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Silk Road Shut Down, Founder Arrested, $3.6 Million Worth of Bitcoin Seized
New submitter u38cg writes Ross William Ulbricht, known as 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' was arrested in San Francisco yesterday and has been charged with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy, according to a court filing. Silk Road has been shut down and some $3.6m in Bitcoin (26,000 Btc) seized. The question is — how?"
onyxruby submitted a link to the criminal complaint (PDF; coral cache might work better). The court filing indicates that they seized the actual servers and recovered their contents, making numerous references to the private messaging system. Also according to the court filing, the Silk Road was used to sell ~$1.2 billion in illicit goods since being founded in 2011.
I think it can be argued that Silk Road practiced the use of Tor as well as anyone could have. They still got pinched. Although it may come out that an insider turned informant, it seems that the Tor system is compromised by the snoops.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
But they only spy on foreign terrists. And blacks.
This guy had to convert some of the bitcoin into real $ at some point, he had to eat and live somewhere right? Money laundering investigations might have been the vector through which he was compromised instead of a computer based trace.
Or more specifically, monitoring known(or complicit) tor entry nodes, looking for quantity of activity corresponding to activity by roberts, back tracking to the origin IP address, getting a warrant for a full-on-monitoring of that address, verifying their target, then going for a bust.
Encryption and anonymyzing technology only works in as much as no one with any resources actively wants to figure out who you are. You might be able to hide your message, but you'll never hide your existence.
Yup. NSA -> FBI -> Parallel Construction Filter -> Arrest.
Tor was not designed to protect against an adversary that has a global view of all traffic.
I hope all these evildoers and drug pushers
capitalism is evil. selling a product to a willing and interested buyer is evil.
"Drug dealers don’t really sell drugs. Drug dealers offer drugs. I’m 30 years old. Ain’t nobody ever sold me drugs. Ain’t nobody ever sold nobody in this room some drugs. Was you ever in your life not thinking about getting high and somebody sold you some fucking drugs. Hell, no!
Drug dealers offer, “Hey man, You want some smoke? You want some smoke?” If you say “no,” that’s it. Now Jehovah’s Witnesses on the other hand. Shit. Yo man, drug dealers don’t sell drugs. Drugs sell themselves. It’s crack. It’s not an encyclopedia. It’s not a fucking vacuum cleaner. You don’t really gotta try to sell crack, OK? I’ve never heard a crack dealer go, “Man, how am I going to get rid of all this crack? It’s just piled up in my house.”"
- Chris Rock on drugs
It's an open secret that Silk Road was THE primary driver of demand for bitcoin in the beginning. Adoption by the Silk Road transformed bitcoin from a technical curiosity to a real currency backed by a valuable physical commodity (drugs).
Bitcoin has a life of its own now. Even Wall Street is involved. But without Silk Road, 99% of slashdot would have never heard of bitcoin. And the end of Silk Road is certain to impact bitcoin in a big way, even today.
Or more specifically, monitoring known(or complicit) tor entry nodes, looking for quantity of activity corresponding to activity by roberts, back tracking to the origin IP address, getting a warrant for a full-on-monitoring of that address, verifying their target, then going for a bust.
Encryption and anonymyzing technology only works in as much as no one with any resources actively wants to figure out who you are. You might be able to hide your message, but you'll never hide your existence.
You had me sold on this theory, right up until you said "warrant".
Then I knew it was bullshit.
Like our government feels the need to recognize the legal process anymore.
The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right... The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
— John Stuart Mill,
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
it is more likely than not that a very clear paper trail will be shown that it all happened by good old fashioned police investigation as you described.
It doesn't mean it was not obtained with an illicit program to begin with, only that they were able to cross the "t"s an dot the "i"s later.
i'm attacking the notion that because the "war" goes on forever it is invalid. you also need to take the trash out every thursday. is that an argument to end "the war on trash"? no, some functions of society are just maintenance functions that never end
i'm not defending us drug policy, it's poor tactics. and some substances need to be legal. but i'm attacking the notion that just because there's demand and supply for something, therefore it needs to be accepted
example: something like meth has a lot of supply and demand. meth also creates horrible costs to individuals and society. such that attacking the meth supply and demand chain has direct costs, and secondary costs. but if meth use is minimized to some extent because of the "war", that pays dividends in the form of less overall costs for individuals and society in regards to the harm that meth does. such that fighting meth is worth it
it's a case-by-case basis. just because marijuana is legalized (and should be legalized) doesn't mean all drugs should be. each substance has to be evaluated individually
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The US Government cares, but only so far as they need to make sure they get reciprocal privileges in that country. Obviously, US power makes it easier to get things done without having to horse trade for it, but ultimately, it only works if there is not too much abuse.
Wait, so after all the NSA bullshit, he was caught by Canada? Oh, the irony.
Welllll, maybe...
Do you remember the recent stories about the DEA and "parallel construction," where the DEA was getting phone records from the NSA and then using them to identify suspects from which they could reverse engineer a false "lead" to let the police just happen to find other incriminating evidence to build a case on?
I'm not saying that's clearly what happened here, but as others have pointed out, it's a distinct possibility given that drugs are involved.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I'm not going to cry about criminals going to jail. it's people like this that help the govt justify the NSA, etc. they need all these tools because people who use encryption / tor / bitcoin / etc are criminals! thanks silk road for ruining it for the rest of us.
it's like the shoe bomber guy who gave the gov't authority to tell me to take off my shoes, and the underwear bomber guy who convinced the govt to fondle my nuts every time I went through security (although secretly they always wanted to do that). Now because of the boston bombers NSA will be collating my online profile to look for "suspicious activities" that may make me a potential terrorist.
I think in 1984 the Goldman terrorist guy actually didn't exist, and was just a gov't front to justify their behaviors and scare people. maybe that's what's going on here?
Indeed, robo singers like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber are annoying. But there have been many egregious products of the recording industry over the decades and it seems harsh to throw them in jail.
Nullius in verba
When they size 20kg of cocaine "with a street value of $3.6m"[1], they don't sell it, or at least they are not supposed to. They destroy it.
- Officer Smith, please take this pile of drugs and make it disappear!
- Sure, boss. You won't see this particular pile of drugs ever again.
What value does law and order have to the slave? Law and order is nothing more than a tool, and when that tool is wielded by evil, it serves evil. A society where injustice is enforced by the government and cheered on by patriots is no society that is worth having.
Think about it, if you were the slave in your scenario, would you really care that an abolitionist had counterfeited currency? Hell no! If you thought that counterfeiting would lead to your freedom, I bet you would run the presses yourself.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Kim might also walk because of that little detail of him NOT BEING IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM UNDER THEIR JURISDICTION.
And if all he gets is to walk, but not compensated for the billions of dollars in losses he suffered by having his business stolen by jack booted thugs with no legal process whatsoever in effect, it'll be a gross miscarriage of justice.
And no, he's not my favorite person. But if this kind of shit can happen to him just because he's not everyone's favorite person, then we may as well entirely give up on that whole rule of law concept entirely and stop splitting hairs about it.