This is an opinion piece by Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Bitcoin market pioneer Silk Road, who is currently serving a double life sentence plus 40 years in federal prison.
Bitcoin is talked about a lot more these days than when I was put in jail. On October 1, 2022, I started my tenth year locked in this cage. Right now, as I put the pen to the page, the afternoon sun streams through the bars of my window and the whisper of other prisoners meanders under my cell door.
Over the years I’ve heard people say all kinds of things about Bitcoin. I heard that “Bitcoin is dead” and “Bitcoin is the future”. I heard that “Bitcoin is bad for the environment” and “Bitcoin will set us free”. But I noticed that Bitcoin doesn’t seem to care what we say about it. Not exchange, of course – which is driven by people’s whims like all financial markets. I’m talking about bitcoin itself.
Bitcoin has no ears. What we say changes nothing. Barring a societal-level disaster, Bitcoin will continue to add a block every ten minutes, forever. Exactly. Through all the ups and downs since Bitcoin was born over 13 years ago, despite the hype, despite the naysayers, despite everything, Bitcoin has never faltered.
I can’t say the same for me, but again, I’m just human. A few years after the launch of Bitcoin, I made the biggest mistake of my life: I created Silk Road (an anonymous online market). Of course, at the time, I didn’t know that was a mistake. I thought that was a great idea. I thought I was putting Bitcoin to good use and giving people privacy and freedom. When illegal drugs were listed, I thought that was OK too, because I believed drugs should be legalized. Never mind that they were banned and I was risking everything dear to me.
A few years later, I was thrown in prison for drug trafficking and sentenced to two terms of life without parole plus 40 years. I was falsely portrayed in the media as a violent drug lord. Silk Road’s history has been reduced to a cliché of cops and robbers. I more than hesitated, I hit rock bottom. I’m here since.
Bitcoin has never faltered. Through the rise and fall of Silk Road, through the relentless years of my incarceration, through competition and disaster, Bitcoin continues, one block at a time, like clockwork.
As Bitcoin has gone on, I’ve struggled to join the world outside of my cage. Year after year, my family, my friends, my supporters and I have worked for my freedom, so that I can have a second chance in life. But I’m tired. I’m exhausted, I want this nightmare to end, and I don’t know if it will ever happen, no matter how hard we work at it.
Before arriving in prison, I knew nothing about hard drugs. Since then, I have been locked up in 8ft by 10ft cells with lifelong drug addicts for months. I have heard their stories and seen what has become of them. I was confronted with the fact that by making Silk Road, I played a role in the destruction of many lives. I don’t even think about the politics of the war on drugs anymore. I just know that I could never again promote drug use, whether legal or illegal. How could I, if I would never touch them myself? How could I, if I was horrified to learn that someone I love had become addicted? I would only think of the men I got to know whose lives were ruined.
I went through many phases during my imprisonment: despair, fear, guilt, acceptance, boredom, feverish despair, and all the while, Bitcoin goes on. Today, I am inspired by Bitcoin. I will continue, day after day, taking the next step again and again. I will continue to add the next block. Either I’ll regain my freedom, or, at the end of my life, I can look back and say, “At least I tried.
This is a guest post by Ross Ulbricht. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.