What started as a libertarian’s dream ended with arrests, but that doesn’t mean that Silk Road failed to leave some type of positive impact on the world.
ATM hacking tutorials, cocaine energy drinks, and high-quality crystal meth – these things comprise a short list of a much more extensive inventory of items that were once available on Silk Road. Hell, you could even hire a hitman if you had deep enough pockets.
What started as a libertarian’s dream ended with arrests, but that doesn’t mean that Silk Road failed to leave some type of positive impact on the world. Questionable ethics aside, Silk Road was pivotal to cryptocurrency adoption, specifically Bitcoin, and helped pave the way for the entire industry.
Several years after his arrest (and subsequent silence), Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht recently reached out from prison through a Twitter account. He comments on the “strange journey” of his life and thanks those who have supported him. If you knew Ulbricht before his Silk Road days, seeing him behind bars would probably come as a shock.
Hi, this is Ross! I’m hoping to find my voice here after all these years of silence. It has been a strange journey, but I’m so grateful for all those who’ve shown love and support and held me up through the hard times. You give me strength. https://t.co/x4m6J3lgha
— Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) July 19, 2018
Let’s take a step back, then, and walk through the “strange journey” that led Ulbricht to where he is today.
The Beginnings
An Austin, Texas native, Ulbricht was on a much different career path before starting Silk Road. He attempted to day trade stocks and formed a video game company before eventually working with his neighbor, Donny Palmertree, on Good Wagon Books, an e-commerce business for used books. Eventually, Palmertree moved to Dallas and put Ulbricht in charge. His time at the helm was short-lived, though. A few months later, the Good Wagon book warehouse collapsed taking the company with it.
Without a business to manage, Ulbricht was free to work on a long-awaited passion project of his, Silk Road. As a libertarian, Ulbricht wanted to build a truly free market outside the reach of any government entity.
Silk Road was an online marketplace that lived in the dark web. Using Tor, you could browse the market anonymously, and bitcoin acted as the pseudo-anonymous currency to purchase whatever your heart desired.
There were only a few rules in place: no child porn, no scams, and no sales of anything that could harm someone else. Other than that, it was an open market. Although it started with good intentions, the site quickly evolved into something bigger than most people could’ve imagined.
Ulbricht named the marketplace after the historical trading routes that stretched from Europe to Africa and East Asia. Operating under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” he ran the site alone for several months while keeping his anonymity.
The Gawker Blow-up
He was able to maintain this solo operation for quite some time. The site did well from the beginning, providing Ulbricht with enough funds to live comfortably in Australia with his sister. However, it wasn’t so overwhelming popular as to rob him from a healthy work-life balance. However, in June 2011, that all changed.
That summer, a Gawker reporter discovered the site and ran a story about it. The article, which now has more than three million views, thrust Silk Road into the spotlight. At its peak, the site had almost one million user accounts with transaction estimates anywhere from $2 million to $7 million a month.
From the time of Silk Road’s launch until its closure in 2013, the bitcoin price rose from below $1 to right around $130. The Gawker article alone caused the coin to almost double in value from $18 to more than $30.
Driven by a massive uptick in traffic, Ulbricht made several improvements to the platform and brought on a small staff. He moved the site to a more scalable server, built in an escrow service, and improved the rating system among buyers and sellers. He also made an effort to build up the community with groups like a book club to discuss core ideals.
However, at the same time that the underground world was discovering Silk Road, figures on the other side of the coin were catching a whiff as well.
This article was originally published at CoinCentral.com