Online drug bazaar Silk Road was made possible by Tor’s anonymity software, but the site’s head — known as the Dread Pirate Roberts — says it was Bitcoin that let it grow. “We’ve won the State’s War on Drugs because of Bitcoin,” he tells Forbes for an interview and profile. But even as new competitor Atlantis promises “dank buds” in a blunt, now-deleted YouTube ad, Roberts describes his site as an ideological blow against regulation and surveillance. And the anonymity he values extends far beyond obscuring his real name: like his namesake in The Princess Bride, he says he’s not the first Dread Pirate Roberts, and it’s possible he won’t be the last.
Silk Road manager says Bitcoin let it win the War on Drugs
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
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