Was Ulbricht a patsy? Do you think the real drug dealers will face any criminal charges? Where has the new underground website relocated too? Any opinions?

I read the Rolling Stone magazine article when this kid first was arrested. The stuff he is accused of is insane.

To your question: I read the news today about it and the interview that "dread pirate roberts" gave to Forbes a while back, which the defense is using. I don't know how the defense thinks it's gonna work.

I'm no computer expert but, the purpose of that silk road is complete anonymity; that must not have worked. The feds say that they have the Ulbrichts log of when he signed on as an administrator. They must have been monitoring him for a while.

I wish I knew more about hte case than what the news is reporting. The ROlling stone article was good but that was almost 2 years ago???

Kind of feel bad for the kid, he doesn't look like he's real tough... computer science type

He seemed like a patsy, he was always explained as the hippie type but he also thought he ordered two hits as well.

Honestly guys i think he's guilty as shit. They caught him as was logged into his silk road account.
His attorney is trying to put it on the guy who owned the Mt.Gox Bitcoin exchange, a guy named Mark Karpeles. But the feds have already ruled him out.

If your interested in the trial arstechnica.com has daily updates. But i think Ulbricht is going to get fucked hard at sentencing. Personally i doubt he beats the charges.

Ok, so let me let you guys in on some info: First of all, after SR1 went down it was followed by SR2 complete with a brand new person calling himself Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR). First, the new DPR disappeared with all the buyers' money and claimed to have been hacked, then he came back and gave some money back and reopened the site. It's more scammy than the original SR1, but it still works. Also, there's Agora, and there used to be other markets as well. Many of them are FBI honeypots. Some are just straight up money stealing operations where they work like theyre supposed to until vendors and buyers have pumped enough money into them to disappear.

In my opinion Ross is a patsy but not entirely innocent. Here's how i think it went down. Ross started the site, calling himself DPR, as an economic experiment/act of protest or whatever. He started out very quiet, not communicating with the community a lot and generally staying in the shadows. One day, the DPR's way of writing changed, he started hosting libertarian book clubs, and more. What I think happened is that as the money started rolling in Ross realized the scope of the thing and got cold feet. He sells it to another owner, who is more outspoken and chatty. THAT guy is the true "DPR" that the feds thought they found in Ross. He's the one who ordered the hits. Most likely candidate: Mark Karpeles or someone like him/an associate. Anyway, the new DPR gets wind of the heat getting turned up and decides that he wants out. He sells the site or gives partial control of the site back to Ross Ulbricht. The feds move in on Ross (if you believe they figured out his ID on their own without informants you're dreaming) and proclaim their victory. Ross JUST claimed in court that he started the site, but he's not DPR. I smell fuckery.

No way do I believe that

Ross himself was a Libertarian. That was him typing all of that. And with the money SR was making no way somebody was going to give it back without cashing out big time. He is screwed.

Thank you very much for posting this link. The site has daily updates on the trial. It's really interesting to follow. And for the record, I am not interested in computing/programming/TOR/etc.

I am really intrigued by this case though. The government has this kid.

Ulbricht was found guilty today on seven charges.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/...fficking-trial/

"The seven charges include three drug counts: distributing or aiding and abetting the distribution of narcotics, distributing narcotics or aiding and abetting distribution over the Internet, and conspiracy to violate narcotics laws. He was also convicted on a fourth count of conspiracy to run a "continuing criminal enterprise," which involves supervising at least five other people in an organization. in addition, he was convicted on conspiracy charges for computer hacking, distributing false identification, and money laundering."

Damn. He's going down for a long long time. I hear they dropped the murder charges against him though. Don't know how they were going to ever pin those on him.