On Trump’s first day in office, Silk Road founder who had been imprisoned for 11 years was released

Author: Jaleel Plus Six, BlockBeats

No one knows how to use political leverage to manipulate public sentiment better than Trump.

Trump has been under some pressure lately. In order to circumvent the presidential investment restrictions, on the eve of taking office in "Goose City", the Trumps directly issued coins, allowing an entire interest group behind them to achieve "no capital and huge profits" as quickly as possible.

There can be many people harvesting in the currency circle, but they cannot be the president. Many members of the cryptocurrency community who once supported him have spoken out against his actions. However, there is another voice among them, coming from those in the encryption circle who are dissatisfied with Trump’s currency issuance behavior:

"I can't forgive Trump for issuing coins on the eve of taking office unless he releases Ross Ulbricht tomorrow."

This is how Trump’s political sophistication is reflected. Under pressure from the encryption industry, he immediately called the mother of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and personally told this mother who had been waiting for her son to come home for ten years:

"I just signed a full and unconditional pardon for your son Ross." Ross can go home.

This was Trump's promise during the campaign. He promised to commute Ross's sentence or even pardon him on his first day in office if he was re-elected. Six months have passed since the Bitcoin 2024 conference, and most of his promises at the conference have been fulfilled: firing current SEC Chairman Gray Gensler, appointing a Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency Presidential Advisory Committee, commuting or even pardoning Ross’s sentence, and the U.S. government Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Every word and deed seems to prove and imply, "The promises I made during the election will be realized one by one, and the next one may be the Bitcoin strategic reserve." The Bitcoin strategic reserve is undoubtedly the G-point of the encryption industry. In this way, Trump has dispelled most of the crypto industry’s anger against his coin issuance.

For people who are far away from the crypto industry, it may be difficult to understand why releasing Ross can quell the crypto industry’s anger over Trump’s currency issuance of “nothing” for interest groups.

Let’s start from 2011. Many major events happened that year, including the killing of bin Laden and the death of Kim Jong Il. But there are also some things that didn't seem so important at the time. For example, Bitcoin was just 2 years old. Unlike the current price of 100,000 US dollars, Bitcoin has remained at 0.1 US dollars for one or two years after its birth.

Although Bitcoin seems to have a genius design now, at the time it was a useless design in everyone's eyes. It wasn't until 2010 that Ross heard about the existence of Bitcoin from customers, which became a turning point.

 Ross Ulbricht

In 2011, Ross founded the "notorious" darknet market "Silk Road". "Silk Road" does not trade tea, silk, or porcelain. This is the most famous and notorious "darknet" in history. The main trading objects of this website are drugs, sex slaves, child pornography, private killers, arms trading, and identity fraud.

 Screenshot of the Silk Road website, source network

In order to ensure anonymity, Ross is designed to only allow access through the Tor onion router (inaccessible to search engines and can only be accessed through special software), and only uses Bitcoin as a transaction medium. The core of the government's crackdown on illegal activities is the supervision of funds - the core behind this is the banking system, which is firmly in the hands of the government. Bitcoin is the payment tool that is separated from the banking system - until now, banks and Bitcoin still go their separate ways.

With the rise of Silk Road, Bitcoin finally found its first application scenario - a payment tool for sinful transactions. Data shows that the Silk Road once circulated more than 9.5 million Bitcoins, accounting for 80% of the Bitcoin circulation at that time.

To his real friends in life, Ross said that his job is "making an economic simulator". The purpose is to use economic theory to eliminate coercion and aggression between people, so that people can experience for themselves what it would be like to live without What a world of systemic force looks like.

No one would have thought that this young boy who usually seemed sunny and motivated would turn out to be a drug lord and the founder of the evil underground world. But there is no airtight wall in the world. Several regulatory agencies have been targeting him at the same time, and even an FBI spy has been his friend for three years.

 Ross once received an email request from an FBI spy worth US$1 billion, source network

Following the Internet cable, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still knew Ross's identity, and the moment when the FBI arrested him was also exciting.

In October 2013, Ross was browsing the Internet in a bookstore when he was arrested. In order to prevent Ulbricht from deleting or encrypting the relevant files in the laptop, a pair of agents pretending to be a couple passed by him and then quarreled loudly beside him.

"Curiosity killed the cat." Ross, who was distracted, looked back at them. At this moment, an agent quickly took away his computer, and two other agents rushed to capture him. The agents plugged a USB device into the computer and copied key files through the software. At that time, Ross's computer was logged in with the "Silk Road" administrator account.

On August 21, 2014, Ross was formally charged with money laundering, computer intrusion, and drug trafficking conspiracy. Found guilty on all charges on February 4, 2015. On May 29, 2015, the court sentenced Ross to double life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 40 years.

It can be said conclusively that Ross is an extremely important figure in the history of Bitcoin development. When Bitcoin is about to be ignored by the world, it ends the history of Bitcoin as a toy and gives it a real-world meaning - serving crime.

Just like a fool's consensus is a consensus, black needs are needs. Driven by criminal transactions, Bitcoin experienced its first surge, reaching $31 in June 2011. Two months after Ross was arrested, Bitcoin rose to $1,100 per coin.

In the 11 years since Ross was imprisoned for his liberal practices, there has been widespread support for clemency in society, including in the crypto industry, and many people in both parties believe that Ross’s sentence was unfair and that he should Get a second chance. More than 250 organizations, celebrities and leaders have expressed support, and more than 600,000 people have signed a petition to free Ross.

Today, times have changed. When Trump’s election victory rate is rising on Polymarket (a blockchain betting platform with high accuracy), most people believe that Ross may have his sentence commuted or even pardoned.

You can also see that in the betting topic on PolyMarket about "Who will Trump pardon within 100 days of taking office?", Ross is very likely to be pardoned. The winning rate has also been rising before. The probability of Ross being pardoned has been high for a long time. It's 73%.

Two life sentences plus an additional 40 years in prison were indeed too heavy for the young man who was arrested at the age of 26.

Now, the price of Bitcoin is 105,247 US dollars, and the United States has also ushered in the first "Bitcoin" president. Ross, who has been in prison for 11 years, is 41 years old. After walking out of prison, he can finally speak to the camera easily. Laughed once.

 Ross Ulbricht’s first photo released after his pardon, source: BitcoinMagazine