I am scared by the thought!

[kik1977]

If he commit suicide, then he will be a legend.
If I was him, then which destiny would I choose? 30 years in jail, or being a sacrificed hero?
It's tough to make such a decision.
Perhaps he had never thought about the possibility that one day he can be caught.

I want him to keep alive, because, there have been too many heroes in history.

hero? who the fuck?

Snowden is a hero or maybe satoshi but no drug dealer like the founder of SR . get a real life and stop smoking weed.

Good to see there is still someone with some functioning synapsis in his brain, here on this forum.. I had started losing any hope.

[1714811334]

1714811334

[tvbcof]

If he commit suicide, then he will be a legend.
If I was him, then which destiny would I choose? 30 years in jail, or being a sacrificed hero?
It's tough to make such a decision.
Perhaps he had never thought about the possibility that one day he can be caught.

I want him to keep alive, because, there have been too many heroes in history.

hero? who the fuck?

Snowden is a hero or maybe satoshi but no drug dealer like the founder of SR . get a real life and stop smoking weed.

Good to see there is still someone with some functioning synapsis in his brain, here on this forum.. I had started losing any hope.

You kidding?  A lot of people demonstrate this attitude, and to a lot more it is probably such a no-brainer that it is not worth comment.  I'm actually a bit heartened by the percentage of non-clowns of those who have spoken up.

Of course certain people are also not 100% certain of facts just because they are put forth by the government and corp media.  More likely than not, however, DPR is guilty of more or less what is reported, and even if not he is/was primarily exploiting a scenario for monetary gain.  This is something that Snowden(*) and Manning specifically did not do and they are genuine hero's in my book in part because of this.

(*) It'll probably be years before I am completely satisfied that Snowden is the real deal, but it looks strongly likely to me at this point.

[Carlton Banks]

More likely than not, however, DPR is guilty of more or less what is reported, and even if not he is/was primarily exploiting a scenario for monetary gain.

Well, there is no money in whistleblowing, by nature; recognition is all you'll get. I've no doubt Ross Ulbrecht was doing some kind of work as a cover story, but to take the risk he took without direct recompense would be a pretty significant sacrifice. I really don't get why he didn't move to a safer jurisdiction long before it sounds like he had started considering it (those fake ID's wouldn't work for long in the US), but like everyone's been saying, he wasn't cut out for high level criminality really. Who knows how he justified his "plan".

[repentance]

Well, there is no money in whistleblowing, by nature; recognition is all you'll get. I've no doubt Ross Ulbrecht was doing some kind of work as a cover story, but to take the risk he took without direct recompense would be a pretty significant sacrifice.

Sure, but he set the commission levels.  It's hard for people to claim that he "wasn't in it for the money" when the amount of commissions collected was so high.  He was the one setting the commission levels and they were certainly set at a level which covered a lot more than overheads plus a generous "salary" for himself. 

That he got hooked on greed at some point (even if that wasn't his original motivation) is evidenced by him actively seeking to bring people he thought were major suppliers to SR and his insistence that payment for the 1 kg cocaine deal go through SR (so SR got a cut).  As SR grew, that meant he had to try to hide and launder increasing amounts of income.  He could have controlled or even halted the growth of SR to make that more manageable, but he didn't.

[Carlton Banks]

Well, there is no money in whistleblowing, by nature; recognition is all you'll get. I've no doubt Ross Ulbrecht was doing some kind of work as a cover story, but to take the risk he took without direct recompense would be a pretty significant sacrifice.

Sure, but he set the commission levels.  It's hard for people to claim that he "wasn't in it for the money" when the amount of commissions collected was so high.  He was the one setting the commission levels and they were certainly set at a level which covered a lot more than overheads plus a generous "salary" for himself. 

That he got hooked on greed at some point (even if that wasn't his original motivation) is evidenced by him actively seeking to bring people he thought were major suppliers to SR and his insistence that payment for the 1 kg cocaine deal go through SR (so SR got a cut).  As SR grew, that meant he had to try to hide and launder increasing amounts of income.  He could have controlled or even halted the growth of SR to make that more manageable, but he didn't.

I see. The more of this story that comes out of the woodwork, the more I'm wondering how Ulbrecht didn't get caught doing something else dumb IRL (the sending of fake IDs to the address he lived at being the only example of this I've heard). Was he having delusions of grandeur, drug induced or otherwise? Could he have contact with a friend with federal agency insider status that helped him to establish such delusions? It's difficult to imagine someone being so wreckless as all this, it seems too bold without some other part to the story. Or maybe it's just about right seeing as how long it's taken for him to end up in custody.

[repentance]

I see. The more of this story that comes out of the woodwork, the more I'm wondering how Ulbrecht didn't get caught doing something else dumb IRL (the sending of fake IDs to the address he lived at being the only example of this I've heard). Was he having delusions of grandeur, drug induced or otherwise? Could he have contact with a friend with federal agency insider status that helped him to establish such delusions? It's difficult to imagine someone being so wreckless as all this, it seems too bold without some other part to the story. Or maybe it's just about right seeing as how long it's taken for him to end up in custody.

He certainly got caught up in playing the role of DPR.  He attracted an almost cult-like following amongst SR users and plenty of people wanting to establish more personal relationships with him for the reflected glory.

When you're living a "nobody" life in the real world, and getting all this adoration in the online world, over time it's got to be difficult to maintain your distance from those who are validating you as some kind of revolutionary hero.

People get reckless over time.  They sacrifice security for convenience in what seem like little, unimportant ways.  When they've "gotten away with" something over a sustained period of time, they come to believe in their own invincibility - and DPR had a hell of a lot of SR users reinforcing the belief that he and SR were invulnerable.

Hell, take a look at the various SR 2 projects happening now.  They're all claiming that they'll be more secure than SR and bigger and better when in truth analysing exactly what went wrong and working out how to prevent it happening again should take at least weeks, if not months - especially when only some of the information the feds have about SR and DPR is currently known.

Human beings have a habit of idealising people.  We believe that people who are "smart" don't do dumb things.  Yet time and again people enterprises fail because those who conceived them lacked the skills to properly execute them or because those who should have remained in the shadows sought public validation. 

Take a look at the new SR 2 forums.  The very first post is a "debut speech" by the "new DPR".  Posting long philosophical ramblings provides opportunities for your speech patterns to be analysed and compared to other online writings.  Anything the "new DPR" feels compelled to post should be short and clinical, but that horse has already bolted.

[Carlton Banks]

I see. The more of this story that comes out of the woodwork, the more I'm wondering how Ulbrecht didn't get caught doing something else dumb IRL (the sending of fake IDs to the address he lived at being the only example of this I've heard). Was he having delusions of grandeur, drug induced or otherwise? Could he have contact with a friend with federal agency insider status that helped him to establish such delusions? It's difficult to imagine someone being so wreckless as all this, it seems too bold without some other part to the story. Or maybe it's just about right seeing as how long it's taken for him to end up in custody.

He certainly got caught up in playing the role of DPR.  He attracted an almost cult-like following amongst SR users and plenty of people wanting to establish more personal relationships with him for the reflected glory.

The extent to which the whole thing turned into an extension of his ego has got to be one of the biggest mistakes he made, he wanted (or claimed) to encourage the same idealism in the Silk Road fan club, but it's not the most pragmatic MO for the setup he was running. Especially considering his real life identity was a near clone of the supposedly fictional DPR, and worse still that the Ross Ulbrecht online presence reflected this too. You can end up a martyr at best with that kind of practice. I wonder whether he'll practice what he preached when it comes to handling his case.

[ingrownpocket]

Spend a few millions worth of my coins to get a good lawyer and make my sentance as easy as possible. Then after I get out, retire with the other few million I have and lead a simple life. Live off the interest, and invest in some mining equipment. Find a girl, settle down and have a family.

Sunshine and rainbows.

[tvbcof]

More likely than not, however, DPR is guilty of more or less what is reported, and even if not he is/was primarily exploiting a scenario for monetary gain.

Well, there is no money in whistleblowing, by nature; recognition is all you'll get.
...

Not hardly.  A genuine whistleblower gets change to something that he/she feels is deeply wrong.  It seems to be the case that the attention that Snowden got was unwelcome even that from people who consider him favorably.  It certainly seems to me that he would rather have such people focused on continuing the struggle that he promoted rather than focusing on him as a person.  Manning probably the same.

Assange?  Not sure.  I don't completely buy the picture which has been painted of him, but still things seem a little bit off with him somehow.  I do support Wikileaks financially however since I appreciate their work, and on top of that it pisses me off that others wish to control how I spend my money.  It was a trigger that finally got me involved in Bitcoin in fact.

[marcotheminer]

I wouldnt commit suicide...
Do the crime, pay the time!

[repentance]

The extent to which the whole thing turned into an extension of his ego has got to be one of the biggest mistakes he made, he wanted (or claimed) to encourage the same idealism in the Silk Road fan club, but it's not the most pragmatic MO for the setup he was running. Especially considering his real life identity was a near clone of the supposedly fictional DPR, and worse still that the Ross Ulbrecht online presence reflected this too. You can end up a martyr at best with that kind of practice. I wonder whether he'll practice what he preached when it comes to handling his case.

It's not just him.  Vendors are using their old usernames at the new sites.  Some of them want their old statistics to carry over to SR 2. 

Think about that for a moment.  You're a vendor that right now law enforcement might not have enough information to charge.  You can simply "disappear" as if your old on-line identity had never existed and establish a new, unconnected identity down the track.  But instead of doing that, they want to start selling to their old customers as soon as possible, with as much fanfare as possible.  You don't need to crack Tor or Bitcon when people are so supremely stupid.

[skull88]

30 years  

You got to molest and kill a few children to get this here, and then you'll probably free after +-20 years.
Something like this would probably get you a few years, imo if you setup a marketplace like SR, at least live in a country that has pretty low sentences for drugs related crimes and some comfy jails.

I actually think it's pretty sick to ruin someones life completely because he made it possible people could sell something to others who wanted this product, and this product only harms the person who bought it. And the harm is even questionable in some cases, but knowable by the person who bought it. Really, he seemed like a smart guy, in no way a real criminal, someone who could get a real future. What is the point in ruining this person his whole life, I mean almost 60 when he gets out? He didn't really harm anybody, he didn't forced anyone to buy and use drugs.    

That said, I wouldn't kill myself, I would spend every minute I had in finding a way to escape, I prefer living than being a dead hero.

[skull88]

The extent to which the whole thing turned into an extension of his ego has got to be one of the biggest mistakes he made, he wanted (or claimed) to encourage the same idealism in the Silk Road fan club, but it's not the most pragmatic MO for the setup he was running. Especially considering his real life identity was a near clone of the supposedly fictional DPR, and worse still that the Ross Ulbrecht online presence reflected this too. You can end up a martyr at best with that kind of practice. I wonder whether he'll practice what he preached when it comes to handling his case.

It's not just him.  Vendors are using their old usernames at the new sites.  Some of them want their old statistics to carry over to SR 2. 

Think about that for a moment.  You're a vendor that right now law enforcement might not have enough information to charge.  You can simply "disappear" as if your old on-line identity had never existed and establish a new, unconnected identity down the track.  But instead of doing that, they want to start selling to their old customers as soon as possible, with as much fanfare as possible.  You don't need to crack Tor or Bitcon when people are so supremely stupid.

Of course they want their stats back and their old username, it shows you are trustworthy to new customers and you don't loose your old customers because they know you. 

[repentance]

Of course they want their stats back and their old username, it shows you are trustworthy to new customers and you don't loose your old customers because they know you. 

Except that it's chasing short-term profit at the expense of security.  If you're a decent vendor, you can afford to sit it out for a few months while you see where the chips fall.  You can afford to take a few months to establish a reputation under a new online identity which cannot be connected to your old SR account (remember that they've used feedback to estimate the quantity of drugs sold by the guys arrested in the UK) which was located on a system which seems to have been nowhere near as secure as people believed.

The smartest thing for any large vendor to do right now is assume that everything they ever did through SR (including any encrypted PM's) is known to law enforcement and act accordingly. They need to assume that stuff which shouldn't have been kept on the SR system was and that at least some of their users kept information which shouldn't have been kept.

They also need to assume that a new marketplace which has been thrown together in a week is not going to be totally secure and neither are its forums.  If the new site/forums leak information because they've been thrown together in a hurry, that information could provide missing links which law enforcement currently doesn't have.

[skull88]

Of course they want their stats back and their old username, it shows you are trustworthy to new customers and you don't loose your old customers because they know you. 

Except that it's chasing short-term profit at the expense of security.  If you're a decent vendor, you can afford to sit it out for a few months while you see where the chips fall.  You can afford to take a few months to establish a reputation under a new online identity which cannot be connected to your old SR account (remember that they've used feedback to estimate the quantity of drugs sold by the guys arrested in the UK) which was located on a system which seems to have been nowhere near as secure as people believed.

The smartest thing for any large vendor to do right now is assume that everything they ever did through SR (including any encrypted PM's) is known to law enforcement and act accordingly. They need to assume that stuff which shouldn't have been kept on the SR system was and that at least some of their users kept information which shouldn't have been kept.

They also need to assume that a new marketplace which has been thrown together in a week is not going to be totally secure and neither are its forums.  If the new site/forums leak information because they've been thrown together in a hurry, that information could provide missing links which law enforcement currently doesn't have.

ok, you got a point.

[kik1977]

More likely than not, however, DPR is guilty of more or less what is reported, and even if not he is/was primarily exploiting a scenario for monetary gain.

Well, there is no money in whistleblowing, by nature; recognition is all you'll get.
...

That's not true, at least in the few jurisdictions I worked with (which does not include US). Whistleblowers indeed receive a remuneration, in various forms, especially if what they say leads to a forfeiture. In some countries it's even stated by Law the amount of money, as a percentage of the value of the forfeited goods (often drugs or smuggled cigarettes).

[Erdogan]

If he commit suicide, then he will be a legend.
If I was him, then which destiny would I choose? 30 years in jail, or being a sacrificed hero?
It's tough to make such a decision.
Perhaps he had never thought about the possibility that one day he can be caught.

I want him to keep alive, because, there have been too many heroes in history.

Who are you talking about? Mr Ben?

[MPOE-PR]

He certainly got caught up in playing the role of DPR.  He attracted an almost cult-like following amongst SR users and plenty of people wanting to establish more personal relationships with him for the reflected glory.

When you're living a "nobody" life in the real world, and getting all this adoration in the online world, over time it's got to be difficult to maintain your distance from those who are validating you as some kind of revolutionary hero.

People get reckless over time.  They sacrifice security for convenience in what seem like little, unimportant ways.  When they've "gotten away with" something over a sustained period of time, they come to believe in their own invincibility - and DPR had a hell of a lot of SR users reinforcing the belief that he and SR were invulnerable.

Hell, take a look at the various SR 2 projects happening now.  They're all claiming that they'll be more secure than SR and bigger and better when in truth analysing exactly what went wrong and working out how to prevent it happening again should take at least weeks, if not months - especially when only some of the information the feds have about SR and DPR is currently known.

Human beings have a habit of idealising people.  We believe that people who are "smart" don't do dumb things.  Yet time and again people enterprises fail because those who conceived them lacked the skills to properly execute them or because those who should have remained in the shadows sought public validation. 

Take a look at the new SR 2 forums.  The very first post is a "debut speech" by the "new DPR".  Posting long philosophical ramblings provides opportunities for your speech patterns to be analysed and compared to other online writings.  Anything the "new DPR" feels compelled to post should be short and clinical, but that horse has already bolted.

QFT. The guy's blathering about "someone in his position" in the transcripts pretty much belies a hazy roleplaying infatuation --and one that's certainly not unique to DPR himself.