From libertarian dream to life in prison: the controversial story of the founder of the most famous online darknet market.
October 1, 2013. Glen Park Branch Library, San Francisco, USA. Two plainclothes FBI agents, a man and a woman, approach a 30-year-old man and start arguing loudly. As soon as the young man is distracted by the commotion, one of the agents slips the computer out of his hand and passes it to the other. That 30-year-old man is named Ross Ulbricht and is about to be accused of being the mastermind behind Silk Road.
Ross Ulbricht, born and raised in Austin, Texas, was a brilliant student with a passion for physics and engineering. Ulbricht distinguished himself from a young age for his academic abilities and his interest in libertarian philosophy. After earning a degree in Physics and a master’s in Materials Engineering at Penn State University in 2009, Ulbricht began exploring the world of online commerce.
In 2011, at the age of 26, he launched Silk Road, an anonymous online marketplace accessible only through the Tor network. The site was born from an ambitious idea: to create a space for commerce free from government regulations, where people could buy and sell freely, protected by the anonymity of the dark web and bitcoin transactions.
On his LinkedIn profile, Ulbricht wrote:
“I am creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force.”
Silk Road: a true free market
Silk Road was born in February 2011 and quickly became the go-to site for online commerce free from government regulations.
The site offered a range of over 10,000 products, from books to electronics, but quickly became known for drug trading: mainly cannabis. Despite Ulbricht’s rules against selling weapons, stolen goods, contract killings, counterfeit currencies, personal information, credit cards, child pornography, and fraudulent services, Silk Road immediately found itself at the center of an ethical and legal debate.
Silk Road was the first marketplace of its kind on the dark web because it allowed users to make anonymous transactions with an unprecedented level of security and privacy.
The system, based on user reviews and an escrow mechanism, created an environment of trust in an anonymous context. This approach reduced the risks associated with illegal drug trade, moving transactions from the streets of dangerous neighborhoods to a safer environment.
Following the publication of an article on the Gawker blog on June 1, 2011, Silk Road began to gain a lot of visibility and attract the attention of federal law enforcement.
The fall of Silk Road
On October 1, 2013, a day known as Free Ross Day, the FBI arrested Ulbricht in the San Francisco public library. The operation, the result of a complex and controversial investigation, marked the end of Silk Road and the beginning of a unique legal case.
Ulbricht’s trial was characterized by controversies and accusations of corruption. Evidence emerged of corrupt federal agents involved in the investigation, raising doubts about the integrity of the case. Despite this, Ulbricht was sentenced to two life sentences plus 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole, in addition to the obligation to pay $183 million in restitution. A sentence considered by many to be disproportionate for non-violent crimes.
According to official FBI reports made public following the investigations, in the period between February 6, 2011, and July 23, 2013, the platform handled 1,229,465 exchanges. These involved 146,946 distinct buyers and 3,877 sellers. These operations would have generated a sum of 9,519,664 BTC, equivalent to $183 million in total sales, at the exchange rate of the time. The managers of Silk Road would have collected 614,305 BTC in commissions, equal to about $13 million.
The FBI declared it had confiscated a total of 170,000 BTC from accounts linked to Silk Road and from Ulbricht’s personal account.
After Silk Road: the birth of new markets
Five weeks after Ulbricht’s arrest and the closure of Silk Road by the FBI, the administrators who were managing the site launched Silk Road 2.0, which quickly surpassed the original in terms of monthly sales. However, this version was also seized following an FBI operation.
A few hours later, Silk Road 3 Reloaded was created, which was also subsequently closed. Every year, numerous similar anonymous markets are born and closed on the dark web, a trend that seems to have been started by Ulbricht. Currently, Silk Road 4 is still active.
The sentence: a life behind bars
Ross Ulbricht’s federal trial began on January 13, 2015, over a year after his arrest. Ulbricht was not accused of drug selling, hacking, or murder, but was held responsible for what other people had sold on the site he had created.
Ulbricht was charged with five non-violent crimes, most of which stemmed from the activities of the site’s users. This interpretation raises doubts about the violation of Section 230 of the United States Communications Decency Act, which protects online service providers from liability for user actions.
Today Ross Ulbricht continues to serve his sentence in the maximum-security prison in Tucson, Arizona. Despite the circumstances, he has maintained a positive attitude, dedicating himself to educating his fellow inmates and continuing to write and reflect on the ethical and philosophical implications of his actions.
In a letter written before the final sentence, Ulbricht stated:
“I believed at the time that people should have the right to buy and sell whatever they wanted so long as they weren’t hurting anyone else. However, I’ve learned since then that taking immediate actions on one’s beliefs without taking the necessary time to really think them through, can have disastrous consequences.”
For years, the Free Ross movement has continued to grow, with over 600,000 signatures collected for a clemency petition. Supporters from different parts of the political spectrum are calling for a review of his sentence, considered excessively severe. On May 25, 2024, during a speech at the Libertarian National Convention held in Washington, D.C., the Republican candidate for the upcoming United States presidential election, Donald Trump, stated:
“On Day 1, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served.”
If you want to support Ross Ulbricht‘s cause by asking for an end to his sentence, you can find the petition at this link.
