Building a New Silk Road: Why the Ross Ulbricht Pardon Matters for Libertarians

Jan 25

Written By SanMan

By: HLMenckenFan

“See if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That’s literally true”. This quote from economist Milton Friedman encapsulates the dilemma that motivates opponents of the War on Drugs, as this same dilemma motivated a young idealistic entrepreneur to face life in prison and emerge a changed man with all charges dropped and a hero for our time. The founder of the Silk Road drug-selling website Ross Ulbricht was pronounced a free man on January 21, 2025, with his release producing a pivotal moment for the libertarian cause. He was personally granted a full and unconditional pardon by President Trump who made his promise to the Libertarian Party to free him if elected. The freeing of Ross Ulbricht from prison marks a major event in libertarian history and holds powerful significance for the movement's future.

Born in 1984, Ross Ulbricht grew up in Austin, Texas an upstanding citizen and computer engineer with two college degrees not motivated by money or power, but by his dedication to causes he believed in, with libertarianism chief among them. Ross had expressed a strong idealistic interest in libertarianism and Austrian economics from a young age. He joined the local libertarian club at Pennsylvania State University while studying engineering for his Master’s and was very active in college debates. His family saw he was “passionate about sharing the ideas of liberty, privacy, and free markets.” His favorite economist was Ludwig von Mises. He also favorably referenced the Mises Institute and shared links to its YouTube videos in online forums. His personal hero was former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, having supported his 2008 Republican presidential run and planned to be a delegate for him at the RNC.

After graduating in 2009, Ross tried his hand at day trading and starting his own business with a video game company which failed, he also partnered with his friend Donny Palmertree to start a used bookseller Good Wagon Books which also failed. Ross used his entrepreneurial mindset to create the Silk Road in January 2011. He modeled his creation after the open marketplace developed from his favorite libertarian novel Alongside Night by J Neil Schumann and the agorist writings of philosopher Samuel Edwin Konkin III. According to a post by Ross in 2012, “Silk Road was founded on libertarian principles and continues to be operated on them...The same principles that have allowed Silk Road to flourish can and do work anywhere human beings come together. The only difference is that the State is unable to get its thieving murderous mitts on it”. He made it clear in a LinkedIn post that his goal for forming the site was to "use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion and aggression amongst mankind," and claimed that, "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".

Under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts” or abbreviated DPR named after the fictional character from The Princess Bride, Ross oversaw the black-market Silk Road e-commerce website with the purpose of creating an anonymous website for selling various types of drugs and other merchandise under a concealed IP address. It took its name from the famous trading routes of the second century BC spanning across Asia, Europe, and Africa. The website with a full-time staff became very popular, with over 10,000 products for sale, 70 percent of them being drugs, and more than 100,000 users on the website. Said drugs included cannabis, ecstasy, opioids, prescription, psychedelics, and stimulants. Nearly $183 million worth of illegal drugs were traded. All transactions were conducted using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, which allowed users to carry out their business anonymously. Ross argued in classical libertarian fashion that “people should have the right to buy and sell whatever they wanted so long as they weren’t hurting anyone else.” Ross Ulbricht was a smart man and good with computers who had no problems with the law until one day changed his life forever.

Two FBI agents having tracked his personal Gmail address visited Ross while he was in the science fiction section of the Glen Park Library in San Francisco and seized his laptop on October 2, 2013. He was promptly arrested and was arraigned at a Manhattan federal court for a lengthy one-year trial. Ulbricht was 29 years old at the time. The attorney for the case Preet Bharara ruled that he was a “drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people.” The Manhattan attorney argued that “Ulbricht went from hiding his cybercrime identity to becoming the face of cybercrime.” He was never prosecuted for murder and was never proven to be dangerous, but he still ended up in prison. In a letter to the judge, he later argued that “Silk Road was supposed to give people the freedom to make their own choices, to pursue their own happiness, however, they saw fit. It turned out to be a naïve and costly idea that I deeply regret”. He never sold any illicit substances in his life but was ultimately arrested for drug trafficking.

On May 29, 2015, Ross pled guilty to all seven charges and was sentenced to two life sentences plus forty years without the possibility of parole as a first-time offender. These charges included distributing narcotics by means of the internet, money laundering, narcotics trafficking conspiracy, and computer hacking. A second Silk Road website, Silk Road 2.0, was formed by former employees shortly after the website was seized but was later shut down in 2014. Ross continued to push for his release and was denied a bid for a new trial in 2017 to no avail, his own family saw him as innocent and came to his defense, with his mother Lyn starting the FreeRoss movement and actively crusading to ease his sentence and receiving over 170,000 signatures on her online campaign to free him. Ross’s perception as a violent criminal mastermind or drug kingpin formed by his perception in the media was contradicted by his actions. His followers saw his imprisonment as a grave injustice and a victim of government overreach for merely operating a website and started a Free Ross campaign. Ross’s views on the matter were made clear in his sentencing hearing: "I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity".

The push to free Ross from prison was made possible through a strong coalition of liberty-minded activists and advocates of criminal justice alongside unlikely ally President Donald Trump. Libertarian publications like Reason Magazine led the charge on the issue. Libertarian Party Chairwoman Angela McArdle stressed that “Ross Ulbricht has been a libertarian political prisoner for more than a decade” and pressed for his freedom by reaching out to Trump to make it happen. She personally met with the Trump campaign in May 2024 and pressed that if elected he would free Ross in exchange for their votes at the LNC. Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul became one of Ross’s biggest defenders on social media, having personally sent a strong letter to Trump on the day of inauguration to push for Ross’s freedom, claiming that his sentence was vastly disproportionate to his crimes while actual drug dealers on the site received significantly more lenient sentences. #FreeRoss was trending on X on the day of Trump’s inauguration. Ulbricht’s clemency lawyer hoped the president would follow through.

President Trump made the important promise that he would free Ross Ulbricht “on day one,” but that was not the case when he pardoned the 1,500 people who participated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection instead, however, a miracle happened the following day. Trump personally called Ross Ulbricht’s mother to let her know that “it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son”. He took to X to share his concerns on the matter of personal struggles, saying that “the scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me”. He summarized Ross’s imprisonment in a single word: “Ridiculous!”

A photo of Ross leaving prison circulated widely on social media on the night of January 21. “Words cannot express how grateful we are,” reads a tweet from @Free_Ross, an X account devoted to the more than decade-long effort on Ulbricht's behalf. The account continued: “President Trump is a man of his word, and he just saved Ross's life. ROSS IS A FREE MAN!!!!!" Libertarians and crypto advocates all around the US rejoiced at his newfound freedom and celebrated his victory. The chair of the Libertarian Party released an official statement on the matter. Ross was overjoyed in his message to President Trump: “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. After 11 years in prison, it is hard to express how I feel at this moment. It is thanks to your undying support that I may get a second chance.” Ross personally delivered a statement on X on January 23, asserting “let it be known that Trump is a man of his word.” Ross challenged the system and emerged victorious.

The trials and tribulations of libertarian visionary Ross Ulbricht present great significance for the libertarian movement as a victory for freedom. Angela’s gamble and Trump’s decision led to one of the greatest policy victories for America’s largest third parties in decades. It furthermore served as a testament for libertarians that in the face of great odds there can always be room for second chances.

-@HLMenckenFan

SOURCES

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/milton-friedman-interview-from-1991-on-americas-war-on-drugs/

https://reason.com/2025/01/21/president-donald-trump-pardons-silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhDKYYdD2vY&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Freason.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o

https://cryptoslate.com/people/ross-ulbricht/

https://freeross.org/meet-ross/

https://www.avg.com/en/signal/silk-road-website

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/the-long-and-winding-story-of-silk-road-bitcoins-earliest-major-application

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11640200/Silk-Road-founder-Ross-Ulbricht-sentenced-to-life-in-prison.html

https://www.jokesliteraryreview.com/what-inspires-me-ross-ulbricht