Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

[xenotrunksx]

This is one of the reasons it would be so difficult to accomplish anything even if an attempt was made.  I would want changes in complete opposition to what you desire.

Yes, I think Ulbricht should be in prison, although mainly for charges other than the drug selling (I remember reading something about an attempt at hiring a hitman and weapons being sold on Silk Road).  We have many legal "drugs" in the US.  I do not need a nanny state to tell me which harmful drugs I'm allowed to use and which ones I am not.  They are ALL harmful to an extent and I am more than capable of weighing my own pros and cons in substance use.  The money spent on the war on drugs would be better put to use in education, treatment and addiction facilities.

It also appears from your previous posts you are in favor of tighter gun controls or even an outright ban on civilian gun ownership.  Both of which I oppose fervently.  What's the oft coined phrase? 

"If you criminalize gun ownership then only the criminals will own guns."

I know the nuances of gun control laws and consequences cannot simply be boiled down to a 2 dollar catch phrase on a NRA poster, but France has much tighter gun laws than the US and yet criminals can just as easily mow down a street of people there as they can here.

I respect your desire for change and modernization, I just think you are pulling at the wrong threads if you want to realistically bring the majority of our country behind a change.  Lobbyists, corruption, governmental transparency, the revolving door between congress and corporations, term limits for positions that have none, etc are more pressing issues that have a greater feasibility for public support.

I think that we're on the same team here.  We need to start fixing our system from the top down instead of the
bottom up.  Instead of disarming citizens by attacking the Bill of Rights, disarm big money by limiting their control over the populace.  What many US citizens forget here is that the power of the US Constitution lies in the fact that the people have the power to enforce it if need be.  Bitcoin and its ability to decentralize the control of the flow of "money" is the means by which we might achieve those goals.  Instead of attacking people like Ulbricht, we should be concentrating on the solutions to fixing our corrupted economical power base.  I believe that an attack on Ulbricht is an attack on the Bitcoin community in general!

That is a very powerful statement and one that I fully support.  It's important to have that option even if no one ever wants to have to go to those means to protect their family/property.  The argument of throwing off the reigns of an oppressive government may have a few holes in it with the current power of major nation states, but it is still significant to the founding of our country.  Its significant to the spirit our culture.  It isn't really about the individuals of the time, more of what they represent.  This idea of what we strive to be as a society, guns are a part of that narrative.  Now it may be personal bias from my own upbringing but that to me is a culture of freedom and sacrifice; something worth preserving.  Some people with just as much citizenship as myself (and just as much right to an opinion as myself) might think such a cultural tie is a little outdated in today's world.  That's OK.

Without trying to sound like a conspiracy nut, the insidious thing about our current system is that it works well enough.  Well enough to NOT bare arms over.  Well enough for most people to ignore things like senior corporate executives writing our trade laws such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership(/1EzkWiY]http://[Suspicious link removed]/1EzkWiY).  To ignore that we don't truly make any of the important decisions.  Decentralized voting was the most exciting idea when I first discovered Bitcoin.  A tamper proof system that can be used to vote on government budgets, which programs get green lit, and even a President without 50 recounts! The people can decide whether to go to war for more oil or to rebuild our infrastructure with solar powered roads(http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml).  I'm still not sure exactly how it would work, I would be interested to know of any projects on the subject if anyone wants to share.

I'm not even the type to have a locker full of guns in my home, waiting for society to collapse and the apocalypse to begin; I simply think that with arguments presented to the citizens you would never obtain a significant, lets say two-thirds, majority in favor of removing anything from the Bill of Rights, much less the 2nd Amendment.  The danger lies in "clarification" of the 2nd Amendment.  Until we have a voting system as described I honestly do not trust the government to "clarify" any of my rights.  I prefer to interpret them as written.

I believe that an attack on Ulbricht is an attack on the Bitcoin community in general!

I wouldn't go that far, the US government seems to be fairly nonreactive to Bitcoin in general.  Only so much to say that the same corrupt rules apply to your new fancy internet moneyz.

[1715198862]

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[Bitcoinpro]

BADecker, you draw too many conclusions from things that are totally unrelated.

Even if we did revamp the government from the ground up, I would still want people like Ulbricht to be imprisoned. I might let them out of prison in their 70s because the chance of them doing much harm at that point is over. I still want controls on anyone that promotes hard drug use (directly or indirectly), weapons distribution or harms children among many others. In fact, I would drastically increase penalties for some things like cruelty to animals.

the high level of natrual  DMT in some peoples brains is a worry

they create n artificial world around them inspite of obvious

cracks in the seams of social fabric they seem completely

oblivious too!

[BADecker]

BADecker, you draw too many conclusions from things that are totally unrelated.

Even if we did revamp the government from the ground up, I would still want people like Ulbricht to be imprisoned. I might let them out of prison in their 70s because the chance of them doing much harm at that point is over. I still want controls on anyone that promotes hard drug use (directly or indirectly), weapons distribution or harms children among many others. In fact, I would drastically increase penalties for some things like cruelty to animals.

the high level of natrual  DMT in some peoples brains is a worry

they create n artificial world around them inspite of obvious

cracks in the seams of social fabric they seem completely

oblivious too!

Actually, if we revamped the government from the ground up in the right way, everyone would have guns. Then the dangerous drug users would be dead, and the rest of us could use our leisure drugs peacefully. In addition, if anyone wouldn't learn to take responsibility for his life and his habit, he wouldn't live long. Problem solved... and lots of other government problems solved as well.

[STT]

I think that we're on the same team here.  We need to start fixing our system from the top down instead of the
bottom up.  Instead of disarming citizens by attacking the Bill of Rights, disarm big money by limiting their control over the populace.  What many US citizens forget here is that the power of the US Constitution lies in the fact that the people have the power to enforce it if need be.  Bitcoin and its ability to decentralize the control of the flow of "money" is the means by which we might achieve those goals.  Instead of attacking people like Ulbricht, we should be concentrating on the solutions to fixing our corrupted economical power base.  I believe that an attack on Ulbricht is an attack on the Bitcoin community in general!

Capitalism goes hand in hand with democracy and the diversified money flow helps to stem many failed ideas from growing too large.  Where as a large centralised monetised form of government is a snake with two heads and hard to stop no matter how wrong it becomes, not that I oppose government but unrestrained in its funding they can make gigantic mistakes that wider society still has to pay for since money can never be free but is nationally diverted labour and production.   At the moment they borrow and that cost is bought from abroad but eventually it will not pay for itself but cost others lost purchasing power on their dollar etc

Punishing Ulbricht can't really be compared to a worldwide recession. In a recession many factors come together to create an economic decline. There is no one industry or business to blame and there certainly isn't one individual to blame. I suppose you could blame most of the problem on the mortgage industry that allowed 3-1 and 5-1 arm mortgages with unbearable balloon payments to crush the banks with foreclosures but how do you punish them? That's different from punishing an individual that committed a crime against society.

How the banks are punished is that when their loans do not repay, that business fails and no longer exists.  Working parts are passed onto more steady hands to manage and pay off debt.   That is the cost of capital that you lose ownership if your efforts are not profitable to justify the ideas and setup used.   The main reason this didnt happen is the banks were acting on a government scheme and it was government who had been wrong in encouraging what was a failed idea, so they diverted what should have been a collapse of that idea.   Comparatively if bitcoin had a fatal flaw or if mt.gox was propped up by Ulbricht it would be a nonsense, but I imagine with enough money diverted he may have done it.  People would hate that idea but thats basically the dollar system, lopsided to rely on certain ideas to balance the books and nobody dares challenge that weakness or deal with its failure

[QuestionAuthority]

I think that we're on the same team here.  We need to start fixing our system from the top down instead of the
bottom up.  Instead of disarming citizens by attacking the Bill of Rights, disarm big money by limiting their control over the populace.  What many US citizens forget here is that the power of the US Constitution lies in the fact that the people have the power to enforce it if need be.  Bitcoin and its ability to decentralize the control of the flow of "money" is the means by which we might achieve those goals.  Instead of attacking people like Ulbricht, we should be concentrating on the solutions to fixing our corrupted economical power base.  I believe that an attack on Ulbricht is an attack on the Bitcoin community in general!

Capitalism goes hand in hand with democracy and the diversified money flow helps to stem many failed ideas from growing too large.  Where as a large centralised monetised form of government is a snake with two heads and hard to stop no matter how wrong it becomes, not that I oppose government but unrestrained in its funding they can make gigantic mistakes that wider society still has to pay for since money can never be free but is nationally diverted labour and production.   At the moment they borrow and that cost is bought from abroad but eventually it will not pay for itself but cost others lost purchasing power on their dollar etc

Punishing Ulbricht can't really be compared to a worldwide recession. In a recession many factors come together to create an economic decline. There is no one industry or business to blame and there certainly isn't one individual to blame. I suppose you could blame most of the problem on the mortgage industry that allowed 3-1 and 5-1 arm mortgages with unbearable balloon payments to crush the banks with foreclosures but how do you punish them? That's different from punishing an individual that committed a crime against society.

How the banks are punished is that when their loans do not repay, that business fails and no longer exists.  Working parts are passed onto more steady hands to manage and pay off debt.   That is the cost of capital that you lose ownership if your efforts are not profitable to justify the ideas and setup used.   The main reason this didnt happen is the banks were acting on a government scheme and it was government who had been wrong in encouraging what was a failed idea, so they diverted what should have been a collapse of that idea.   Comparatively if bitcoin had a fatal flaw or if mt.gox was propped up by Ulbricht it would be a nonsense, but I imagine with enough money diverted he may have done it.  People would hate that idea but thats basically the dollar system, lopsided to rely on certain ideas to balance the books and nobody dares challenge that weakness or deal with its failure

That's the most rational and accurate argument I've seen so far. I do agree that capitalism is a flawed system that unwittingly creates favoritism in its treatment of certain market sectors. At best it promotes inequity and at worst it supports devastating failures. Voodoo economics, trickle down theory, Obama's bailout bonanza, Carter's ignore it economics, Clinton and Nixon's outright economic corruption are all testimony to the failure of the current system. Auto manufacturer bailouts and bank bailouts are a joke played on the American people.

What can you do about it? That's the real question and the impossible task at hand. The core of the problem and the reason for the lack of change is blinding in its simplicity. The American people have a standard of living that is just good enough to keep them pacified and content. Historically, strife and pain have fueled rebellion. US citizens are too fat, dumb and happy to rebel. Oh sure, they crawl on top of their soapbox occasionally, holding the keys to their new car in one hand and a Big Mac in the other, preaching about this minor issue or that one but always afraid to really change anything for fear of losing it all. This situation will continue until every God fearin merican really knows suffering.

[Gleb Gamow]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/19/5825578/heres-a-list-of-who-wants-to-buy-silk-roads-bitcoins-leaked-by-a-us

Daniel Folkinshteyn, assistant professor at Rowan University
Malcolm Oluwasanmi, chairperson of Little Phoenix Investment Group
Fabrice Evangelista, quantitative arbitrage at BNP Paribas
Michal Handerhanm, co-founder and COO of Bitcoin Shop
Dave Goel, managing general partner of Matrix Capital Management
Dinuka Samarasinghe, investment professional
Chris DeMuth Jr., Rangeley Capital
Fred Ehrsam, co-founder, Coinbase
Jonathan Disner, corporate counsel at DRW Trading Group
William Brindise, head investment manager at DigitalBTC
Michael Moro, director at SecondMarket
Jennifer R. Jacoby, lawyer at WilmerHale
Sam Lee, co-founder, Bitcoins Reserve
Shem Booth-Spain, artist and musician
Avarus Corporation

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-armitt-9906184a



You guys remember Ken Armitt, don't you? If not, search this site to get up to speed.

[AGD]

Real Solid has made some serious bucks.
Btw, I never had any withdrawal probs on McX and he was even paying interest. The site looked well programmed and more secure, than most of the trading sites around.

[OmegaStarScream]

Some updates , Silk Road Operator Ross Ulbricht Seeks New Trial in Appeal : http://www.coindesk.com/silk-road-operator-ross-ulbricht-seeks-new-trial-in-appeal/

[Robertt]

This guy shouldn't go to prison for life.
"who has already auctioned off his Bitcoins."
Government is a greedy party, they probably care more about money than they do about their country/jurisdiction.
Why blame the guy who made the silk road instead of the ones who are offering the services or actually buying them. It's not his fault that people buy drugs, sell drugs, etc. If not the silk road, then they would still find a way to sell their services. 1 goes down, 10 come up. We need to do something about this.

[Gleb Gamow]

Kill a man, get 30 years. Two days after being release, kill mother. Get 25 years. Run a certain type of website, get life without parole.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/19/new-jersey-man-completes-30-year-murder-sentence-only-to-kill-mother-two-days-later/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na

[Thenoticer]

Obviously if DPR was black he would have gotten a lighter sentence, instead we get more racial inequality.

Kill a man, get 30 years. Two days after being release, kill mother. Get 25 years. Run a certain type of website, get life without parole.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/19/new-jersey-man-completes-30-year-murder-sentence-only-to-kill-mother-two-days-later/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na

[AliceWonderMiscreations]

This guy shouldn't go to prison for life.

If the allegations of the murder for hire are true, then yes.

Remember this is a guy who both experimented with drugs in high school and passed an Eagle Scout board of review.

The two of those are not easy to do, the former usually precludes the latter - at least when I was in scouts. He's good at fooling people.

[Gleb Gamow]

This guy shouldn't go to prison for life.

If the allegations of the murder for hire are true, then yes.

Remember this is a guy who both experimented with drugs in high school and passed an Eagle Scout board of review.

The two of those are not easy to do, the former usually precludes the latter - at least when I was in scouts. He's good at fooling people.

The murder for hire had nothing to do with this case. It's a completely separate deal, perhaps he'll get ten years added to his life sentence for that stunt.

Speakin' of, I wonder if Curtis Green has logged in lately on this forum. I pawned him pretty good the last time he was here. I guess he didn't like the part where I caught his ass fuckin' his daughter. Seriously! Probably why his TV deal went south. HAHAHA

[AliceWonderMiscreations]

This guy shouldn't go to prison for life.

If the allegations of the murder for hire are true, then yes.

Remember this is a guy who both experimented with drugs in high school and passed an Eagle Scout board of review.

The two of those are not easy to do, the former usually precludes the latter - at least when I was in scouts. He's good at fooling people.

The murder for hire had nothing to do with this case. It's a completely separate deal, perhaps he'll get ten years added to his life sentence for that stunt.

Speakin' of, I wonder if Curtis Green has logged in lately on this forum. I pawned him pretty good the last time he was here. I guess he didn't like the part where I caught his ass fuckin' his daughter. Seriously! Probably why his TV deal went south. HAHAHA

The murder for hire had nothing to do with this case but if true, then he deserves life. Yes, he should be tried for those allegations.

[avikz]

America is showing it's fascist face....really sad!

[Dalkore]

No concern at all, he knew what he was doing and in the end the same thing that has fallen many men, fell him, arrogance and greed.  He thought we could be beyond the laws in some libertarian fantasy.  In reality, there are states, laws, policy, instinct and common sense.  He is no hero or martyr.  Just another ego that got out of control.  

-D

This reminds me of Irwin Schiff who has been held 10 years for 'evading tax' and writing a book about it.   He at no point attempted to deceive or misled IRS just argue his case (ie. tax was not applicable) for which he received a similar harsh sentence as an example.   Clearly he is not the master criminal Ulbricht could be cast as but they are both naive in objecting or thinking they have a choice to wilfully object, (arrogant not to move abroad as many would)and the states reaction seems similar in that.
  He currently is 87 and is dying from terminal lung cancer yet cannot let be free for fear of being too soft on any threat to the superstate system.   I doubt Ulbricht gets any justice while he is also seen as any threat, any laws can be arranged if so desired to make progress unlikely.  If they cant even let out a book author after ten years who is going to die very soon, I dont see them extending any mercy elsewhere it would be seen as weakness within their ranks or something

That comparison is laughable at best.  No comparison, DRP got what he deserved.  We have an appeal process if he felt he got a raw real but I am quite sure he will be rotting in jail.  Hiring hitman on people and the such, you deserve to be kept from society.  We don't need trash like that.  Also it give Bitcoin a bad name and we don't need that with all the other negative press.  Good riddance.

[Dalkore]

Places like silk road only do one thing and that causes more problems than cures and gives Bitcoin and other crypto a bad name for all the illegal activity's that where conducted on them. Cracking down on them and putting a stop to them I agree to. People who use places like silk road take the risk and are fully aware if things go wrong. When I was on it the amount of stuff that could be bought was a shock to me after seeing so many bad things and services you could buy with a click of a button and a payment of coin. Once all places like Silk road are stopped the better it will get for Bitcoin to be a much better legal friendly crypto to be used in the future.

I agree, he played with fire and got burned.  Let it serve as a notice to use your talents to do more creative things than make a platform for trading illegal drugs while trashing the name of Bitcoin with your dealings and playing mafia with your hits.  Lock em up and throw away the key. 

[STT]

Has he been tried for hiring a hitman yet, I think his sentence is for running a website not anything to do with a murder attempt or threat.   That doesnt usually result in life without parole in any case, he was sentenced by politically motivated opponents wont be the last time

[cjmoles]

I think that we're on the same team here.  We need to start fixing our system from the top down instead of the
bottom up.  Instead of disarming citizens by attacking the Bill of Rights, disarm big money by limiting their control over the populace.  What many US citizens forget here is that the power of the US Constitution lies in the fact that the people have the power to enforce it if need be.  Bitcoin and its ability to decentralize the control of the flow of "money" is the means by which we might achieve those goals.  Instead of attacking people like Ulbricht, we should be concentrating on the solutions to fixing our corrupted economical power base.  I believe that an attack on Ulbricht is an attack on the Bitcoin community in general!

Capitalism goes hand in hand with democracy and the diversified money flow helps to stem many failed ideas from growing too large.  Where as a large centralised monetised form of government is a snake with two heads and hard to stop no matter how wrong it becomes, not that I oppose government but unrestrained in its funding they can make gigantic mistakes that wider society still has to pay for since money can never be free but is nationally diverted labour and production.   At the moment they borrow and that cost is bought from abroad but eventually it will not pay for itself but cost others lost purchasing power on their dollar etc

Punishing Ulbricht can't really be compared to a worldwide recession. In a recession many factors come together to create an economic decline. There is no one industry or business to blame and there certainly isn't one individual to blame. I suppose you could blame most of the problem on the mortgage industry that allowed 3-1 and 5-1 arm mortgages with unbearable balloon payments to crush the banks with foreclosures but how do you punish them? That's different from punishing an individual that committed a crime against society.

How the banks are punished is that when their loans do not repay, that business fails and no longer exists.  Working parts are passed onto more steady hands to manage and pay off debt.   That is the cost of capital that you lose ownership if your efforts are not profitable to justify the ideas and setup used.   The main reason this didnt happen is the banks were acting on a government scheme and it was government who had been wrong in encouraging what was a failed idea, so they diverted what should have been a collapse of that idea.   Comparatively if bitcoin had a fatal flaw or if mt.gox was propped up by Ulbricht it would be a nonsense, but I imagine with enough money diverted he may have done it.  People would hate that idea but thats basically the dollar system, lopsided to rely on certain ideas to balance the books and nobody dares challenge that weakness or deal with its failure

That's the most rational and accurate argument I've seen so far. I do agree that capitalism is a flawed system that unwittingly creates favoritism in its treatment of certain market sectors. At best it promotes inequity and at worst it supports devastating failures. Voodoo economics, trickle down theory, Obama's bailout bonanza, Carter's ignore it economics, Clinton and Nixon's outright economic corruption are all testimony to the failure of the current system. Auto manufacturer bailouts and bank bailouts are a joke played on the American people.

What can you do about it? That's the real question and the impossible task at hand. The core of the problem and the reason for the lack of change is blinding in its simplicity. The American people have a standard of living that is just good enough to keep them pacified and content. Historically, strife and pain have fueled rebellion. US citizens are too fat, dumb and happy to rebel. Oh sure, they crawl on top of their soapbox occasionally, holding the keys to their new car in one hand and a Big Mac in the other, preaching about this minor issue or that one but always afraid to really change anything for fear of losing it all. This situation will continue until every God fearin merican really knows suffering.

Are you forgetting Reagan's Iran-Contra incident and his Reaganomics?  We seem to forgive some of the biggest corruptions in our society, in return for a stronger government, but at the same time, complain about its inequities when it comes back to bite us in the ass.

[AliceWonderMiscreations]

Has he been tried for hiring a hitman yet, I think his sentence is for running a website not anything to do with a murder attempt or threat.   That doesnt usually result in life without parole in any case, he was sentenced by politically motivated opponents wont be the last time

He wasn't just running a website.

He was running a website with the explicit purpose of selling illegal goods and services, and once you do that, it becomes conspiracy.

If I sell dope on Tumblr. Tumblr is protected because that is not the purpose for which Tumblr exists.

Selling dope and other illegal goods and services however was the purpose for which silk road existed.