Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York : Portfolio/Penguin, [2017]
Description
Biography & Autobiography. Business. True Crime. Nonfiction. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom�and almost got away with it In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything�drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons�free of the government�s watchful eye. It wasn�t long before the media got wind of the new Web site where anyone�not just teenagers and weed dealers but terrorists and black hat hackers�could buy and sell contraband detection-free. Spurred by a public outcry, the federal government launched an epic two-year manhunt for the site�s elusive proprietor, with no leads, no witnesses, and no clear jurisdiction. All the investigators knew was that whoever was running the site called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts. The Silk Road quickly ballooned into $1.2 billion enterprise, and Ross embraced his new role as kingpin. He enlisted a loyal crew of allies in high and low places, all as addicted to the danger and thrill of running an illegal marketplace as their customers were to the heroin they sold. Through his network he got wind of the target on his back and took drastic steps to protect himself�including ordering a hit on a former employee. As Ross made plans to disappear forever, the Feds raced against the clock to catch a man they weren�t sure even existed, searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet. Drawing on exclusive access to key players and two billion digital words and images Ross left behind, Vanity Fair correspondent and New York Times bestselling author Nick Bilton offers a tale filled with twists and turns, lucky breaks and unbelievable close calls. It�s a story of the boy next door�s ambition gone criminal, spurred on by the clash between the new world of libertarian-leaning, anonymous, decentralized Web advocates and the old world of government control, order, and the rule of law. Filled with unforgettable characters and capped by an astonishing climax, American Kingpin might be dismissed as too outrageous for fiction. But it�s all too real.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
This was a fascinating true crime narrative about how an underachieving college drop-out from Austin came to establish one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises ever. Ross Ulbricht rode high for a couple of years and then made a few seemingly inconsequential mistakes, which, despite many
4 stars
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instances of ineptitude and corruption, allowed the federal government to find him and bring him down. I couldn't stop turning the pages.4 stars
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LibraryThing member ASKelmore
Best for:
People who enjoy investigative journalism told in narrative form.
In a nutshell:
A very Libertarian dude decides to make a statement and start a website that sells drugs. Things spiral. The federal government gets involved in multiple ways.
Worth quoting:
N/A
Why I chose it:
After listening
Review:
I was vaguely aware of the Silk Road website, where people could buy and sell drugs and other contraband, but I had no idea about the story behind it. And OH MY GOD is it absurd. Like, this young guy with very specific ideals who is desperate to be successful in some realm just .. Starts a site. And it blows up to the point that it is doing hundreds of thousands of dollars of business a week.
A week.
What?!
The story alternates among a few major players: the site’s founder, two different homeland security inspectors, the FBI, and an IRS agent. The personalities are strong and interesting. Some people make horrible decisions. Some people make good decisions. And I yell “Are you KIDDING ME?” at least every 15 minutes. I felt like I was listening to a suspense novel, and then had to remind myself that this was real life.
If the whole Theranos situation has you intrigued, I think you’ll find this an interesting read as well.
Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it
People who enjoy investigative journalism told in narrative form.
In a nutshell:
A very Libertarian dude decides to make a statement and start a website that sells drugs. Things spiral. The federal government gets involved in multiple ways.
Worth quoting:
N/A
Why I chose it:
After listening
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to Bad Blood, I needed another audio book for my runs. Memoirs have been my go-to in this format, but I think they have been replaced, as it’s easy to stay invested when it’s essential real-life suspense. And bonus: the narrator for this book happened to be the same one, and I like his style, so double-win.Review:
I was vaguely aware of the Silk Road website, where people could buy and sell drugs and other contraband, but I had no idea about the story behind it. And OH MY GOD is it absurd. Like, this young guy with very specific ideals who is desperate to be successful in some realm just .. Starts a site. And it blows up to the point that it is doing hundreds of thousands of dollars of business a week.
A week.
What?!
The story alternates among a few major players: the site’s founder, two different homeland security inspectors, the FBI, and an IRS agent. The personalities are strong and interesting. Some people make horrible decisions. Some people make good decisions. And I yell “Are you KIDDING ME?” at least every 15 minutes. I felt like I was listening to a suspense novel, and then had to remind myself that this was real life.
If the whole Theranos situation has you intrigued, I think you’ll find this an interesting read as well.
Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it
Show Less
LibraryThing member breic
Surprisingly good. I had no particular interest in the Silk Road story, and had given up on Bilton's Twitter book. But this reads like a lightweight thriller. Short chapters, short words: very readable, and you only occasionally want to throw the book across the room. "The laws of time, like
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gravity, are nonnegotiable. And time for Ross was running out." The book includes good portraits of several interesting people, from Ross Ulbricht (the "Dread Pirate Roberts") to certain FBI and IRS agents. Flawed people in a flawed system, and all interesting in their own ways. Show Less
LibraryThing member JosephKing6602
Fascinating account of the ‘dark web’; true-crime saga of how they caught the perpetrator. Well written; reads like a fast-paced thriller but it is TRUE! Amazing reportage!
LibraryThing member a.diamond
Nick Bilton’s American Kingpin describes the rise and fall of the darknet market The Silk Road, and its creator, Ross Ulbricht. The book focuses primarily on Ulbricht and a handful of agents from the DEA, FBI, IRS, and Homeland Security who wage a semi-coordinated effort to identify and capture
Ulbricht grew up in Austin, Texas, a middle-class kid with strong libertarian leanings. According to Bilton, he had thought about creating an unregulated online marketplace long before the Silk Road went online in 2011, but the technology he needed didn’t exist yet. By 2011, those technologies were widely available. The Tor web browser provided online anonymity, while Bitcoin allowed users to complete purchases without the buyer or seller having to reveal their idenities.
Ulbricht taught himself to code and created a website like eBay that initially sold only psychadelic mushrooms. He posted news of the site’s existence to a few user forums, and from there it grew into something beyond Ulbricht’s wildest dreams. New sellers signed on, peddling cocaine, heroine, LSD, designer drugs, guns, explosives, hacking kits, and human organs for transplant. Much of the book describes Ulbricht’s frantic attempts to keep up with the unstoppable growth of site he created.
Caught off guard by the site’s wild success, Ulbricht enlisted the help of a number of colorful characters to improve security, monitor user forums, and resolve disputes between buyers and sellers.
About six months after launch, Gawker published news of the site’s existence, describing it as the Amazon.com of drugs. This caught the attention of political figures and law enforcement, who vowed to shut the site down and arrest whoever ran it. The problem was that Tor, which had been created by the US government to protect the online anonymity of informants and political dissidents living under repressive regimes, also did a good job hiding the identity of The Dread Pirate Roberts. As Roberts/Ulbricht posted openly about his libertarian views and plans for The Silk Road, no one could figure out who or where he was. If anyone were to unmask him, it could only be due to an error on his part–some misuse of the technology that protected him, or some slip-up in the real world outside of Tor and the dark web.
American Kingpin does an excellent job chronicling how a number of low-level federal law enforcement agents found little clues here and there: a pink pill the in mail in Chicago, a few stray and seemingly unrelated posts in online forums, an envelope full of fake IDs. The government ultimately identified Ulbricht in spite of a poorly coordinated investigation marked by lack of communication and inter-agency turf wars.
In fact, the final identification came almost as a matter of chance, during a conference call when an IRS inspector made an offhand comment about a username Ulbricht had chosen on StackOverflow. Another agent listening in on the call was able to connect that information to a detail in the FBI’s investigation.
Ulbricht’s arrest, which was widely reported at time, is one of the most thrilling moments in contemporary crime, and Bilton does an excellent job recounting the minutes leading up to the unplanned encounter, in which a number of agents had to make a impromptu split-second decisions.
A number of reviewers have criticised Bilton’s writing for its hyperbole and occasional inaccuracies. Part of his job as writer is to flesh out a description of characters he has not met and scenes he did not witness. It’s impossible to do this with one-hundred percent accuracy, so the writer has to work with the facts he has. When the facts are limited, as they are about Ulbricht’s personality and private life, the author must resort to repeating them, and that can wear a little thin.
Bilton also has a bad habit of throwing in unnecessarily heavy-handed foreshadowing. The effect is like lathering cheap ketchup on a fine filet mignon. This story is so fascinating, it doesn’t need any dressing up.
On the plus side, Bilton’s research is thorough, and he does a good job handling a large cast of characters and a great deal of technical information. To get the full impact of a story as complex as this one, you need to keep all the details and players straight. This is where Bilton’s work shines. If you like a good crime read or a good procedural, or if you just want to learn about how online crime works in the twenty-first century, this is an excellent read.
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the Silk Road leader, who was known online as the Dread Pirate Roberts.Ulbricht grew up in Austin, Texas, a middle-class kid with strong libertarian leanings. According to Bilton, he had thought about creating an unregulated online marketplace long before the Silk Road went online in 2011, but the technology he needed didn’t exist yet. By 2011, those technologies were widely available. The Tor web browser provided online anonymity, while Bitcoin allowed users to complete purchases without the buyer or seller having to reveal their idenities.
Ulbricht taught himself to code and created a website like eBay that initially sold only psychadelic mushrooms. He posted news of the site’s existence to a few user forums, and from there it grew into something beyond Ulbricht’s wildest dreams. New sellers signed on, peddling cocaine, heroine, LSD, designer drugs, guns, explosives, hacking kits, and human organs for transplant. Much of the book describes Ulbricht’s frantic attempts to keep up with the unstoppable growth of site he created.
Caught off guard by the site’s wild success, Ulbricht enlisted the help of a number of colorful characters to improve security, monitor user forums, and resolve disputes between buyers and sellers.
About six months after launch, Gawker published news of the site’s existence, describing it as the Amazon.com of drugs. This caught the attention of political figures and law enforcement, who vowed to shut the site down and arrest whoever ran it. The problem was that Tor, which had been created by the US government to protect the online anonymity of informants and political dissidents living under repressive regimes, also did a good job hiding the identity of The Dread Pirate Roberts. As Roberts/Ulbricht posted openly about his libertarian views and plans for The Silk Road, no one could figure out who or where he was. If anyone were to unmask him, it could only be due to an error on his part–some misuse of the technology that protected him, or some slip-up in the real world outside of Tor and the dark web.
American Kingpin does an excellent job chronicling how a number of low-level federal law enforcement agents found little clues here and there: a pink pill the in mail in Chicago, a few stray and seemingly unrelated posts in online forums, an envelope full of fake IDs. The government ultimately identified Ulbricht in spite of a poorly coordinated investigation marked by lack of communication and inter-agency turf wars.
In fact, the final identification came almost as a matter of chance, during a conference call when an IRS inspector made an offhand comment about a username Ulbricht had chosen on StackOverflow. Another agent listening in on the call was able to connect that information to a detail in the FBI’s investigation.
Ulbricht’s arrest, which was widely reported at time, is one of the most thrilling moments in contemporary crime, and Bilton does an excellent job recounting the minutes leading up to the unplanned encounter, in which a number of agents had to make a impromptu split-second decisions.
A number of reviewers have criticised Bilton’s writing for its hyperbole and occasional inaccuracies. Part of his job as writer is to flesh out a description of characters he has not met and scenes he did not witness. It’s impossible to do this with one-hundred percent accuracy, so the writer has to work with the facts he has. When the facts are limited, as they are about Ulbricht’s personality and private life, the author must resort to repeating them, and that can wear a little thin.
Bilton also has a bad habit of throwing in unnecessarily heavy-handed foreshadowing. The effect is like lathering cheap ketchup on a fine filet mignon. This story is so fascinating, it doesn’t need any dressing up.
On the plus side, Bilton’s research is thorough, and he does a good job handling a large cast of characters and a great deal of technical information. To get the full impact of a story as complex as this one, you need to keep all the details and players straight. This is where Bilton’s work shines. If you like a good crime read or a good procedural, or if you just want to learn about how online crime works in the twenty-first century, this is an excellent read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member DidIReallyReadThat
A very interesting story about the person who set up a huge online store for purchasing illicit drugs, fake ids, weapons and even body parts. I would have given a better star rating but the writing style was so awful that I almost didn’t finish the book.
LibraryThing member swmproblems
It was o.k. I guess. Although since I knew how everything ended, that probably made is less suspenseful but I'm glad I read it or at least week of my life that this is what I was reading.
LibraryThing member Castlelass
Narrative non-fiction that reads like a cybercrime thriller, this book tells the true story of Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts), creator of the Silk Road website (now defunct) on the dark net where drugs, weapons, body parts, and other contraband were offered for sale using Bitcoin virtual
The author pieces together a vast array of data from Ulbricht’s electronic trail, chat logs, photos, social media, courtroom transcripts, and interviews with family, friends, and participants (excluding Ulbricht) to assemble this riveting story. He does not use footnotes or specifics in documenting sources but provides a summary of all resources in the Appendix and does not identify where the quoted conversations originate.
The reader does not need detailed technical knowledge to appreciate this book. In fact, techies will probably want more detail than is provided. It is a fast-paced engrossing story that I found hard to put down.
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currency. It is a story of the rise and fall of the Silk Road, the transformation of mild-mannered college-educated Ulbricht into the head of a global criminal enterprise, and the government agents and agencies that brought him down. The author pieces together a vast array of data from Ulbricht’s electronic trail, chat logs, photos, social media, courtroom transcripts, and interviews with family, friends, and participants (excluding Ulbricht) to assemble this riveting story. He does not use footnotes or specifics in documenting sources but provides a summary of all resources in the Appendix and does not identify where the quoted conversations originate.
The reader does not need detailed technical knowledge to appreciate this book. In fact, techies will probably want more detail than is provided. It is a fast-paced engrossing story that I found hard to put down.
Show Less
LibraryThing member rivkat
Somewhat overtold/repetitive but still engaging story of the creator of Silk Road, the website where people could order drugs, guns, and poisons to be delivered through the mail and believe they’d stay anonymous. I learned that two of the main agents on the case used the opportunity to enrich
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themselves—one by stealing Bitcoin from a lower-level guy they arrested and another by selling information to the Dread Pirate Roberts who ran Silk Road. That they caught him at all ends up being a combination of his mistakes and the dedication of a couple of other, noncorrupt agents. The story is tightly focused on the Silk Road investigation, with only one story of a kid who died from the drugs it sold; we will never know many of its other impacts. Show Less
LibraryThing member decaturmamaof2
Really well-done true crime story. Bilton get is inside the heads of the key figures in the Silk Road story.
Subjects
Awards
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (2017)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Non-Fiction — 2017)
Language
Original publication date
2017-05-02
Physical description
xv, 329 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
9781591848141
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