Bitcoin motivates Ross Ulbricht in prison – Bitcoin Magazine

by James · October 1, 2022

This is an opinion editorial by Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the pioneering Bitcoin marketplace Silk Road, who is currently serving a double life sentence plus 40 years in federal prison.

Much more is being said about Bitcoin these days than when I was put in jail. On October 1, 2022, I began my tenth year locked in this cage. Right now, as I put my pen aside, the afternoon sun shines through the bars of my window and the murmurs of the other prisoners snake under my cell door.

Over the years I have heard people say all kinds of things about Bitcoin. I have heard that “Bitcoin is dead” and that “Bitcoin is the future.” I have heard that “Bitcoin is bad for the environment” and that “Bitcoin will set us free.” But I’ve noticed that Bitcoin doesn’t seem to care what we say about it. Not the stock market, of course – it’s driven by the whims of people like all financial markets. I’m talking about Bitcoin itself.

Bitcoin doesn’t have ears. What we say doesn’t change that. Barring a societal-level catastrophe, Bitcoin will continue to add a block every ten minutes, forever. That’s the whole point. Through all the ups and downs since Bitcoin’s birth more than 13 years ago, despite the hype, despite the naysayers, despite everything, Bitcoin has never wavered.

I can’t say the same about myself, but then again, I’m only human. A couple of years after Bitcoin started, I made the biggest mistake of my life: I created Silk Road (an anonymous online market). At the time, of course, I didn’t know it was a mistake. I thought it was a good idea. I thought I was using Bitcoin well and giving people privacy and freedom. When illegal drugs were listed, I thought that was okay too, because I thought drugs should be legalized. Never mind that they were banned and I was risking everything I held dear.

A couple of years later, I was thrown into prison for drug trafficking and given two life sentences without parole, plus 40 years. I was falsely portrayed in the media as a violent drug kingpin. The story of the Silk Road was reduced to a police and robber cliché. I more than faltered, I hit rock bottom. I’ve been here ever since.

Bitcoin never wavered. Through the rise and fall of Silk Road, through the relentless years of my imprisonment, through competition and disaster, Bitcoin keeps going, one block at a time, like clockwork.

As Bitcoin has marched on, I’ve struggled to join the world outside my cage. Year after year, my family, friends, supporters and I have worked for my freedom so that I can have a second chance at life. But I’m tired. I’m burned out, I want this nightmare to end and I don’t know if it ever will, no matter how hard we work at it.

Before I came to prison I knew nothing about hard drugs. Since then I have been locked in 8 x 10 foot cells with lifelong addicts for months. I have heard their stories and seen what has become of them. I have faced the fact that by creating Silk Road, I played a role in harming many lives. I don’t even think about drug war politics anymore. I just know that I can never promote drug use again, legal or illegal. How could I, if I never wanted to touch them myself? How could I, if I had been horrified to learn that someone I loved was addicted? All I would think about are the men I’ve come to know whose lives have been destroyed.