{"id":166642,"date":"2023-10-02T16:42:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T11:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/?p=166642"},"modified":"2023-10-02T16:42:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T11:12:09","slug":"silk-road-founder-marks-10-years-into-his-double-life-sentence-in-prison-crypto-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/silk-road-founder-marks-10-years-into-his-double-life-sentence-in-prison-crypto-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Silk Road founder marks 10 years into his double life sentence in prison – Crypto News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The founder of the former online black market Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, marked 10 years behind bars after he was given a double life sentence by United States authorities in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Oct. 2 Ulbricht posted on X that he has already spent a full decade in prison and fears he will spend the remainder of his life \u201cbehind concrete walls and locked doors.\u201d He said all he can do now is \u201cpray for mercy.\u201d <\/p>\n

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One year for each finger on both hands.<\/p>\n

Today ends a full decade in prison.<\/p>\n

I sometimes fear I’ll spend the rest of my life behind concrete walls and locked doors. But I have no one else to blame. It’s my poor choices that led me here.<\/p>\n

All I can do now is pray for mercy.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) October 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Silk Road began in 2011 and was run and operated by Ulbricht from his personal laptop under the username \u201cDread Pirate Roberts.\u201d It is known as the first modern darknet market and had a payment system built on Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, on Oct. 1, 2023, the laptop was seized by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). <\/p>\n

Ulbricht was convicted<\/a> in 2015 in federal court in the U.S. for various charges relating to the operations of the Silk Road. He was sentenced to two life terms, plus forty years and no possibility of parole. <\/p>\n

According to the court documents<\/a> for the case, while in operation the Silk Road site facilitated sales amounting to 9,519,664 Bitcoins (BTC<\/a>) between February 2011 and July 2013, and took a commission of 600,000 Bitcoins (BTC<\/a>).<\/p>\n

At the time of publication of the court documents, this equaled approximately $1.2 billion in sales and around $80 million in commissions.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/u><\/em><\/strong>September becomes the biggest month for crypto exploits in 2023: CertiK<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Ulbricht\u2019s case has received widespread attention, with many echoing calls for the website\u2019s founder to be shown clemency. <\/p>\n

According to a website<\/a> fighting for justice for Ulbricht, over 250 organizations have backed these calls and half a million people have signed a virtual petition to free Ulbricht. He has also found great support among the crypto and Bitcoin communities. <\/p>\n

\n

Nearly makes me cry to see this post, the punishment didn\u2019t suit the crime and people who have done much worse have had a chance of redemption, #freeross<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Soberclown.eth (@bitcoinnz) October 2, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One user went so far as to deem Ulbricht as a “Bitcoin political prisoner” and said he is someone Bitcoiners can never forget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Ross Ulbricht is a Bitcoin political prisoner.<\/p>\n

He has been in prison since 2013.<\/p>\n

Some would prefer we forget him, but Bitcoiners never will.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Ross was sentenced by the federal government to 2 life sentences + 40 years with no parole.<\/p>\n

As a first-time offender and convicted\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/usPlbN79j1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Phree \u2622\ufe0f (@BitPhree) September 30, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While there is a powerful swell of support for Ulbricht and many internet users have voiced agreement that the punishments given to the Silk Road founder were unjust, there are others who see the outcome differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One X user pointed out that the prosecution in the case against Ulbricht claimed that he allegedly hired hitmen to have several people killed, though this wasn\u2019t officially charged to Ulbricht and still remains a claim. <\/p>\n

\n

Is murder for hire legalized yet or no. Seems like the lede was buried a bit in this intro.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rob Freund (@RobertFreundLaw) October 2, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another user highlighted what actually happened on the Silk Road site, including sex trafficking and the drug trade, and how it was used by \u201cterrible people to do this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Silk road sold drugs, human trafficking and other things. Let’s not pretend like it wasn’t used by terrible people to do this stuff. That being said I’m sure that’s not how he intended it to be used<\/p>\n

\u2014 shoooooooo (@shoooiiiii) October 2, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Debates online continue as Ulbricht defenders point to modern social media platforms such as X and Facebook, saying<\/a>, \u201cAll of those things happen on [X] as well. And every other social media site.”<\/p>\n

The leading website dedicated to freeing Ross has posted the sentences dealt to others involved with the Silk Road saying that the average sentence is around six years. The top drug seller on the site was only given seven years in prison and is currently free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, the creators of the Silk Road 2.0 have either served nothing or up to 6.5 years and are now all free. <\/p>\n

Magazine: <\/em><\/strong>$3.4B of Bitcoin in a popcorn tin: The Silk Road hacker\u2019s story<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The founder of the former online black market Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, marked 10 years behind bars after he was given a double life sentence by United States authorities in 2013.\u00a0 On Oct. 2 Ulbricht posted on X that he has already spent a full decade in prison and fears he will spend the remainder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[235,203,210,234,231,232,237,238,236,233],"class_list":["post-166642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain","tag-bitcoin","tag-crypto-currency","tag-elon-musk","tag-ethereum","tag-hyperledger","tag-ibm","tag-mining","tag-nodes","tag-spacex","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166645,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166642\/revisions\/166645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}