Silk Road Seizure: 3 Year Anniversary

Three years ago on this date law enforcement shut down the original Silk Road. Here's a link to the discussion on /r/silkroad that was stickied at the time. Reading it again still makes me feel some kind of way.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SilkRoad/comments/1nl7p9/sr_shutdown_fallout_discussion/?st=itt1jcmu&sh=9c322c3d

We've learned a lot since then. For starters, we've learned that some of the government agents working the Silk Road case were criminals. This is an opportune segue into a link to https://freeross.org

For more background on Silk Road check out the sites of Moustache and Gwern.

http://antilop.cc/sr/ http://www.gwern.net/Silk%20Road

What's on your mind three years later?


Comments


[31 Points] thascarecro:

3 years ago after the shut down it made me get help from pills and heroin. Been clean since October 29 2013.


[10 Points] ag0risthooawayyfoe:

Sad that he made such a simple mistake...

This stood out to me from that thread

I don't feel it's best for anyone to speculate about the allegations, so I won't.

He was a physics major when I knew him (2002-2006) although we lost touch after college and he moved out of Dallas back to Austin. The kind of guy who'd walk around campus barefoot and shirtless wearing a camelbak in the middle of summer.

I met him at college orientation, and got to know him really well through a mutual friend, we'd work out daily at 6AM together. Ross was a total hippie and never wore deodorant. I never said anything but I HATED having him as a spotter because he smelled.

Seriously though, he is utterly brilliant. You know how people in college like to think they're being all intellectual and have "deep" conversations? Well, Ross was for real. He'd lose everyone in the conversation after a few minutes, he was just thinking through things at a level so profoundly different than the rest of us.

Great artist as well, he had an incredible notebook full of amazing sketches. Lots of his own art up on the walls too.

He taught me how to meditate, specifically a method I could use to get help get rid of headaches.

But honestly, most of the time I spent with him was just hanging out in the on-campus apartments, eating pizza and playing video games. Just like any other college student. That's why all this feels so unreal.

I actually just posted to his Facebook wall, but I don't expect he'll be able to see it.

Edited to add: he always kicked my ass at ping pong too.

and another one of his friends posted these pics off his fb before it was deleted https://imgur.com/a/RlQH5

Also inb4 someone says "but he hired a hitman" we will never know for a fact, it's impossible to prove that he was actually the one typing those messages.

2 life sentences seems extreme even if he is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, there are people who murder and get less time than that.


[7 Points] None:

[deleted]


[3 Points] vendor_Hallmark:

What a simple time...


[2 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

I'm going to tell you about me, SilkRoad, and the parking clamp.

The vendor bond to trade on Silk Road was very expensive. I was too broke to afford it. My car had been immobilized with a wheel clamp because I had unpaid parking tickets, it broke my heart every time I had to walk past it to go to the shop. I knew one day soon it would be towed away and crushed at my expense.

Then one day, the wheel clamp was gone! I guess there was physically no room for the tow truck! I tried to unlock the door with my remote key fob, and it didn't work. The battery was completely flat..

I could just about afford the very cheapest battery charger in Tesco (for motorcycle batteries), but it wasn't in stock. I had to order it and wait. When it arrived, the shop next to my car allowed me to run a power cable into their shop.

I charged it for hours, but it wasn't enough to make the engine turn over, so I removed the battery and took it home to charge, its sharp edges cutting my hands. I dragged it back to my car after charging for a day, turned the key......the engine turned over, but it wouldn't start. the battery was running down and the turnover was getting slower, when "VROOOM!" it started!

I drove it (uninsured) to a shop car park where it would be safe from traffic wardens and put an ad into Auto Trader. The day I sold it for £575 I bought the bitcoin for SR's vendor bond, and spent two days walking around 25 pharmacy stores, buying a packet of pseudoephedrine decongestant pills in each. Three days later, they were 8g of Black Magic. I had no money at all. I had to eat toast, and my cat had one tin of cat food left.

Silk Road was very slow, page refreshes took a minute. I wrote my first listings as "RedBook", exclusively trading BBMC meth, and pressed "send" at 2AM. "If British people don't want meth, we're not eating tomorrow" I said to my cat. I'd only ever sold meth to customers who were Thai, and female, the core British meth users.

Then something magical started to happen. A Belfast customer called "Spazzmatazz" ordered a gram. Another vendor offered to buy it all (he's Britains biggest scammer, still around) but I declined. By 10AM I'd sold it all, but I had to borrow money off my mate to pay the postage. Then when I got home, I got confused and somehow cancelled the orders, returning everybody's bitcoin!

Every single customer voluntarily paid me, even though they could have had free meth! DNM customers are never the problem, its always vendors. Spazzmatazz still buys meth from me occasionally.

7 weeks later, I made my weekly listing, pressed "send", and a minute later police badges flashed up on the screen. I was still broke, because a bent cop with admin rights kept turning on "automated withdrawal" and withdrawing my takings to his own bitcoin wallet.

Silk Road was gone, but it was too late. My mind had changed forever. When Napster was closed, I knew I would never pay for music again. When SR closed, I knew I would never sell meth to another stupid Chinese meth dealer.

I renamed to "BBMC" on SheepMarketplace because the cops had the server. I had enough bitcoin to buy another cheap car there, but I couldn't withdraw it. When my bitcoin was stolen, with 96,000 others, I decided I would chase it through hell and back because he'd stolen my car and I could see it. I had a big pile of unsold meth and didn't need to sleep. You guys were less than useless when a market exit scams, you still are. Oasis aren't cops, they're thieves, but you'll talk it up until its a bartard bellringer fact. This was the song I played on rotation for 6 hours, clicking "next" 3 times a minute following the bitcoin through bitcoinfog. I hadn't slept for days, the world's press were following the story and I was out of my mind. Now he's in fucking jail where he belongs, caught by the bitcoin.

https://youtu.be/eB8CcdmA6qA

When did I have enough money to buy my car back?

I'm closer than ever. I owe £600 to my landlord, and have £150 but all the chemicals to make 30g of Black Magic. For 3 years I haven't even had Christmas day off. I have no friends and no girlfriend. This is all I have to show for it:-

https://imgur.com/CaMidMh

https://imgur.com/a/IROVr

https://youtu.be/oZEZc7wcfkA?list=PLMShB_SM1W3UYodBC1gU818V1mQsofYD8

That's what the genius of Ross brought me. I don't really need a car. DNMs haven't progressed at all in 3 years, still relying on the four cornerstones of the "Silk Road model":- Tor, Bitcoin, Escrow and Feedback. At least lots of people have tried BBMC meth and had crazy sex. Zorrin went to Mexico. Drax married a woman who won't let him cook meth, so now I'm the only BBMC Master Chemist qualified to make Black Magic https://youtu.be/MkElfR_NPBI

When all the DNM problems have been ironed out, I might make some money. More likely I'll never get rich, i'll get busted and in the history of DNMs I'll be forgotten.


[1 Points] None:

I wonder who's gonna win 'Dancing with the Stars' this season..


[1 Points] cashadava:

I remember finalizing my order for 500g of ethylone 2 days before the site was taken down. I actually had the page open in class just going through listings and tried to click on one, and to my dismay the site was taken down. I was scared beyond belief. I had my roommate come pick me up because of it. We went back to our apartment and cleaned house. Was a crazy day, and a crazy time.


[1 Points] coffeencreme:

Damn 3 years have passed already? Unreal.