THE GOVERNMENT WANTED HIM BAD, AND THE GOVERNMENT GOT HIM: Silk Road Mastermind Ross Ulbricht Convicted of All 7 Charges. “More broadly, the case represents the limits of cryptographic anonymity tools like Tor and bitcoin against the surveillance powers of the U.S. government. In spite of his use of those crypto tools and others, Ulbricht couldn’t prevent the combined efforts of the FBI, DHS, and IRS from linking his pseudonym to his real-world identity.”

Had he asked my advice at the beginning, I would have told him that. An awful lot of people have paid a steep price for understimating the U.S. government’s resources in that department. A “partnership” with an intelligence agency would have given him more protection. . . .