Ross Ulbricht Convicted of Running Silk Road as Dread Pirate Roberts

This is a good explanation of how the defense totally screwed up:<p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/op-ed-ross-ulbricht-got-a-fair-trial-but-not-a-fair-investigation/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;tech-policy&#x2F;2015&#x2F;02&#x2F;op-ed-ross-ulbric...</a><p>Basically, the evidence was massively damning, so their only serious hope of winning was by challenging the curiously nonspecific way the FBI found the Silk Road server; but they gave up their ability to do so for some dubious benefits.

Hardly surprising, his defense was in tatters after having his experts denied and his line of inquiry into mark karples blocked. The prosecution tracing bitcoins directly from silk rd to his personal wallet was just icing on their cake. This is a warning to everyone involved in these enterprises, OPSEC OPSEC OPSEC!!!

Anti-forensics seem like a good idea if you&#x27;re running a transnational drug empire. A simple electronic leash would have gone a long way; some level of compartmented logins, such that when you&#x27;re sitting in a cafe you&#x27;re not always logged in with all of your credentials (probably separated by VMs), would be the next step after that.<p>Using online tools correctly to becoming a subject of in-person investigation would have been of course great, too, but there should be strong backstops before &quot;convicted&quot; as well.<p>(Or you could just not do the crime.)

So is life in prison a possibility?

Ross actually lived above me in college. Very surreal to see this all going down.

I want to feel bad for the guy, almost, but I don&#x27;t.<p>I just wish he got away with it, I wish he were smarter about it.

Obviously he broke the law and was not the most morally pure individual.<p>But, what about 100 years from now? Do you think the people of the future will think we are being silly to put him in prison for 25+ years for running an unregulated online marketplace?

The story of Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht will make for a great movie.

He seems like a smart guy and a good guy overall...(yes, I know he allegedly attempted to hire a hit-man and we can&#x27;t tolerate crime etc. etc.).<p>It&#x27;s a shame to see his entire life wasted for an (admittedly rather large) youthful indiscretion. I keep thinking there has to be a more efficient, a more just way of discouraging criminal activity.<p>As an aside... Sometimes it apparently doesn&#x27;t pay to be overly smart. Or rather, smart enough to get into trouble, but not smart enough to avoid the dangers.

I Dont this Mr Ulbricht stood a chance. That case was decided before it began.

Ross made the decision, now Ross pays the price.<p>Lots of people could have done this, and lots of people were smart enough not to.

It&#x27;s hard for me to have anything but contempt for this entire proceeding. None of these actions are a crime in a free society. And if they were, there&#x27;d be no need to dictate what can and can&#x27;t be introduced as a defense. No &quot;politics?&quot; What garbage. Every line of code that DPR wrote was political.<p>Free Ross.

Could have seen that coming long long ago.

Looks like he&#x27;s going to have to learn how to break out of jail...

RIP in pieces, Dread Pirate Roberts, the Blackbeard of our era. May we meet again in 5 or so years on the silver screen.

&gt; and even tried to arrange the murder of five people who threatened the anonymity of buyers and sellers.<p>1) No one was murdered<p>2) If drug trade was somehow regulated legally and decriminalized like in Portugal instead of being outright illegal, there would be no perverse incentive to murder to begin with... and there would probably also be no incentive for a Silk Road<p>When is US law going to realize that overly strict punishments (come on, does this guy really deserve <i>life in prison</i>?) simply create a perverse incentive to harm in order to ensure people stay quiet, and that creating black markets results in negative externalities? If the punishments were less severe (or even simply allowed but highly taxed&#x2F;regulated) then there would be less murder of witnesses, period.<p>I can&#x27;t find a tremendous amount of evidence around this, except for this: <a href="https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/yablon_daniel.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.econ.berkeley.edu&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;yablon_dan...</a><p>(I think I&#x27;m becoming libertarian?)