Ross Ulbricht’s case has garnered important public consideration, and quite a few people have advocated for clemency for the web site’s founder.
Ross Ulbricht, the founding father of the now-defunct on-line black market Silk Highway, has reached the somber milestone of a decade behind bars. In 2013, US authorities sentenced him to a double life sentence.
On October 2, Ulbricht shared on social media his issues about probably spending the remainder of his life “behind concrete partitions and locked doorways”. His submit expressed a way of resignation, with a plea for mercy as his solely recourse. In his submit on Twitter (now X), Ulbricht noted:
“One 12 months for every finger on each arms. At the moment ends a full decade in jail. I typically concern I’ll spend the remainder of my life behind concrete partitions and locked doorways. However I’ve nobody else guilty. It’s my poor selections that led me right here. All I can do now’s pray for mercy.”
In 2011, Silk Highway was established, with Ross Ulbricht, working beneath the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, managing it from his private laptop computer. This platform was well-known because the pioneer of contemporary darknet markets and employed a fee system primarily based on Bitcoin (BTC). Nevertheless, on October 1, 2023, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized Ulbricht’s laptop computer.
In 2015, Ulbricht confronted a federal court docket trial in the US on numerous fees linked to Silk Highway’s actions. His sentencing resulted in two life phrases, together with an extra forty years, with out the opportunity of parole.
Assist Grows for Ulbricht
As per the court docket data within the case, throughout its operational interval, the Silk Highway platform performed gross sales totaling 9,519,664 Bitcoins (BTC) on the present price of $28,241 per BTC, spanning from February 2011 to July 2013. {The marketplace} additionally collected commissions amounting to 600,000 Bitcoins (BTC), valued at roughly $28,241 per BTC.
On the time of the court docket paperwork’ publication, this translated to roughly $1.2 billion in gross sales and commissions amounting to roughly $80 million. Ross Ulbricht’s case has garnered important public consideration, and quite a few people have advocated for clemency for the web site’s founder.
An internet site devoted to advocating for justice on behalf of Ulbricht studies that greater than 250 organizations have endorsed these pleas, and roughly half one million people have digitally signed a petition urging Ulbricht’s launch. The crypto and Bitcoin communities have additionally proven substantial help for his trigger.
Practically makes me cry to see this submit, the punishment didn’t swimsuit the crime and individuals who have achieved a lot worse have had an opportunity of redemption, #freeross
— Soberclown.eth (@bitcoinnz) October 2, 2023
Whereas there’s a important groundswell of help for Ulbricht, and plenty of on-line customers have expressed their perception that the penalties imposed on the Silk Highway founder had been unfair, there are contrasting views.
One X person highlighted that in Ulbricht’s prosecution, the prosecution workforce recommended that he had purportedly employed people to hold out violent acts. Regardless that formal fees associated to this allegation had been by no means filed in opposition to Ulbricht, it stays an unproven declare.
Bhushan is a FinTech fanatic and holds aptitude in understanding monetary markets. His curiosity in economics and finance draw his consideration in the direction of the brand new rising Blockchain Expertise and Cryptocurrency markets. He’s repeatedly in a studying course of and retains himself motivated by sharing his acquired information. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and typically discover his culinary abilities.
