The Largest Criminal Operation

A Criminal’s Masterpiece

Silk Road was one of the most infamous and largest criminal operations in modern times. The website will facilitate one of the largest selections of illegal services meant to be bought and sold. From drugs to human trafficking and murder for hire, the sale of firearms, and almost every illegal thing a criminal could possibly want.

In The Making

March 27th, 1984 Ross Ulbricht was born in the capital city of Austin Texas. He attended high school at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. he then attended the University of Texas at Dallas on a scholarship where he got his degree in physics. He then continued his education at Pennsylvania state university, he graduated in 2009 with a degree in material science, and engineering.

2 years later, in 2011 Ross moved back in hopes to become an entrepreneur. He begins working on a website called Silk Road. Named after the silk road which was a massive ancient trade route. It was an important trade route established from 130 B.C to 1453 A.D. The route used in ancient times spans from eastern China to Italy. Spices, fabrics, food, and other items were traded and bought. The name can be viewed as symbolic as the silk road was a major route that saw a lot of traffic, and goods that traveled on the route. The website also saw massive traffic and many products on the website

Anonymity

He intends to create a website where people can buy and trade anything they want, with total anonymity. The key to anonymity for its users? Bitcoin. Bitcoin Was developed in 2009 by a group or person, Satoshi Nakamoto. The Bitcoin system is a form of digital currency in which the transactions are encrypted, making it almost impossible to know who is purchasing what. The transactions are so encrypted to the point of the purchase not being trackable or knowing who owns the bitcoin.

This new currency is constantly changing in worth as the worth is determined. When the currency was first released in 2009, a single bitcoin was worth $0.008. By 2011, Bitcoin was worth one dollar, and the worth kept going, one bitcoin was $30 by the end of 2011, now? As of March of 2022, one Bitcoin is worth $32,325.

Ross’s new website also maintained anonymity by making the website unreachable to normal search engines like google, bing, and yahoo. To reach the website, one must use the Tor browser. The browser allows users To browse the web anonymously, leaving no virtual trail to be tracked. The internet is relatively new, so on a federal level that leaves many aspects of the internet unregulated. The people who create and pass the laws are generally older. They didn’t live with the internet. This begs the question, How far can things go on the internet?