Donald Trump has given full pardon to the founder of now-defunct darknet marketplace Silk Road, who was in jail for the last 12 years.
Ross Ulbricht is the founder of Silk Road. Silk Road was an online marketplace & popular among darknet users between 2011 to 2013. The majority of the users were using this platform to exchange illegal things like drugs and counterfeit documents for Bitcoin payment. In 2013, Ulbricht was arrested by the FBI & later in 2015, he was convicted on multiple charges, including money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics, and engaging in a criminal enterprise. He received a double life sentence without the possibility of parole, plus 40 years. Because of this very harsh sentence, many people raised questions over the rules & laws, but on the other hand, many people supported such a judgment against him.
In the latest developments, the new US president, Donald Trump, has given full pardon to Ross Ulbricht. Trump informed through his social media platform Truth Social that he signed a full and unconditional pardon for the Silk Road creator.
It is worth it to note that Trump’s latest decision is just one of the promises that he made to the crypto community during his presidential election campaigns.
The crypto community has long called for Ulbricht’s release for various reasons, as the platform was open to everyone and people were also sharing legal goods & services for Bitcoin payment.
Many Bitcoin enthusiasts supported Ulbricht because he was one of the reasons for pushing the use of Bitcoin in the form of a decentralized payment option.
Ulbricht never denied his involvement in Silk Road but always denied allegations that he was the sole person in charge or the original creator of the platform. In 2013, in an interview with Forbes, he said he just combined Bitcoin and Tor to create an anonymous market. Everything was in place, he just put the pieces together.
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