Silk road and Bitcointalk. How it played a role in its rise and fall.

[xtraelv]

This is a work in progress. Comments, additions and corrections welcome.

June 09, 2010, [POST] A Heroin Store (Thread subject of a subpoena)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=175.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=175.msg3900#msg3900 (anonymous guest post)



February 2011 Silk Road is launched.



March 1, 2011 User “silkroad” advertises Silk Road on bitcointalk.org.
https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=3984.0









June 2011 Chicago Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan starts investigating Silk Road.

June 5, 2011 Senator Chuck Schumer calls for “crackdown” on Silk Road and use of Bitcoin.

June 08, 2011, Silk Road Account for sale!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=13709.0



June 09, 2011 Bitcointalk user Silkroad posts:

The site went mainstream way faster than we were hoping and we weren't prepared for the traffic.  Everyone on the site knows what a pain it is getting 502 errors all the time.  So, we are working on setting up an even more secure server that can handle all the traffic as well.  Once we get that set up, and make some more improvements here and there, we'll be opening back up, whether by invite, open registration, or whatever.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3984.msg189007#msg189007

November 11, 2011 Ross Ulbricht tells Richard Bates he handed Silk Road off to a successor.

February 6, 2012 Silk Road admin announces his name as Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR).

July 6, 2012 Der-Yeghiayan identifies MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles as the person behind Silk Road and MtGox associate Ashley Barr as DPR’s voice.  He also suspected blogger Anand Athavale.
Karpeles becomes a law enforcement target.

August 3, 2012 Der-Yeghiayan tells Baltimore HSI agent Michael McFarland not to contact Karpeles or tell anyone he’s a target.

October 2012 Der-Yeghiayan discovers McFarland informed the Baltimore task force, including known corrupt federal agents Carl Mark Force and Shaun Bridges, about Karpeles, and they’ve been “actively working” him and keeping him under surveillance.

December 11, 2012, Silk Road seller acc now cost ~ 500$
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=130234.0

January 17, 2013 Force and Secret Service / NSA agent Shaun Bridges arrest Curtis Green, a senior Silk Road admin.

January 25, 2013 Force and Bridges hijack Green’s admin account, use it to steal from top Silk Road vendors, and blame it on Green. According to Force, he and Bridges fake Green’s death in sting operation.

March 3, 2013, JonSnow from bitcointalk.org, did a payment of 0.045 BTC to another user from bitcointalk.org.
JonSnow address, 13XZMGjAXhh9n5wPkh8LrPiGdhd18rM2vD is part of wallet [05725b9fef]. Same wallet, different user, c0dex this time, received some funds at the BTC address 16EdwPraZ3akWJfHZPHFGxENydPEBZmycn, from what seems to be a payment from a BTC Casino/Games affiliation program . The payment was as well made to an address belonging to wallet [05725b9fef]. From this wallet some transactions were made to Silk Road.

March 2013 National Security Agency (NSA) works “urgently” to “track down” bitcoin users, according to classified documents provided by Edward Snowden.

May 10, 2013 Bridges goes “rogue” with the help of AUSA Richard Kay and seizes $2 million from Karpeles. He alledgedly did this intentionaly to tip Karpeles off  that “the US government had him on its radar.”

May 14, 2013, Mt. Gox Dwolla account frozen by DHS
On 15 May 2013 the US Department of Homeland Security  seized money from Mt. Gox's U.S. subsidiary's account with payment processor Dwolla asserting  that the subsidiary was not licensed by the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), was operating as an unregistered money transmitter in the US.

During the negotiations Karpeles’s attorneys allegedly brought up Silk Road . They said that Mark Karpeles was willing to give up Silk Road operator “Dread Pirate Roberts” if he “could get a walk on his charges.”[/b]

June 29, 2013, Mt. Gox received its money services business (MSB) license from FinCEN
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=205396.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=205542.0

June 2013 FBI special agent Christopher Tarbell “obtains” Silk Road server IP address. 193.107.84.4

July 2013, Deryeghiayan took over the account of "Cirrus," a moderator on Silk Road's user forums (who had earlier gone by the name "scout") responsible for customer support and cleaning up spam and inappropriate comments in the forum.

July 11, 2013
AUSA Richard Kay meets with Karpeles’ attorneys who offer him the identity of  DPR in exchange for Karpeles’s immunity from prosecution over another matter.

July 26, 2013
Someone from Baltimore office sells inside law enforcement info to DPR as “notwonderful”.

August 14, 2013
DPR reveals he inherited Silk Road from its original creator.

August 15, 2013 to [unknown] Someone with access to the evidence gathered by the government destroys several copies of conversation between “notwonderful” and DPR.

August 15, 2013 Der-Yeghiayan swears under oath that Karpeles is DPR and submits a sealed search warrant for his email accounts.

September 20, 2013 Using Ross’s email address “found“ by IRS agent Gary Alford on Karpeles’s forum (bitcointalk.org) and using pen register / trap and trace devices (pen traps), AUSA Serrin Turner gathers Ross’s internet traffic information without a warrant  and tracks him down.

October 2, 2013 Ross arrested in San Francisco and put in solitary confinement.FBI Seize Deep Web Marketplace Silk Road
Silk Road marketplace taken offline.
District of Maryland issues indictment, including attempted murder charges based on evidence of corrupt DEA agent Force (imprisoned in March 2015).
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=306338.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=310600.0

October 02, 2013, Bitcointalk hacked by "The Hole seekers". Off-line till October 07, 2013 .
Some users blame the NSA and see it related to the Silkroad closure.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=306723.0;prev_next=next
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=306724.0
Theymos identifies it as a backdoor from the 2011 hack.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=306878.0

October 14, 2013 Silk Road: Trail of 11,329.89BTC

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=310600.0

November 5, 2013 Ross arrives in Southern District of New York to face charges.

November 6, 2013, administrators from the closed Silk Road relaunched the site, led by a new pseudonymous Dread Pirate Roberts, and dubbed it "Silk Road 2.0".
November 18, 2013 DPR logs into his Silk Road forum account for the last time, over six weeks after Ross was arrested.

November 20, 2013 Ross released from solitary confinement into general prison population.

November 21, 2013 Ross denied bail.

November 22, 2013 Silk Road forum taken down.



November 27, 2013 Report Linking Bitcoin And Silk Road RETRACTED!
After suggesting earlier this week that a link existed between the creators of Silk Road and Bitcoin, two Israeli computer researchers have retracted their report.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=349220.0

December 20, 2013  Peter Phillip Nash – Samesamebutdifferent arrested in Australia
Andrew Jones, Silk Road’s second-in-command “Inigo” was arrested in Virginia, USA.
Gary Davis, accused of being administrator “Libertas” was picked up in Ireland.

February 13, 2014, DPR2 (Defcon) announced that Silk Road 2.0's escrow accounts had been compromised through a vulnerability
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=463896.0

February 4, 2014 Ross indicted  on four counts. Indictment does not include murder-for-hire charges.

March 29, 2014 Joshua Dratel, Ross’s attorney, challenges the indictment as unconstitutional and unfair.

June 2014  Peter Nash transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York .

July 9, 2014 District Court Judge Katherine Forrest denies challenge to indictment.

June 27, 2014, Silk Road Bitcoin Auction Opened by US Marshals Service
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=670299.0

August 1, 2014 Dratel calls for evidentiary hearing to investigate how FBI Agent Christopher Tarbell found Silk Road server.

August 2014 Ross finally given complete access to discovery totaling approximately four terabytes (equivalent to 2.5 billion typed, single-spaced pages).

September 5, 2014 Bharara files memo opposing pre-trial motions that suggest the NSA was involved in the Silk Road investigation, accusing the defense of conjuring up a “bogeyman – the NSA.”

Tarbell testifies under oath how he found the Silk Road server to much skepticism.
“Many of us believe it wasn’t the FBI who discovered the hidden Silk Road server, but the NSA (or other intelligence organization). We believe the FBI is using “parallel construction,” meaning creating a plausible story of how they found the server to satisfy the courts, but a story that isn’t true” – Robert Graham, well-known cybersecurity expert

October 10, 2014 Judge Forrest denies evidentiary hearing.
Judge Forrest dismisses Ross’s motions to suppress evidence .

October 27, 2014 New York Senator Schumer publicly congratulates the Department of Justice for arresting the “Silk Road operator” before the New York trial had even begun.

October – December 2014 Court-ordered access to laptop and discovery evidence is repeatedly blocked by prison.

November 6, 2014 FBI announced that it arrested Blake Benthall, aka "Defcon," the alleged owner and operator of Silk Road 2.0.
   
November 09, 2014, Silk Road 2.0 Shutdown
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=852589.0

December 03, 2014, Theymos receives first DPR subpoena regarding Ulbricht user: altoid(Silk Road) and the heroin store topic.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=881488.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=printpage;topic=175.0
http://qntra.net/2014/12/justice-departments-subpoena-to-theymos-of-bitcointalk/





November 2014, Following the closure of Silk Road 2.0 in November 2014, Diabolus Market renamed itself to 'Silk Road 3.0 Reloaded' in order to capitalise on the brand.

December 12, 2014 Defense is deprived of the witness list.

December 15, 2014 Investigation into Force sealed . Judge Forrest precludes evidence of corrupt agent activity from trial.
Judge Forrest denies defense request that trial be postponed so jury can be informed of the corruption.

January 1, 2015 More than 5,000 pages of relevant material about Der-Yeghiayan’s investigation dumped on Ross and his defense less than two weeks before trial.

January 2015  Ross moved to Metropolitan Correctional Center, Manhattan, New York.

January 13, 2015  Ross’s trial begins, presided over by Judge Forrest (recommended for the bench by Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2011).

January 20, 2015 Der-Yeghiayan’s testimony about Karpeles stricken from record . DPR interview suppressed.

February 2, 2015 Expert defense witnesses Andreas Antonopolous and Stephen Bellovin not allowed to testify.

February 3, 2015 Evidence proving existence of multiple DPRs as well as Ross’s ignorance regarding laptop contents suppressed.
Conversation between notwonderful and DPR suppressed.

Chat logs, forum posts, private messages, e-mails, accounting spreadsheets, and even a diary all point to Ross Ulbricht as being the Silkroad founder.

The journal was divided up into multiple files, neatly organized in different directories by year. Later iterations of the journal were organized by quarter, by month, and by week. The 2010 journal—before Silk Road was launched—came in the form of a long, literary rumination. By 2013, the journal had broken down into short, terse, daily logs of activity on Silk Road.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/01/22/the-dread-pirates-diary/#6ec000d542cf

February 4, 2015 Ross is found guilty on all counts.

March 31, 2015 Corruption of Silk Road investigation revealed.
“The complete scope of what former SA’s Force and Bridges were able to accomplish with the illicit access they gained to the Silk Road website, and its impact on this case, has yet to be determined.” – Joshua Dratel, lead trial attorney

April 16, 2015 Dratel files motion for new trial (and this one too) based on the fact that AUSA Turner hid corrupt agent Bridges from the defense and the judge.

April 27, 2015 Judge Forrest denies motion for new trial.

May 26, 2015 Ross writes sentencing letter addressed to Judge Forrest pleading to leave him his old age.

“Silk Road was supposed to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices, to pursue their own happiness, however they individually saw fit.” – Ross in sentencing letter to Judge Forrest

May 29, 2015 Sentencing. Double life plus 40 years, without the possibility of parole, on five non-violent charges.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1074337.0

June 9, 2015 Government issues a grand jury subpoena/gag order to Reason.com to turn over identities of people who commented on Ross’s sentence.

June 18, 2015, Ex-U.S. federal Agents Charged With Bitcoin Theft to Plead Guilty
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1093358
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-federal-agents-charged-bitcoin-money-laundering-and-wire-fraud

January 14, 2016 Appeal submitted to Second Circuit.

Jan 28, 2016 Bridges arrested again trying to flee the country to avoid jail sentence.

February 20, 2016 Edward Snowden publicly states that we should assume that the NSA was involved in gathering evidence in Ross’s case.

March 15, 2016 Appeal brief joined by six amici:
National Association. of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Edward Snowden: NSA was involved in Silk Road investigation
Drug Policy Alliance — Law Enforcement Against Prohibition — JustLeadershipUSA — Former Federal Judge Nancy Gertner

May 15, 2016 SILK ROAD 3.0 – Back Online and Open For Business
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1473248.0



November 29, 2016 Tampering of evidence announced.
“That my son — or anyone — would receive a life sentence based on such vulnerable evidence, especially when there is proof of corruption and tampering, is a travesty of justice.” – Lyn Ulbricht

December 1, 2016 Log-in by Dread Pirate Roberts after Ross arrested announced.

December 02, 2016, Free Ross-A-Thon Livestream for Silk Road Appeal Case
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1700974.0
   
May 28, 2017 [SOLD] SILK ROAD .999 SILVER BITCOIN WALLET
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1936765.0


May 29, 2017 Appeal denied.

July 14, 2017 Ross moved to USP Florence, CO, a maximum security penitentiary.

July 31, 2017 Petition to Second Circuit to re-hear appeal filed.
First Amendment violations at sentencing
Unconstitutional warrants
Warrantless surveillance

August 15, 2017,Secret Service agent, corrupted by Silk Road case, admits to second heist
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2092664.0

August 29, 2017 Petition to re-hear denied by Second Circuit without comment.

November 04, 2017, [WTS] 1 BTC - Silk Road memorabilia! "Carl Mark Force IV" business card for sale !
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2358801.0


November 08, 2017,  Ex-agent in Silk Road probe gets more prison time for bitcoin theft.
The initial theft was valued at $359,005 in 2015 but have been re-valued at $11.3 million in 2017.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2374117.0

December 22, 2017 Defense led by Kannon Shanmugam files petition for Writ of Certiorari asking Supreme Court to review the decision of the lower courts.

February 5, 2018 Petition for writ joined by the following amici (21 organizations):
American Black Cross
Drug Policy Alliance — Law Enforcement Action Partnership
United States Supreme Court Building
Downsize DC Foundation — Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund — Gun Owners Foundation — Gun Owners of America — Restoring Liberty Action Committee
National Lawyers Guild — American Conservative Union Foundation Center for Criminal Justice Reform — FreedomWorks — Human Rights Defense Center — Judge Nancy Gertner — National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms — Partnership for Civil Justice Fund — People’s Law Office
Reason Foundation — Cato Institute  — Competitive Enterprise Institute — R Street Institute

February 5, 2018 Judge Forrest denies unopposed motion to extend deadline to submit newly-discovered evidence.
Judge Forrest denies motion for her to recuse herself.

March 7, 2018 Defense Attorney Paul Grant files petition for Writ Of Mandamus to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

March 20, 2018 Defense led by Kannon Shanmugam files reply to government in support of Supreme Court cert petition.

Silkroad personalities:

Silkroad Founder: DPR:
Silkroad 1 = Ross Ulbricht
Silkroad 2 = SilkRoad 1 user StExo and / or SilkRoad 1 user Defcon = Blake Benthall
Silkroad 3 = ?

Dread Pirate Roberts 2 once made the fatal mistake early on during Silk Road 2 of signing a message with St.Exo’s PGP key..  DPR2 quickly realized his mistake and edited his post.

Ross Ulbricht used a real photograph of himself for a fake ID to rent servers.
He stated in his linkedin profile: that he was ‘creating an economic simulation’ designed to ‘give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force’ by ‘institutions and governments’.
In March 2012, a user registered on the coding Q&A site Stack Overflow with Ulbricht’s email address and the username 'Ross Ulbricht'. He then proceeded to post the question “How can I connect to a Tor hidden service using curl in php?”
He sought contacts in courier firms, presumably to work out how to best ship things from his international multimillion dollar drugs marketplace, on Google+, where his real name, real face and real YouTube profile were visible
- Altoid mentions Silk Road: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=175.msg42670#msg42670 (deleted the original message but his quote is still there)
- Altoid identifies as Ross Ulbricht: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47811.msg568744#msg5.
The real IP of the silk road server was emitted via a lighthttpd config error
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/the-incredibly-simple-story-of-how-the-govt-googled-ross-ulbricht/



Defcon (Blake Benthall) he registered the silk road 2.0 servers with the email address blake@benthall.net

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/fbi-arrests-blake-defcon-benthall-alleged-operator-of-silk-road-2-0/


Mentor: Variety Jones (allegedly - Roger Thomas Clark) (Alt: Cimon, Plural of Mongoose)
Who is "Variety Jones"?

Moderators:
Andrew Michael Jones  -  Inigo - USA
Gary Davis – Libertas -  Ireland
Peter Phillip Nash - Samesamebutdifferent  (Chief moderator) - Australia (Alts = Batman73, Symmetry, and Anonymousaashit)

Site admin chronicpain (Alt:Flush) , the target of an alleged murder-for-hire plot, was identified in 2013 as Curtis Clark Green.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2013/11/08/meet-the-silk-road-employee-that-the-dread-pirate-roberts-allegedly-tried-to-murder/#427ad601412c

Brian Richard Farrell = Silk Road 2.0. administrator called “DoctorClu”.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/hand-man-silk-road-2-0-creator-arrested-feds-article-1.2086750

Mike Wattier =  Smed, or Smedley (Alt:Charger)
Steven Lloyd Sadler  & Jenna White = Nod (USA) (Alt: PaythePiper (bought from another user), Poundsign)
Peter Ward, = PlutoPete (UK)
Cei William Owens = Johnny Alpha (UK)

But, although DPR was technically the head of Silk Road, chat logs found in the accessed email account show that Variety Jones and Smed were a real driving force behind the projects and Silk Road more generally. The pair discussed ideas and plans with each other, rather than simply reporting to DPR.

Smed, using his alternate handle, spoke with Variety Jones about developments to the site, such as adding bulk transactions and updates to the forums.

When it came to those discussions, it was as if Variety Jones was Smed's boss, not DPR. "What timeframe do you envision?" Smed asked Variety Jones of one project.

Variety Jones also appears to have funded large parts of Smed's work and expenses. "10k, 36k, 20k, that rounds up nicely to 90, and we'll cover all of your travel expenses for the trip, how does that sound," Variety Jones writes to Smed.

Arrests page



Main source:
https://freeross.org/case-timeline/
A large part of the timeline was obtained from this site and only slightly modified.

Other sources:
https://antilop.cc/sr/
https://allthingsvice.com/2015/05/27/silk-road-from-the-inside-moderator-ssbd-tells-his-story/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=310600.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3984.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4322078.0
https://www.wired.com/2015/12/variety-jones-alleged-silk-road-mentor-arrested-in-thailand/
https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/silk-road-3-blake-benthall/
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pgajmv/these-are-the-two-forgotten-architects-of-the-silk-road

This is a work in progress. Comments, additions and corrections welcome.

[ryan1918]

Pretty interesting read, and as you can see the government can do whatever they want, legal or not.

[NavI_027]

March 1, 2011 User “silkroad” advertises Silk Road on bitcointalk.org.
https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=3984.0

Wow! Is this really for real? It's shocking to know that silkroad was advertised here in the forum. But I'm just wondering how this kind of stuff is allowed here despite of its bad influence and this thread is still open until now. They sell illegal drugs, take note, illegal and IMO it's not healthy for the forum. I foresee that selling of such stuffs are yet to come and it's very alarming, I hope that mods will take action regarding this.

[xtraelv]

March 1, 2011 User “silkroad” advertises Silk Road on bitcointalk.org.
https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=3984.0

Wow! Is this really for real? It's shocking to know that silkroad was advertised here in the forum. But I'm just wondering how this kind of stuff is allowed here despite of its bad influence and this thread is still open until now. They sell illegal drugs, take note, illegal and IMO it's not healthy for the forum. I foresee that selling of such stuffs are yet to come and it's very alarming, I hope that mods will take action regarding this.

It is very hard to "police" something like this. There is also a certain amount of "free speech" involved. Bitcointalk evolved from the cypherpunk movement so there is a reluctance to censor too much. Silk road advertising on bitcointalk was limited to stating "Silk Road is an anonymous online market." It didn't detail any illegal activities.

Considering that Silk road at that stage was just starting as an experiment it also wasn't doing anything illegal ...yet.

I've been a moderator on a forum that got bombarded with 10000+ scam and spam messages a day. It is easy to overlook one or mistake it for a genuine post. As someone from a reasonably sheltered background I find it extremely interesting to read about - while I would not partake in the drug culture myself. I think it is a brave stance not to censor too much.

[killyou73]

March 1, 2011 User “silkroad” advertises Silk Road on bitcointalk.org.
https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=3984.0

Wow! Is this really for real? It's shocking to know that silkroad was advertised here in the forum. But I'm just wondering how this kind of stuff is allowed here despite of its bad influence and this thread is still open until now. They sell illegal drugs, take note, illegal and IMO it's not healthy for the forum. I foresee that selling of such stuffs are yet to come and it's very alarming, I hope that mods will take action regarding this.

Wow if you read the fucking rules you would know but you are a motherfucking signature spammer

It is only illegal if it is illegal in the sellers country

[pkmoney]

March 1, 2011 User “silkroad” advertises Silk Road on bitcointalk.org.
https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=3984.0

Wow! Is this really for real? It's shocking to know that silkroad was advertised here in the forum. But I'm just wondering how this kind of stuff is allowed here despite of its bad influence and this thread is still open until now. They sell illegal drugs, take note, illegal and IMO it's not healthy for the forum. I foresee that selling of such stuffs are yet to come and it's very alarming, I hope that mods will take action regarding this.

You didn't check the post before writing such a comment here.
Here is a quote from theymos in that post-

This topic was briefly removed due to the "illegal trading" policy, but I decided that since you're not actually selling drugs in this thread, it's OK. (Maybe some other moderator/admin will disagree with my later decision, though.) Sorry about that.

Agree with that. He was not selling anything here.

[xtraelv]

March 1, 2011 User “silkroad” advertises Silk Road on bitcointalk.org.
https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=3984.0

Wow! Is this really for real? It's shocking to know that silkroad was advertised here in the forum. But I'm just wondering how this kind of stuff is allowed here despite of its bad influence and this thread is still open until now. They sell illegal drugs, take note, illegal and IMO it's not healthy for the forum. I foresee that selling of such stuffs are yet to come and it's very alarming, I hope that mods will take action regarding this.

You didn't check the post before writing such a comment here.
Here is a quote from theymos in that post-

This topic was briefly removed due to the "illegal trading" policy, but I decided that since you're not actually selling drugs in this thread, it's OK. (Maybe some other moderator/admin will disagree with my later decision, though.) Sorry about that.

Agree with that. He was not selling anything here.

Thanks for pointing that out. It confirms my opinion as to why it wasn't removed and I've added it to the thread. I agree with theymos.

Tolerated with some reluctance. On the basis of free speech.

[Quickseller]

Back when SR was open, talking about Silk Road was somewhat taboo, I have read that people were banned for talking about it (this likely included the posting of links to SR).

Bitcoin was largely still in its infancy when SR1 was running and except for the last few months before shutting down, law enforcement had no idea who was running it. I believe I have read that theymos at one point was suspected as being behind SR, which logically would have contributed to SR being taboo.

[xtraelv]

Back when SR was open, talking about Silk Road was somewhat taboo, I have read that people were banned for talking about it (this likely included the posting of links to SR).

Bitcoin was largely still in its infancy when SR1 was running and except for the last few months before shutting down, law enforcement had no idea who was running it. I believe I have read that theymos at one point was suspected as being behind SR, which logically would have contributed to SR being taboo.

Yes- I noticed that when doing the research. There were a few post and threads that "disappeared".

[xtraelv]

Apparently making a post about Silkroad and advocating for free speech on the internet makes me a drug dealer according to this now banned former member of bitcointalk.  

Using that logic I think I need to make a post about geniuses and bitcoin billionaires.

[werizapp]

This is quite interesting. I recently heard about This story in a podcast... and such an amazing story too. A guy without any programming background made such an advanced website.

If only his efforts were in a more productive direction.

[mazdafunsun]

The thread is shocking, interesting and about legendary topic . Thanks for sharing and makeing this post in hronological manner.
It seems that there is much more to this story rather than just arresting and justly sentecing a drug dealer.

[kriptowitch]

It is very interesting, that is, a former agent who is serving a sentence, with each increase in the rate of bitcoin his term of imprisonment increases?

[xtraelv]

UPDATE:
Silk Road Administrator Libertas Plea bargain- Guilty plea.

Gary Davis, an Irishman known as ‘Libertas’ on Silk Road who was extradited to the United States in July has pled guilty to: "conspiring to distribute narcotics".

Authorities claim that Davis received weekly remittances from Ulbricht exceeding $1,000 during 2013 in exchange for his work as part of a three-man team that is believed to have operated the anonymous market on behalf of its founder, Ross Ulbricht. Davis served as a forum moderator from May 2013 up to June 2013 for Silk Road, and as a site administrator from June 2013 up until Oct. 2, 2013.

https://news.bitcoin.com/silk-road-libertas-guilty/

Davis is due to be sentenced on January 17, 2019.

[xtraelv]

Craig Wright accused Martti Malmi and Theymos in open court to be the masterminds behind Silk Road.
Accusations made in a courtroom are covered by absolute privilege and cannot be used for defamation proceedings.



Martti replied:

Apparently CSW has claimed in court that I cofounded Silk Road and worked "to allow assassination markets". For the record: that is obviously a made up accusation.

Some had their own theories:


Others offered to help:


Source: https://twitter.com/marttimalmi/status/1147835230096674816

Theymos replied:

Again, it would be great to know if Wright's statements had truth behind them or not:

Of course not, do you really need to ask?

 - I was made a forum admin in 2011, after Satoshi left. (Silk Road also appeared after Satoshi left.) I didn't have any special access to bitcoin.org until around 2013, and in fact I didn't even have any access to the bitcointalk.org DNS until 2013.
 - I've never bought or sold anything on Silk Road, Hydra or similar sites; nor did I have anything whatsoever to do with their operation; nor AFAIK did I even have interactions with anyone involved in running these sites. While I am opposed to drug laws, I have never used illicit drugs, and in fact I also abstain from alcohol & nicotine. Furthermore, since the beginning I have warned over and over again that Tor is not secure against active government attacks: I wouldn't be found dead running one of these sites.
 - I never had any interaction with CSW. I don't have any keys related to CSW's (probably fictitious) SSS thing.

CSW's whole shtick is to just lie constantly. He's so brazen about it that some people think, "there must be some truth there," but really it's 100% nonsense.

I admit I was a little tempted to troll the world by roleplaying CSW's allegations as totally true...

[Quickseller]

Ulbright’s lawyers admitted in his trial that Ross created Silk Road (but claimed he subsequently sold it to an unknown person). Further the person who created Silk Road left an email address with Ross’s name asking for help coding Silk Road and there was later additional unconnected evidence that Ross created Silk Road.

The evidence is pretty strong that Ross created Silk Road. In theory, they could have partnered with Ross, but I would have thought the government would have uncovered some evidence to support this on Ross’s laptop or the SR servers, which I believe they didn’t. Further, the moderation policy of the forum at the time seems to indicate theymos didn’t have an interest in SR.

[xtraelv]

There is some evidence of multiple DPRs

https://freeross.org/proof-of-multiple-dprs/
https://reason.com/2016/12/01/a-dread-pirate-roberts-was-using-a-silk/

The DPR account was used after Ulbricht was arrested.
Someone logged into the DPR account on Silk Road's forum on November 18, 2013.
Ulbricht had been in jail since Oct 1.

There were also some theories who the other DPR was.



https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4516868-U-S-20v-20-Roger-20-Clark-20-Indictment.html