Silk Road

(Part 2)

[Part 2 of 3]

As The Silk Road continued to expand, problems started piling up for Ross Ulbricht, AKA The Dread Pirate Roberts. With business booming and concerns that law enforcement were lurking on the site, Ulbricht created an emergency ‘To Do List’ in case he ever came under real danger of getting caught. It read: ‘Encrypt and backup important files on laptop to memory stick; destroy laptop’s hard drive and hide/dispose; destroy phone and hide/dispose; find place to live on Craigslist for cash and create new identity.’

But that wasn’t all. Furious about a recent Bitcoin theft and increasingly paranoid about being caught, Ulbricht made an extreme decision with dire consequences.