Silk Road It was founded in 2011 by a young man named Ross Ulbricht and managed to become a huge digital marketplace where various illegal services were traded through the invisible side of the Internet.

So, how did a young man behind a computer screen, a billion-dollar empire He came to power and how did this criminal empire collapse? Let’s explain.

Ross Ulbricht wanted to set up a platform where trading could be conducted outside the control of the state and institutions.

If this is your idea, Decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and implemented it using Tor, an anonymous network.

This platform, called Silk Road, which he founded in 2011, hides the identities of its users and commits unthinkable crimes such as drugs, fake documents and even hitmen. sell illegal services It allowed.

The anonymous nature of Bitcoin also made it difficult to track these illegal transactions, and for this reason Silk Road quickly became popular. He managed to attract the attention of the criminal world.

However, this illegal platform, dominated by the criminal world, would not last long!

In 2013, the FBI learned of Silk Road’s existence. started an investigation.

In the first stage, the biggest obstacle to shutting down the site is the Tor network and Bitcoin, etc. technologies that provide anonymity had to be used.

However, all these secrecy measures were at odds with the FBI’s single-minded pursuit. It was not entirely successful.

By 2013, the trading volume on the platform had reached billions of dollars, mainly drug trafficking One of Silk Road’s largest activities He had become one.

This caused the FBI to increase the pressure and by piecing together a series of digital clues, they were able to track down Ulbricht.

Ulbricht came onto the FBI’s radar as a result of his erroneous actions on various forums and social media, and in 2013 Ulbricht was found in a San Francisco library. was arrested.

With Ulbricht’s arrest, the FBI seized Silk Road and removed it from the platform. More than 144,000 Bitcoins It turned out to be so.

This operation was a great success because on site Many active users led to his arrest.

Ross Ulbricht, who was tried in 2015was sentenced to life imprisonment and it was announced that he would spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole.

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