
Archive of all Silk Road forum posts attributed to Dread Pirate Roberts - tjaerv
https://www.rossulbricht.org/silk-road-forum-dread-pirate-roberts-archive/
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patrickmclaren
[https://www.rossulbricht.org/srforum/html/dpr_posts_page_01_...](https://www.rossulbricht.org/srforum/html/dpr_posts_page_01_start_000.html)

    
    
      There has been more than one occasion where I have wanted
      to quit as well. Without going into details, the stress
      of being DPR is sometimes verwhelming.  What keeps me
      going is the understanding that what we are doing here
      is more important than my insignificant little life.
      I believe what we are doing will have rippling effects
      for generations to come and could be part of a monumental
      shift in how human beings organize and relate to one
      another.
    
      I have gone through the mental exercise of spending a
      lifetime in prison and of dying for this cause. I have
      let the fear pass through me and with clarity commit
      myself fully to the mission and values outlined in the
      Silk Road charter. If you haven't read it yet, please do.

~~~
pallandt
This is very interesting.

The language he's using suggests he suffered at least at some point from
psychosis in a certain degree, most certainly caused by the level of stress he
was experiencing on a daily basis and perhaps even by the potential
'substances' he may have been sampling (pure speculation though).

Unfortunately we'll most likely never know if once he starts levelling to a
normal state, he starts regretting those planned hits, regardless of whether
they actually happened or not. There was some speculation that the person(s)
he contracted were actually FBI.

~~~
baddox
What about the language he's using suggests that he suffered from psychosis?

~~~
pallandt
There are several key words such as 'stress' or 'overwhelming' or wanting to
quit but being unable to, but what is often common to persons suffering of
delusions of a manic extent (btw, I think they seized some cocaine from him as
well if I remember correctly) is believing they are on a special mission to
accomplish something world-changing and even expressing intent to sacrifice
their lives if it were needed, zealousness, being over-invested emotionally in
the 'idea' and perhaps most importantly, the unlikeness of their belief or
idea actually manifesting as envisioned.

His message is very self-centered and does not mention other people (joining
him or helping him reach his goal). It is not unreasonable to think/realize
that his belief is/was failing to fit with his socio-cultural background,
especially considering he was mostly running the op alone.

There were mentions of admins that were paid lowly sums compared to what he
was making, I assume they had very limited attributions and he was the only
one in true controlling capacity.

Throw in the necessity for secretiveness due to the nature of the op, the
ensuing distrust and suspicion and it is a safe recipe for psychosis as a
result of stress.

~~~
chrislipa
I don't know ... but I'm not convinced. I looks perfectly congruent with the
facts that he's just incredibly passionate about his mission. I don't think
it's so unreasonable for DPR to think and hope that he was changing the world
for the better.

~~~
tptacek
Kinda not factoring in the notion that he was ordering people to be killed
during this timeframe, right?

~~~
chrislipa
Not ignoring that at all. History is replete with true believers willing to
kill and die for their causes.

------
drakaal
So are we to "Free Ross" because he was a great guy who had people killed? Ran
a site dedicating to breaking laws? What thing are we supposed to be sad he
got busted for?

My expectation is if he hadn't tried to have someone killed that it would have
been deemed that SilkRoad was a better way to track dealers down than it was
at promoting sales.

Normally the feds would have taken over the site, tracked its users then made
100 busts at once. I think Murder sped that up a lot.

I don't feel sorry for Ulbircht at all.

~~~
MichaelGG
Firstly, I'm unaware of anyone actually being killed. He "ordered hits" but it
appears that no murders happened.

As far as taking over the site to make 100 busts... First, SR doesn't know the
identities of the buyers or sellers. Unless you deliberately give your
identity in plaintext to SR, they don't have that info. Now some lazy users
may have decided to avoid PGP, but those probably aren't people the "feds" are
interested in going after. Grab 100 kids for possession charges? Not too
interesting. (Edit: Except _maybe_ as a deterrent, and even then, it's really
just and advertisement for PGP.)

Dealers have no reason ever to publish their info. The way to compromise them
is to sign up for lots of buyer accounts, order from the most prolific
sellers, then try to correlate packages back to a shipper. That'll depend
entirely on the opsec of the sellers, and isn't as likely to generate the same
PR that taking down SR did.

Finally, the laws he helped people break (drug laws) are ridiculous and plenty
of hacker-minded people view fighting such laws to be ethical.

Edit: Also, LE can't become a big seller and try to make busts on big users
(say, people buying 20 pounds of a substance at once), because they'd actually
have to sell illegal drugs in significant volume to get reputation. I _think_
they are prohibited from doing that. They may be able to get a large-scale
seller to turn over their account (if they found them somehow), then accept
some large orders and bust those buyers without shipping. But, it'd be hard to
prove the identity of the buyer. Anyone could sign up and order a delivery for
someone else.

~~~
pallandt
I think we should be thankful that no one was actually killed and that
apparently the hired hitmen were law enforcement.

The supposed kills were real for him though having even received (fake)
confirmation from a contractor and the intent to take another person's life is
not excusable or justifiable.

I also believe many people have suffered due to unjust drug laws, but this guy
took his 'mission' to a whole different level. Also, I sincerely doubt he
would've continued the project out of sheer humanitarian kindness if it hadn't
turned out to be highly profitable for him as well. This person needs to stop
being glorified.

~~~
MichaelGG
Not saying I support him, just providing justification why a "Free Ross"
concept might exist and draw significant support.

There's also the chance he knew he wasn't actually hiring hitmen, and just
figured it was a good way to pretend to be really serious. Not a bright move
as far as having charges on him after being caught, but I get the feeling he
was operating as if he'd never get caught, or if he did, he'd be so screwed
that additional charges wouldn't matter.

------
rd108
From: What_is_the_goal_of_Silk_Road.txt

It is interesting to hear your perspective Kandra. Stick around a while and
hopefully you can get to know everyone better and even become a part of the
community that has formed here. As far as non-drug items go, it's not that
surprising. This is a niche market for things you can't get more easily from
places like amazon, ebay, and retail shops. There is an added cost to doing
things the way we do, and at least for the time being, you're going to be able
to get legal goods more cheaply and easily from these other places.
Eventually, we may win out because of our advantages over these other markets
(e.g. vendors don't have to pay taxes on their profits from sales here). From
what I've seen, despite some problems like attracting scammers, the market has
only gotten better as more people have joined in. More buyers means more
competition among sellers in the form of excellent customer service, low
prices, and quality goods. More sellers means an expanding array of offerings,
which attracts even more buyers. So far, this is the virtuous circle that has
driven growth here IMHO. More people and a diversity of opinions is a good
thing, and I would be hesitant to lump our diverse community into two opposing
categories. By and large, there is much more cooperation and camaraderie than
conflict and I'm generally impressed with the level of discourse. Maybe you
have a point, though. There very well could be a place for multiple similar
markets that cater to different folks. In fact I hope that is the case. I'd
rather Silk Road be the leading market in a growing industry, than trying to
take on the establishment alone

