Secret history of bitcoin in the dark net "Silk Road"

Recently, media reports said that the dark market Dream Market will be closed on April 30 and the service will be transferred to the partnership.

In October last year, US District Judges sentenced Gal Vallerius, an illegal trader of the Dark Market market, to 20 years in prison. Previously Vallerius had obtained more than 100 BTCs and 121.95 BCHs from the dark net.

There are many stories about the Dark Net, mysterious, but the most legendary should be the story of Silk Road and its founder Ross.

What happens when a young man who advocates liberalism meets Bitcoin?

The founder of the "Silk Road" Ross gave a result, perhaps the worst result – to create a dark version of "Taobao": let drugs, guns and other contraband freely.

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Founder from Xueba to Darknet "Silk Road"

In 1984, Ross was born in a middle-class family on the outskirts of Austin, USA. The family of four is happy.

Ross has joined the American Boy Scouts since he was a child. This is an organization that aims to train young Americans to be physically fit. After graduating from high school, I got a full scholarship and went to the University of Texas at Dallas to study physics. After graduating in 2006, I received a full scholarship to enter the University of Pennsylvania to pursue a master's degree in materials science and engineering.

He loves sports, has excellent academic performance, and looks very handsome. If he is in China, Ross is the "children of other people's families".

During his time at Penn, Ross began to have a keen interest in liberalism and the Austrian economics. After experiencing the baptism of thought, Ross gradually became a firm liberal.

In Ross's view, as long as they don't hurt anyone, people have the right to buy and sell whatever they want. If there is a problem, they can blame it afterwards, but they can't deprive everyone of the power to buy and sell. The same is true for drugs.

Of course he has his own logic. Hamburg can cause diabetes and heart disease. Why is McDonald's still legal? Cigarettes and fine wines kill thousands of people every year. Why are they legitimate businesses? Cars cause thousands of traffic accidents every year, aren't they still galloping around?

If these are legal, then why are drugs the exception?

In school, he often participates in university debates and elaborates on his own economic arguments. He puts the famous saying "Who is not allowed by anyone, but who will stop me" as his own creed.

If you follow the path of ordinary people, Ross should become a researcher. However, after graduating in 2009, Ross did not do research work like his classmates, but intended to become an entrepreneur.

Ross’s first venture was unsuccessful, but during this time Rose accidentally touched Bitcoin. The technical characteristics of Bitcoin’s decentralization, anonymity and privacy made his desire to hide in his heart begin to sprout – why not build one? Bitcoin-based underground trading network, the search engine can not access, can only be accessed through special software, and the goods transaction process is fully encrypted?

The collision of liberal ideas and bitcoin has made this young man gradually embark on a road of no return.

If the previous liberalism was only at the ideological level, Bitcoin helped Rose to start his own free economic experiment – to build a dark network based on Bitcoin, which is similar to Taobao, except that the traded goods They are all contraband goods such as drugs and guns. Everyone can trade freely and is not subject to government supervision.

Ross gave the dark version of "Taobao" a name "Silk Road" with the oriental color.

Bitcoin has become the means of payment for this park.

 

"Silk Road" and Bitcoin's mutual fulfillment

In mid-January 2011, the “Silk Road” was born, and it quickly attracted many merchants and buyers.

In the dark world, Ross is the Dread Pirate Roberts who masters the Silk Road. In the real world, he is an ordinary young man who likes to stay quietly in the house or stay in a cafe and bury himself in the computer. .

If it weren’t for the news that Ross was caught later, the roommates who had rented with Ross could not believe that this ordinary young man who did not want to clash with people turned out to be a big drug smuggler.

If the beginning of the "Silk Road" is still the ideal place for Ross's liberal ideas, then the later development can be said to go far beyond his expectations and control.

The “Silk Road” has evolved from a simple drug trading platform into a contraband “big market”, from hacking tools to AK-47 assault rifles, from cyanide to all kinds of lethal poisons, and even people talking about human body here. The business of buying and selling organs.

With Bitcoin, the "Silk Road", which originally represented civilization and communication, became a hidden and dark criminal paradise in Ross.

Bitcoin and darknet can be said to be mutually complementary. The privacy and encryption of Bitcoin guarantees the security of the "Silk Road" transaction, and the "Silk Road" provides an excellent use scene for Bitcoin. , giving it value.

As early as the birth of Bitcoin in 2009, it was worthless. In May 2010, an American programmer named Russell Hounets bought two pizzas worth $30 with 10,000 bitcoins, and the bitcoin had a price of $0.003. Later this day was called "Bitcoin Pizza Day".

If the use of bitcoin for pizza officially opened the door to Bitcoin as a means of payment, the dark network such as the "Silk Road" will carry forward this bitcoin payment method.

In the time of payment as a dark network, the price of bitcoin soared from $0.00025 in 2010 to $31 in 2011.

Is Bitcoin air? The Silk Road tells you that you can get a pack of drugs, an AK47, or hire a killer by paying a certain bitcoin here.

Even today, when Bitcoin has been thousands of dollars, there are still many people who believe that the dark network such as the "Silk Road" is the value support of Bitcoin.

At the same time, the "Silk Road" has also risen rapidly because of Bitcoin. According to Forbes, the annual revenue of the “Silk Road” in 2013 reached 30 million to 40 million US dollars, and the daily visit volume was around 60,000.

In August 2013, in order to expand the popularity of the "Silk Road" and gain an advantage in the increasingly fierce competition, Ross even accepted an interview with Forbes anonymously.

In the interview, Rothstein said, "Because of Bitcoin, we won the battle against the US anti-drug war."

140,000 bitcoins were paid, and the FBI became the biggest winner.

In fact, the entire process of the “Silk Road” from the start to the growing day has been under the watchful eye of the US FBI, but it was not until October 2013 that the FBI finally arrested Ross, who was named “Terrorist Pirate Roberts”. .

About the FBI lookup tracking Ross's story, there are different versions of the online version, the level of brilliance is comparable to Hollywood blockbuster, but also the network tracking and undercover, the effort is exhausted, the FBI is finally in a cafe in San Francisco. Captured Ross.

The process of capturing Ross was also very dramatic. The two policemen dressed up as a couple of quarrels to divert Rose's attention, and another police officer quickly rushed to grab the computer and plugged it into a USB flash drive to prevent Ross from destroying the documents that proved his identity.

After Ross was captured, the "Silk Road" was immediately seized.

According to the FBI survey, when the Silk Road was seized in 2013, the Silk Road traded about 9.5 million bitcoins worth about $1.2 billion in two years, and its circulation accounted for 80% of the total bitcoin at that time. %the above.

As the founder of Ross, from 2011 to 2013 at least 700,000 bitcoins, worth 80 million US dollars in profits.

On October 25, 2013, the FBI controlled 144,000 bitcoins on the Rose account and transferred them to the bitcoin address controlled by the FBI.

"FBI is now the new richest man in the world of Bitcoin" has become a segment of the population of the currency.

After that, the bitcoin that was paid was auctioned in batches by the US Police. It is said that Tim Draper, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who invested in many famous companies such as Tesla, purchased nearly 32,000 auctions for less than 20 million US dollars. Bitcoin.

On May 29, 2015, seven counts of criminal charges such as money laundering, drug smuggling, and cyber fraud were convicted. Rose was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Federal Court of Manhattan in New York. Since then, the legendary story of "Pirate Roberts" has been drawn.

Until now, there is still a lot of controversy about Ross and the Silk Road. Some people are still immersed in the grief of family members who died because of drug abuse. Many people, including Bitcoin Jesus and Litecoin founder Li Qiwei, petitioned Ross. With generous treatment, it is difficult to judge whether Ross is a hero who pursues the belief of liberalism, or whether he is relying on drug addiction to make a fortune.

The well-known and wealthy Ross of the "Silk Road" eventually went to the dark abyss of darkness.

The wealth accumulated by this liberal has finally fallen into the pockets of his most disgusting power rulers.

Wenmen

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