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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Ross Ulbricht, a founder of the darknet Silk Road, was arrested in 2015 for his involvement in conspiracy to traffic narcotics. The website was deployed as an online marketplace where drug dealers and others organized more than $200 million in illicit trade using Bitcoin.
As the news about the release of Ross Ulbricht broke the internet, let’s take a closer look at the Silk Road’s founder identity, including his early life, imprisonment, and endorsement from Trump, as compiled from Investopedia, Business Insider, and Reuters.
Early Life of Ross Ulbricht
Born to Lyn and Kirk Ulbricht in March 1984, Ross Ulbricht grew up in Austin, Texas. He spent a portion of his life, including middle school, high school, and university days, within the area of Texas.
After graduating high school, Ulbricht reportedly studied physics at the University of Texas at Dallas. Later on, he pursued a master’s program in materials sciences at Pennsylvania State University.
As an engineer focusing on solar cell frameworks, Ross Ulbricht wrote plenty of academic papers, such as “Polymeric solar cells with oriented and strong transparent carbon nanotube anodes,” per Business Insider.
In one of his LinkedIn posts, the Silk Road founder wrote, “I love learning and using theoretical constructs to better understand the world around me. Naturally, therefore, I studied physics in college and worked as a research scientist for five years. I published my findings in peer-reviewed journals five times over that period, first on organic solar cells and then on EuO thin-film crystals. My goal during this period of my life was simply to expand the frontier of human knowledge.”
With a handful of experiences in the research field, Ross William Ulbricht is extremely smart. Before an immediate shutdown from the government, the online market he founded, Silk Road, was running from 2011 to 2013.
The History of the Silk Road
Silk Road found a light in 2011 when Ross Ulbricht familiarized the users with an online persona of “Dread Pirate Roberts.”. He shared on his LinkedIn page that the dark market was a “means to abolish the use of coercion and aggression amongst mankind.”.
Silk Road was a marketplace to sell and buy drugs paid for with cryptocurrency. The secret darknet benefited from the encryption and cryptocurrency systems that offer anonymity and security for its participants.
According to Investopedia, Silk Road gained popularity over a short period once multiple media outlets published their coverage of the market in mid-2011. Despite the growing scrutiny, Silk Road remained in operation until 2013, where it generated more than 100,000 users trading $200 million worth of illegal goods and services.
Ublricht was eventually arrested in 2013 after the FBI seized his laptop that disclosed his identity as the mastermind behind Silk Road. Ross Ulbricht was indicted on all seven counts, including conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to traffic narcotics through the internet, and continuing a criminal enterprise.
The darknet Ulbricht maintained accumulated more than $13 million of Bitcoin. The FBI confiscated 144,336 Bitcoins from Ulbricht’s laptop, which were then sold in a couple of auctions, generating a value of $48.2 million. Ross Ulbricht was finally sentenced to life in prison in 2015.
Trump pardons Ross Ulbricht
In a latest report from Reuters, it is revealed that President Donald Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Previously, Trump made a campaign pledge to free Ulbricht from all the seven charges for running an online marketplace that traded illegal drugs.
Trump said the pardon of Ulbricht, who has been imprisoned at a federal prison in Arizona, was “full and unconditional.”. The president disclosed he had called Ulbricht’s mother to break the news.
"After enduring over a decade of incarceration, this decision offers Ross the opportunity to begin anew, to rebuild his life, and to contribute positively to society," Brandon Sample, Ross Ulbricht's clemency attorney, said in a statement.
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