In example after example, the prosecution pointed to logs where the laptop user identified himself as Dread Pirate Roberts. It provides an encrypted communication channel between two parties, using a Tor network to obscure the connection between them.Īlthough TorChat promises encrypted messaging, Ulbricht chose to save the logs in plain text on his computer, creating a trove of conversations with fellow Silk Road administrators. Internal communication was carried out mostly through free software called TorChat. Thousands of pages of chat logs helped prosecutors trace the growth of Silk Road. Ulbricht either didn’t use the tumbler, or if he did, it didn’t help.Ģ. Silk Road offered a service, called a tumbler, that passed bitcoins through several intermediate wallets to obscure their origin and destination. In Silk Road’s case, prosecutors found it relatively trivial to track profits from Silk Road as they were transferred from wallets used by the online market to wallets on Ulbricht’s laptop. This case showed that all law enforcement needs to do is locate the wallets on each side of a transaction and follow the money. But unlike cash, a detailed public ledger called the blockchain keeps track of each wallet a bitcoin passes through. Like cash, bitcoins aren’t tied to a person’s identity. Bitcoin: If you assume your bitcoins can’t be traced back to you, think again. How was Ulbricht nabbed? At least some of the blame can be placed on what now seems like misplaced trust in a handful of technologies Ulbricht thought would shield his identity.
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