Original interview: Bitcoin Magazine;
Guests: Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road;
Original translation: Ashley, BlockBeats
Editors Note: This interview took place in 2021. This is the first time that Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, has spoken publicly since the website was shut down. In the call, he reviewed the original intention of creating Silk Road, expressed his belief in freedom and privacy, and deeply apologized for the consequences. Ross described his painful experience in prison and once again conveyed his firm hope for the future of Bitcoin at the end of the interview. This interview is not only his personal cry, but also a call for social justice and human dignity.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
David Bailey (Bitcoin Magazine): Id like to introduce Peter Chawaga from the Bitcoin Magazine team. I must say what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to interview our next guest. This is his first interview with Bitcoin Magazine, so its definitely a historic moment. I couldnt be more proud of Peters work. And if you dont have any tissues, get some now because youre probably going to cry by the end, okay?
Peter Chawaga (Bitcoin Magazine): Thank you, David. Weve covered a lot of great stuff this day, and weve looked back at all the amazing stories that have surrounded Bitcoin over the years. But this is really something special. So I thank you for coming, and I really feel like this moment deserves all the attention. So before we play the recording, Ive got a prepared statement to introduce you to the content. Like many of you, the first time I heard about Bitcoin in the real world was through a platform called Silk Road. It launched in 2011 as a website accessed through IP address hiding software that allowed users to buy and sell goods in a censorship-resistant way. It quickly became the first major use case for Bitcoin. This fits perfectly with many of Bitcoins unique characteristics - the characteristics that we are celebrating and are proud of today. It provides users with a free, open, and censorship-resistant marketplace.
The founder of Silk Road was a 26-year-old libertarian, research scientist, entrepreneur, and early Bitcoin user named Ross Ulbricht. Less than three years after the site went live, it was shut down and Ross was arrested by federal authorities. Despite being a first-time offender and not having been convicted of a violent crime, he was sentenced to two life sentences plus 40 years. He has served nearly eight years of his sentence so far. Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to interview Ross from prison, and today we are sharing a recording of that interview. This is the first time Ross has commented to the public by phone since Silk Road was shut down.
Before I begin, I want to talk about what it was like to speak to Ross personally. My impression of him was that he was a kind, gentle, and surprisingly positive person, especially given his situation. He did not strike me as a violent criminal at all, as he is often portrayed in the media. When you hear his voice, I know Ross is a larger-than-life figure in this community and more broadly, but I want you to remember that he is a real person. He faced the possibility of never being free, but remained hopeful and strong in a way that impressed me so much. So, now I invite you to listen to this recording, and I hope you enjoy it.
Ross Ulbricht: Hello.
Peter Chawaga (Bitcoin Magazine): Hi Ross, this is Peter from Bitcoin Magazine.
Ross Ulbricht: Hi, my name is Ross Ulbricht, calling you today from a federal maximum security prison. We dont have much time today, and I dont know if Ill ever get the chance to talk to you like this again. Ill try to say as much as I can, but when the time is up, Ill have to hang up and go back to my cell. Ive lost my freedom, and thats what I want to talk to you about today. I want you to understand what it means to lose your freedom. But first, lets talk about Bitcoin.
I was involved in the early days of Bitcoin. At that time, Bitcoin made me feel that everything was possible. Bitcoin is for everyone, and thats what I like most about it. Its like everyone is on the same page. When the idea of Bitcoin really made sense to me, I was excited. I thought with Bitcoin, I could try to do something really meaningful. By the way, before I went to prison, there were not as many cryptocurrencies, tokens, and various blockchains as there are now. I missed all of this. So to me, these are all the same thing: forks, new blockchains, all of this. When I say Bitcoin, I dont distinguish between these. Maybe it sounds a bit cliché, but to me, we are family.
I was very excited, but also very impatient. I saw the potential of Bitcoin for freedom and equality, but I didnt take the time to truly understand its principles, such as immutability, consensus, and of course, decentralization. I had many big dreams for Bitcoin, and they are now slowly coming true. Its because of you, you are making those dreams come true. You are doing things that I didnt have the patience to do at the time. Over the past eight years, I have been amazed again and again at the progress we have made.
But at the time, I was too impatient. I rushed my first idea, Silk Road. It was a website I created when I was 26, more than a decade ago now. It used Bitcoin to protect peoples privacy. I called it the Anonymous Marketplace. I thought, if Bitcoin can make payments anonymous and private, then why are we waiting? Why just talk about it? Do it! This was the impulsive behavior of a 26-year-old who thought he had to save the world before someone else did. I dont know if Silk Road would succeed, but as we all know now, it did. It was used to sell drugs, and I went to jail. I was sentenced to two life sentences with no chance of parole plus 40 years. I was a non-violent first offender, but that didnt change anything. I will have to spend the next few decades, or even longer, in this cell until I grow old and die in a cell some century later, and finally leave the prison in a body bag.
A few days ago, I received a letter from a stranger. He thanked me for launching Silk Road. He thought Bitcoin wouldnt be where it is today without Silk Road. Im not sure. But for better or worse, Silk Road has become part of Bitcoins history. But I also worry that by launching Silk Road, I may have made our path harder. We can never know what history would have been like if it were different, but I want to say that if my actions made our path harder, Im sorry for that. If my actions led to drug abuse and addiction, Im sorry too. I was just trying to do a good thing, I was trying to help us move towards a freer, more equal world. But as we all know, the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. And now, Im in hell.
I want you to understand what it means to lose your freedom. Let me start with the confinement cell. It has many names, the small black room, the isolation room, the box, but to me, it is the abyss. The abyss is a prison within a prison. I was locked in the abyss for four consecutive months. This is not easy for me to say, but I will try to tell you. The abyss can break a person or reshape a person. There was a time when I felt that my mind was losing control. I felt that the walls were pressing on me, and I felt that I had to leave that small room. This feeling lasted for several days, and then I started to punch the walls and kick the heavy iron door with my feet. Deep in my heart, there was a desire to be free that was shouting. I couldnt accept that I was here, or accept what was happening to me.
But eventually, I realized I had to pull myself together. The pressure was destroying me. And as strange as it may sound, what saved me was gratitude. What could I be grateful for, in a tiny room like that? Well, I had to start with the small things. I had air, right? Maybe it was filthy air, but I could breathe. I had water, and it might not be clean, but it didnt make me sick. And food came in every day through the little slot in the door. And I knew I hadnt been forgotten. And my family, I knew they were still waiting for me, and one day this would be over, and my family would still be there.
I forgave everyone who had brought me to this point in my life. I had to. Because anger couldnt hurt them, it only hurt me, so I had to let it go. I had a dream in the abyss that I was free. I was in a park, and I felt a huge sense of relief. I was no longer incarcerated. But then I started to worry, did I make bail? Would they put me back in? I started to think about running away, and the anxiety woke me up. When I woke up, I was back in the abyss. In that moment, everything that had happened to me - the life sentence, the maximum security prison, the months of confinement - all came crashing down on me at once. It felt like everything was falling apart.
I want you to understand what it means to lose your freedom. After I was sentenced, my mother went on a speaking tour in Europe to tell people about my story and seek help. While in Poland, she began to feel unwell and had to return home early. The next morning, I called my sister from prison. As soon as the call was connected, she said, You dont know about Mom yet? I asked her, What happened to Mom? She answered in a voice that frightened me, Oh, Ross, Ross, Ross. When I heard this, I immediately understood that my sister might be telling me that Mom had passed away.
But she went on to say, “Mom is in the hospital.” When I heard this, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought, “That’s good, she’s not dead.” But then I thought, “In the hospital, that’s not good news.” In fact, my mother’s heart stopped beating during breakfast, and my uncle saved her with CPR, and she was rushed to the hospital. When I called, she was still in the hospital unconscious, and we didn’t know if she would survive or if she had brain damage. Although no one said it, I knew it was my fault. She hadn’t had a day off for two years, since the day I was arrested. She worked every day for my freedom, and she was under tremendous pressure until her body couldn’t take it anymore.
The doctors said she had a condition called stress cardiomyopathy, which I call Broken Heart Syndrome. I broke my mothers heart and nearly killed her. The pain I caused my family is indescribable. I didnt think enough about them when I took the risk. Thank God, my mother has made a full recovery. Eight years later, she still comes to me every day. But this whole thing, my incarceration, has been devastating for her. Its also been devastating for my fiancée, my father, my sister, and my entire family. Theyre all suffering.
I want you to understand that losing your freedom is more than just being in a cage and the devastating impact that such incarceration has on your family. To lock someone up in a cage until they die is the most cruel form of torture you can inflict on a person. In order for the public to accept such a punishment, people must be convinced that the person is evil and subhuman. After I was arrested, an inmate came up to me with a magazine in his hand. He said to me, Ross, they wrote an article about you in the magazine. I opened the article and saw an illustration. The face in the painting had similar proportions to my features, but the skin was sallow, the eyes were bloodshot, and my body was hunched over like a monster. I couldnt face the image and threw the magazine aside. I felt a pain in my chest as if it was being torn by claws.
The prisoner said, At least read what theyre saying. I asked him, Why? Why listen to people slandering you and telling lies without being able to say anything back? He was silent. Later that day, he told me that they had done the same thing to him, smearing him on national television news. It was an article in the local newspaper, but it was the same for every one of us. Thats why I didnt want to read it. He tore the article out, tore it into pieces, and threw it in the trash. He said, I dont want to read it either. That meant a lot to me. He said, I dont want to read it either. That gave me hope - that you dont see me as a monster.
They made me out to be a violent drug kingpin, and thats not who I am. It was a lie, an elaborate lie, to justify keeping me in jail until I died. It was a lie to turn you away, to close your hearts to me. They lied on the court records, they cheated, thats documented. They stole, two agents went to jail for it. Thats documented. They falsified evidence, destroyed evidence, and planted fake evidence. Thats documented, too.
At one point, they were even considering sentencing me to death. They considered injecting chemicals into my veins to stop my heart. I once dreamed of a man holding a syringe to my chin, getting closer and closer. I leaned against the wall, every muscle tensed, trying to escape. I woke up with a start when the tip of the syringe almost touched my skin. When I woke up, I found myself in the same tense position in the dream, gasping for air, my heart pounding. I could still feel the fear of the needle approaching me.
Are you beginning to understand what it means to lose your freedom? It means living in constant fear. So why did it take me so many years to speak to you? Because I was afraid. Even now, I was strongly warned not to speak to you. They told me that it would only anger the authorities and end the little chance I had left in court. My intention was not to anger anyone, but yes, I was afraid. Fear of retaliation, fear that because of what I said to you today, I would be thrown back into the abyss or something worse. But I have learned that listening to fear too much can sometimes be as dangerous as ignoring it completely. Eight years have passed quietly. In these eight years, I tried to block out the lies and just focus on getting through each day and trying to be strong for my family. But today, right now, I have a message for those who care about me, and for those who repeat the lies without thinking: Please stop. You are hurting me. Please stop. You know that what you are saying is not true. You are hurting me and you are hurting my family. Please stop.
I want you to understand what it means to lose your freedom. The irony is that I created Silk Road because I wanted to advance the things I care about - freedom, privacy, and equality. But because of Silk Road, I ended up in a place where these values dont exist. Im not the only one. Prisons are full of people who shouldnt be incarcerated. We are mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, but in your eyes, we are portrayed as monsters and stripped of our dignity as human beings.
And yet, there is Bitcoin. From the first block of the blockchain, Bitcoin has been changing the world. Let me tell you something: we are just getting started. Every time Bitcoin is accepted somewhere in the world, freedom and equality follow. Bitcoin is a symbol of freedom.
Look at the situation we find ourselves in now. On one side is the loss of freedom, despair and darkness; on the other side is Bitcoin, freedom, equality and hope. The two cannot coexist, so the darkness must be covered up, ignored. But please listen to me, I am crying out to you from that darkness. This is a cry for help. My mother couldnt do this alone. I am not just crying out for me, I am crying out for all of us. We need your help. We need you to see the stark contrast between a free Bitcoin and being held captive until death. Today, right now, we have a choice. Do we ignore what is happening? Ignore the loss of freedom? Ignore the dehumanization? Or do we wake up?
Look, Bitcoin is strong, Bitcoin has power. We have power, but our work is not over. Its time to wake up, its time to take the next step. Over the past eight years, Ive watched Bitcoin grow. Ive seen incredible innovation, Ive seen inspiring courage. In the early days of Bitcoin, we had no idea how it would develop. But over the years, youve impressed me time and time again. Youve made me proud, and I have no doubt that we can achieve anything.
We are transforming the global economy, bringing freedom and equality to every corner of the world. I know we can transform our criminal justice system, too. Today, I challenge you to look at the hardest problems. I challenge you to shine the light of Bitcoin into the darkest corners. I challenge you to set us free.
Ive seen friends of mine come home after serving years or even decades. Some have even escaped life sentences. Every time it happens, it moves me to tears. Theres nothing like seeing someone free and reunited with their family. Its beautiful, it hurts, and its like a miracle. We need more miracles.
Im going to hang up soon. But I dont want to leave. I dont want to go back to that cell. I want to be with you. Talking to you today has been the most freedom Ive felt in a long time. Thank you, thank you for your attention. I will never forget this day. The memory of this day can never be taken away.
Well, I have to go. Thank you and goodbye.
(Applause)
David Bailey (Bitcoin Magazine): Ladies and gentlemen, we are so lucky today. Lyn is here with us, and if you see her, give her a hug for Ross, for all of us. This is what Bitcoin is about - about freedom, about setting Ross free. We owe it to him, and to the world. Please applaud Ross, and for this moment. Thank you.
