Plea Bargain Means Silk Road 2 Admin Will Likely See No Prison Time

Following the sentencing of Thomas White, the founder of the Silk Road 2 (SR2) marketplace during the first week of April, another SR2 administrator may evade prosecution. According to reports, SR2 admin Blake Benthall cooperated with global law enforcement and may only face fines for avoiding taxes. The news of the two SR2 admins’ sentences … Read more

Ongoing Effort to Free Ross Supported by 100 Eminent Organizations and Individuals

Ross Ulbricht’s clemency petition is closing in on 160,000 signatures stemming from individuals asking U.S. President Donald Trump to pardon Ulbricht. In addition to the vast number of signatures, roughly 100 eminent organizations and well known figures have supported Ulbricht’s effort, many of whom have written a statement on Ulbricht’s behalf in order to speak … Read more

Silk Road 2 Founder Finally Sentenced 5 Years After His Arrest

Immediately after the Silk Road was taken down in 2013, a marketplace known as the Silk Road 2 launched. The new darknet market was run by a person who called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts 2 and he was arrested a few months later in November 2014. However, privacy advocate Thomas White, otherwise known as … Read more

In the Daily: New FSB Chair Fears Crypto, Wikileaks Goes After CSW, Bakkt Update

In this edition of The Daily we cover recent remarks from the new Chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a spat between Wikileaks and Craig S. Wright (CSW), and the latest update about the upcoming institutional crypto platform Bakkt. Also Read: In the Daily: BCH Charity Anniversary, Lighting Wholesaler Takes Crypto, Atomicpay Vanity URLs … Read more

Civil Forfeiture Is State-Sanctioned Theft

Ever since 1929, the FBI has shared annual crime statistics via the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Each year, it breaks down criminal activity into such categories as homicide, weapons, human trafficking, and hate crime. One category that is noticeably absent from the report is civil asset forfeiture. In the eyes of the law, this is … Read more

A Heartbroken Mother Hopes President Trump Will Exonerate Ross Ulbricht

Lyn Ulbricht, the mother of convicted Silk Road administrator Ross Ulbricht, has expressed hope that U.S. president Donald Trump will pardon her son. Ulbricht’s family believes that Ross didn’t receive a fair trial and his sentencing was extremely harsh for a crime that didn’t involve violence. The interview with Lyn Ulbricht follows the recent 111,588 … Read more

Deep Web Roundup: 20 Years for ‘Oxymonster,’ New Darknet Monitoring Tool

Two stories stand out in our latest trawl of the deep web for news that filters through to the cryptosphere. One concerns the sentencing of Dream vendor “Oxymonster,” whose controversial prosecution on U.S. soil is part of a wider trend. We also take a look at Blocktag, a new tool for monitoring darknet sales. Also … Read more

Ross Ulbricht Marks Fifth Anniversary in Prison

Alleged founder of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, marked his fifth year in prison. October 1st, 2013, Mr. Ulbricht began a double life sentence without the possibility of parole for his alleged founding and running of the Silk Road online marketplace. On the occasion of his fifth full year, FreeRoss.org launched a new project to raise awareness … Read more

Government-Funded Drug Trafficking Makes USD the World’s Dirtiest Currency

Pablo Escobar. Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán. Rick Ross. Household names, each and every one of them; drug lords collectively responsible for punting billions of dollars’ worth of narcotics. Yet their crimes pale in comparison to those their prosecutors have been perpetrating for years. After decades of fueling proxy wars and trafficking, the US government has … Read more