User:Ekaljac/Silk Road (marketplace)

Ross Ulbricht
Ross Ulbricht was born March 27, 1984 to parents Lyn and Kirk Ulbricht. Ulbricht had a fairly normal childhood. Ulbricht spent many hours investing his time into the Boy Scouts and eventually achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. in Austin Texas he attended Westlake Highschool and graduated in 2002. From here Ulbricht would move on to the University of Texas gaining a bachelors degree in Physics.

After, Ross Ulbricht sought out a master's degree in engineering. It was here that Ulbricht would first begin his obsession with drugs and gain his technical experience. He began taking psychedelics with his first girlfriend (Julia Vie) shortly after graduating.

Downfall
During his time after graduation of Penn State, Ulbricht adopted a very unstable ideology. He began to believe the idea that no one could stop him and anything that he could create. He started to have trouble differentiating what should and should not be made legal by the United States government. The idea of the government having authority over his actions caused outrage within Ulbricht. He couldn't understand why recreational drugs were considered illegal, and yet the government allowed cigarettes and alcohol to be served which provide alarming rates of death each year. Ulbricht saw the drug market as as unsafe route of creating business opportunities because of the violence that surrounds it. Rather, Ulbricht had the brilliant idea to create a marketplace held online that would host any and all transactions anyone could think of. He relished the idea of a free market with anonymity, for both buyers and sellers, from the government. He called this marketplace, The Silk Road.

 Family Involvement 

To this day, Ross's family fully believes that he is an innocent man hoping to "create a free market where people can openly trade." In February of 2015, his parents spoke out on their thoughts of Ross being charged with seven "serious charges". They have openly shown support for Ulbricht and his website "The Silk Road." Lynn Ross believes The Silk Road Marketplace was an idealistic idea put in place.

Currently, Ulbricht's family has started a Change.org petition to free him. They have also pleaded to President Biden to shorten his sentence as many "unfair" factors contributed to the arrest of Ulbricht. Lynn and Cally Ulbricht have both agreed that at the time there were many individuals operating under the name "Dread Pirate Roberts," therefore, Ross Ulbricht could not be the one involved. Lynn has gone on the record to say that it's "unfair how Blake Benthall, owner of "The Silk Road 2.0," only received thirteen days in jail compared to Ross Ulbricht's life in prison without the possibility of parole. Still, his family continues to fight for his freedom and it is unlikely it will end.

Silk Road 4.0

The Silk Road 4.0 was created in 2021 and continues to exist today, but rather than finding itself on the Dark Web, it has become increasingly common to find it on the surface web. The website requires an account to enter, but luckily the website allows you to create one right from the website's homepage. Reported users have explained that most of the transactions that occur on The Silk Road 4.0 are scams. Little to no products are actually received and users have reported that the website is extremely untrustworthy. Not much is known about the owner of the The Silk Road 4.0, but many of it's users have found themselves switching to other marketplaces such as: "Russian Market", "Brian's Crab Club", and "WeTheNorth."

Henry Farrell
Dr. Henry Farrell is the SNF Agora Institute Professor of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He was the 2019 recipient of the Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Politics and Technology. He previously served as a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. He wrote an article analyzing the Silk Road called Dark Leviathan in 2015, which he said was one of his personal favorite pieces that he single authored.

Corrupt Agents
In the background of Ulbricht's case, two federal agents that worked the SIlk Road case were investigated and prosecuted. Former DEA special agent Carl Force IV and former USSS agent Shaun Bridges. Both of these men were implicated in a scheme to use their positions to profit from the investigation. They also were personally using the illegal platform. Agent Force used the Silk Road site and other platforms to keep contact with Ulbricht as he was the lead undercover agent from 2012 to 2013. Bridges was a leading computer forensics expert on the case. The two agents were alleged to have made unsanctioned profiles online for their own personal benefit during the Ulbricht investigation. They also committed money laundering using bitcoin and stole funds from Silk Road users.

A case was brought against the two agents in 2015 which eventually led to their conviction.