Daily Dot
How Libertarian philosophy drove the Web's
largest black market
By _Aaron Sankin_ (http://www.dailydot.com/authors/aaron-sankin/) on
October 04, 2013 _Email_
(mailto:[email protected]?subject=How%20libertarian%20philosophy%20drove%20the%20Web's%20biggest%20black%20market)
As far as massive criminal enterprises go, political agendas typically
come in a distant second to amassing large amounts of cash.
But when it came to online black market drug marketplace the Silk Road—
whose alleged mastermind, 29-year old Ross Ulbricht, _was arrested in San
Francisco on Tuesday morning_
(http://www.dailydot.com/crime/fbi-investigation-dread-pirate-roberts-silk-road/)
—its status as an online haven supposedly
outside the reach of sovereign governments made it a cause célèbre in some
radical libertarian circles.
In looking at Ulbricht’s own _online footprint_
(http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/dread-pirate-roberts-silk-road-facebook-linkedin-youtube/)
, the
portrait emerges of a techno-libertarian who turned his vision for the world’s
foremost drug marketplace into an economic force that apparently earned
him over $72 million in commissions.
In a short manifesto posted on_ his LinkedIn page_
(http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=8155844&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=qSk_&locale=en_US&sr
chid=445369741380728571181&srchindex=1&srchtotal=1&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&
trkInfo=VSRPsearchId:445369741380728571181,VSRPtargetId:8155844,VSRPcmpt:pri
mary) , Ulbricht wrote about the lofty goals he hoped to accomplish,
presumably using the Silk Road for the betterment of all humanity:
I want to use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion
and agression [sic] amongst mankind. Just as slavery has been abolished most
everywhere, I believe violence, coercion and all forms of force by one
person over another can come to an end. The most widespread and systemic use
of
force is amongst institutions and governments, so this is my current point
of effort. The best way to change a government is to change the minds of
the governed, however. To that end, I am creating an economic simulation to
give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a
world without the systemic use of force.
Ulbricht, who allegedly went by the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was
apparently a fan of the libertarian Ludwig von Mises Institute, which bills
itself as “the research and educational center of classical liberalism,
libertarian political theory, and the Austrian School of economics.”
Founded in the early 1980s after one of its co-founders split with the
politically powerful right-leaning Cato Institute, the Mises Institute’s
namesake is a Ukraine-born philosopher whose magnum opus _Human Action_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Action) is considered an influential
document
among the Austrian, laissez-faire school of economists.
Much like novelist Ayn Rand, Mises has amassed a sizeable following of
American libertarians. In a _letter to Rand_
(http://mises.org/journals/jls/21_4/21_4_3.pdf) praising her landmark novel
Atlas Shrugged, Mises wrote, “
You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told them: you are
inferior and all the improvements in your conditions which you simply take
for granted you owe to the effort of men who are better than you.”
According to a sworn deposition by FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbell
contained in the Department of Justice’s criminal complaint against
Ulbricht, Ulbricht allegedly included a link to Mises Institute's website in
his
email signatures and regularly posted about the Institute’s work on the Silk
Road’s forums.
On his YouTube profile, Ulbricht favorited _an hour-long lecture_
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0_Jd_MzGCw&list=PL9CB8F6707945DD95) by Mises
Institute scholar Robert P. Murphy advocating for the privatization of the
United
States’ legal system through the removal of government-operated civil and
criminal courts in favor of an ecosystem of competing arbitration firms.
A representative from the Mises Institute acknowledged that Ulbricht
requested information about the organization in 2008, but declined to go into
more detail and refused to make any other representatives from the Institute
available for comment.
Interestingly, while Roberts expressed his enthusiasm for the Mises
Institute, the think tank _hasn’t exactly been bullish on Bitcoin_
(http://mises.org/daily/6401/) —the anonymous, electronic currency that served
as Silk Road
’s chosen medium of exchange.
A 2011 post on the Institute’s website entitled “_A Clear Concise Look At
Bitcoin_ (http://archive.mises.org/17294/a-clear-concise-look-at-bitcoin/) ,”
signaled the currency’s volatility, along with “the Silk Road folks
signaling their willingness to work with ‘authorities’ if necessary,” as
reasons to be skeptical—adding, “Caveat emptor” (“buyer beware”).
Another article published on the site a few months later, after a dramatic
crash in the currency’s value, expressed support for, at the very least,
the theoretical underpinnings behind Bitcoin.
“Any libertarian has to have some sympathy for any effort to create an
alternative currency, and the state has narrowed the options so much that we
can fully expect a long series of nonviable projects to emerge in the future,”
read the blog post. “It is part of the terrible struggle of our times to
find ways of living free in an age of government omnipotence.”
In _an August interview with Forbes_
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/an-interview-with-a-digital-drug-lord-the-silk-roads-dread-pi
rate-roberts-qa/) , Dread Pirate Roberts insisted anonymization services
like Tor and Bitcoin not only made Silk Road possible but also have the
potential to remake human interaction for the better. “This will return the
power of communication back to the people and with Bitcoin giving people
control over their money and trade again, we’re talking about the potential
for
a monumental shift in the power structure of the world,” he said.
But the morailty behind the the Silk Road looks a lot more complicated
when you consider which specific items Roberts, who allegedly maintained
tight control over virtually every aspect of the site, prohibited from being
sold on the marketplace.
According to the criminal complaint, in August of 2011, Roberts announced
the creation of a new section of the site titled "forgeries," where people
could buy and sell fake government documents such as IDs and passports—the
FBI claims Ulbricht even _purchased them himself_
(http://www.dailydot.com/crime/fbi-investigation-dread-pirate-roberts-silk-road/)
. However, private
documents such as receipts and university diplomas were strictly prohibited.
In a sense, private documents like receipts or diplomas are written
evidence of legal contracts. The importance of contracts between consenting
individuals is a crucial tenet of libertarian thought and an issue the Mises
Institute has examined in detail on _multiple_
(http://mises.org/journals/jls/17_2/17_2_2.pdf) _occasions_
(http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/nineteen.asp)
. In a libertarian-minded, small-government state, it’s the prevalence of
these types of contracts that keep a civilized society from slipping into
anarchy. In the lecture Ulbricht favorited on YouTube, Mises scholar Robert
Murphy’s argument about privatizing the judicial system only works—even in
the abstract—if private contracts are universally honored.
As such, if Ulbricht is indeed the Dread Pirate Roberts and he viewed the
Silk Road as a fundamentally moral undertaking, it isn’t actually all that
surprising he chose to draw the line regarding forged documents along the
public-private divide.
It wasn’t only the Silk Road’s alleged mastermind who viewed the
marketplace as something more noble than a relatively safe avenue for
trafficking
in illegal narcotics. On _Reddit’s r/SilkRoad_
(http://www.reddit.com/r/silkroad) forum, a user going by the handle
InfraViole7 wrote a post calling
the Silk Road’s closure, “a loss for the general good of human, regardless
if you are pro illegal drugs or not."
The SR was not doing anything morally wrong, rather the opposite. Think
about it. Druggies and producers will always find a way to trade drugs. The
SR made it possible to trade the drugs with less to no intermediaries,
directly from producer to consumer. As we all know, the dealing process is the
whole reason why the world has to deal with all type of war related to
drugs, for an example in Mexico. From a moral standpoint, what the SR have
done
is to prevent war, gang related crime etc. which is a really good thing.
Another Reddit user, Libertas_SR, wrote a post _soliciting donations for
Ulbricht’s defense_
(http://www.reddit.com/r/silkroadmeta/comments/1no8bz/supporting_the_cause/) .
“We are all sad to see SR get shut down, but it is
also a sad day for the person that provided us with this amazing community,”
wrote Libertas_SR. “He has a very long battle ahead of him and the least we
can do is support him, and I am providing the means to do that.”
Ulbricht stands accused of conspiracy to commit narcotics trafficking,
hiring one Silk Road user to kill another Silk Road user for threatening to
expose confidential information about the site, computer hacking and money
laundering.
In an ironic twist, authorities told the San Francisco Chronicle that, as
of June, Ulbricht was _living with a friend on Hickory Street in San
Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood_
(http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Alleged-online-drug-kingpin-arrested-at-SF-library-4863306.php)
and, on at least
one occasion, managed the site from an Internet cafe on nearby Laguna Street
from which he administered the Silk Road website. Momy Tobi’s Revolution
Cafe & Art Bar, the Internet cafe located a block away from the intersection
of Hickory and Laguna streets, is communist-themed.
--
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
