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The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

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Re: The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

#11

Post by hurin »

ufmace wrote: post #7
amyjess wrote: post #3

tl;dr: Ross was a colossal idiot who ignored warnings about the shoddy state of his opsec. I hate to say it, because Ross and I have a few mutual friends, but the guy was an idiot, and it's looking more and more like he deserved what he got for being so utterly stupid .

Calling him stupid seems to kinda miss the point to me. I think it's more that when you're up against the Feds, especially on something so deeply entrenched as being illegal worldwide as distributing drugs on a massive scale, you're going to get caught eventually, because it only takes one mistake. Sure, he was kinda dumb and made a lot more than one mistake, but how much better could anybody here do? Enough to keep…

> but how much better could anybody here do?

Well, Kim Dotcom is still kicking it.

As for Ross, the evidence might have been circumstantial at best if his un-encrypted notebook wasn't grabbed.

Re: The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

#12

Post by fredgrott »

Estragon wrote: post #5
amyjess wrote: post #3

tl;dr: Ross was a colossal idiot who ignored warnings about the shoddy state of his opsec. I hate to say it, because Ross and I have a few mutual friends, but the guy was an idiot, and it's looking more and more like he deserved what he got for being so utterly stupid .

It's pretty amazing how the use of Tor drives this kind of wishful ignorance. You see it all the time on /r/darknetmarkets

Notice that even the two agents caught stealing from Ross thought tor as secure

Also notice that most criminals are dumb and send their drug shipments through regular mail or air mail..very stupid..and also notice that those shipments tipped off LE..

Take-way anonymous is only secure at its weakest link..the weakest link here was the physical drug shipments..that will never be secure..ever

Re: The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

#14

Post by unavoidable »

hurin wrote: post #11
ufmace wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling him stupid seems to kinda miss the point to me. I think it's more that when you're up against the Feds, especially on something so deeply entrenched as being illegal worldwide as distributing drugs on a massive scale, you're going to get caught eventually, because it only takes one mistake. Sure, he was kinda dumb and made a lot more than one mistake, but how much better could anybody here do? Enough to keep…

> but how much better could anybody here do? Well, Kim Dotcom is still kicking it. As for Ross, the evidence might have been circumstantial at best if his un-encrypted notebook wasn't grabbed.

Kim Dotcom is "kicking it" about as well as Julian Assange is. It's not like he's hidden somewhere. The authorities know exactly who he is, where he is, how much he owns, and how to get it. They're just sorting out the court procedures to make sure they get all of it.

In any event, Ross was running something somewhat more illicit than Megaupload. His opsec probably should have been commensurately better.

Re: The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

#17

Post by BoxKeyboard »

amyjess wrote: post #3

tl;dr: Ross was a colossal idiot who ignored warnings about the shoddy state of his opsec. I hate to say it, because Ross and I have a few mutual friends, but the guy was an idiot, and it's looking more and more like he deserved what he got for being so utterly stupid .

Eh. I dunno. When you get in that deep it kinda feels like it's an inevitability, one way or the other. I hate doing it because it's almost cliche at this point, but Avon Barksdale has a pretty good point:

"Comin up the way we did, you know, you kind of expect that. Waitin on it. See, the thing is, you only got to fuck up once. Be a little slow, be a little late, just once. And how you ain't gonna never be slow? Never be late? You can't plan through no shit like this, man. It's life."

Re: The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

#18

Post by runaway »

_broody wrote: post #15
dvdfvo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cirrus?

Cyrus was the name of the traitor in The Matrix. Coincidence... ... Surely.

The character's name was actually Cypher. Not sure if the Matrix reference was a mistake or if I'm not catching onto something else.

Re: The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

#19

Post by maxcasey »

futuretext wrote: post #4

This would make an amazing movie.

I just hope they make it more real documentary style like "The Internet's Own Boy as opposed to stupid and dumbed down like the Steve Jobs movie. No matter where you fall on the legal/ethical spectrum, you have to admit it's an awesome story.

Re: The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall

#20

Post by wsxcde »

ufmace wrote: post #7
amyjess wrote: post #3

tl;dr: Ross was a colossal idiot who ignored warnings about the shoddy state of his opsec. I hate to say it, because Ross and I have a few mutual friends, but the guy was an idiot, and it's looking more and more like he deserved what he got for being so utterly stupid .

Calling him stupid seems to kinda miss the point to me. I think it's more that when you're up against the Feds, especially on something so deeply entrenched as being illegal worldwide as distributing drugs on a massive scale, you're going to get caught eventually, because it only takes one mistake. Sure, he was kinda dumb and made a lot more than one mistake, but how much better could anybody here do? Enough to keep…

> Enough to keep the Feds away for how long, exactly?

In your question lies the answer to another: why are exit scams so prevalent in bitcoin marketplaces?

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