with thousands of people watching you (and not even charging a ridiculous mark up!)

downandout 12y ago
The last ~200 pages (like 2,000 posts) of the Bitinstant support thread at Bitcointalk.org before they shut down were essentially all complaints about undelivered orders and excuses by staff, including Charlie Shrem, about why orders weren't being delivered. Things got so bad that they hired someone specifically to respond to complaints in that thread, and then after a month or two he quit.
- eof 12y ago
  Right; but they were getting fucked over in the fiat world left and right up until that point too. Not saying they didn't over-promise and under-deliver but you can't really examine these things in a vacuum.
mike_hearn 12y ago
laundering money for drug dealers is not morally reprehensible in its own right (unless they are violent drug dealers); Given the multiple pending murder-for-hire charges against Ulbricht, I don't think you can use "Silk Road is all about peace and love" as a get out clause here. Shrem is on record as saying "Let me help you, BTCKing, avoid getting caught because I think Silk Road is cool". Not entirely surprising what the outcome was there ...
- eof 12y ago
  I don't see how a state enforcing categorically insane policy, creating inevitable black market, creating an inevitable marketplace, creating an accidental king-pin, who has allegedly committed murder-for-fire has anything to do with the moral ground on which charlie shrem stands with laundering money for a drug dealer. There are infinite silk roads and infinite drug dealers forever and always so long as drug policy remains like it is. The state itself is far, far more morally culpable for whatever true evil was actually brought on by Ulbricht than Shrem himself is.

by eof 12y ago

downandout 12y ago

The last ~200 pages (like 2,000 posts) of the Bitinstant support thread at Bitcointalk.org before they shut down were essentially all complaints about undelivered orders and excuses by staff, including Charlie Shrem, about why orders weren't being delivered. Things got so bad that they hired someone specifically to respond to complaints in that thread, and then after a month or two he quit.

eof 12y ago
Right; but they were getting fucked over in the fiat world left and right up until that point too. Not saying they didn't over-promise and under-deliver but you can't really examine these things in a vacuum.

mike_hearn 12y ago

laundering money for drug dealers is not morally reprehensible in its own right (unless they are violent drug dealers); Given the multiple pending murder-for-hire charges against Ulbricht, I don't think you can use "Silk Road is all about peace and love" as a get out clause here. Shrem is on record as saying "Let me help you, BTCKing, avoid getting caught because I think Silk Road is cool". Not entirely surprising what the outcome was there ...

eof 12y ago
I don't see how a state enforcing categorically insane policy, creating inevitable black market, creating an inevitable marketplace, creating an accidental king-pin, who has allegedly committed murder-for-fire has anything to do with the moral ground on which charlie shrem stands with laundering money for a drug dealer. There are infinite silk roads and infinite drug dealers forever and always so long as drug policy remains like it is. The state itself is far, far more morally culpable for whatever true evil was actually brought on by Ulbricht than Shrem himself is.