Silk Road was an online marketplace where nearly anything could be brought with complete anonymity. It was a website created to be the ideal free market, but evolved into a den for criminals. It only lasted two years after its launch, due to the arrest of its founder, Ross Ulbritch.
Ross Ulbritch was a brilliant student who graduated from the University of Texas in Dallas with a degree in physics. Then in 2009 he received his masters in material science and engineering at Penn State. Soon after graduating from Penn State, Ross started a charity called Good Wagon Books. His charity collected unwanted books from the owners house and redistributed them. The company literally and figuratively fell apart one day when all the book shelves suddenly collapsed, thus ending his endeavor. Ross was not upset, however because he already had his eyes set on a new company.
Soon after graduating from Penn State Ross became interested in Australian Economics and involved in the Libertarian party. After his charity fell through, he began working on a website called Silk Road, where a truly free market could be exercised. He had no real experience in making websites, but was able to quickly learn by asking friends and posting to forums. The website never would have been possible, had it not been for Tor and Bitcoin. Both Tor and Bitcoin are encrypted and together make it nearly impossible to track who made the transaction. Because of this, anyone can buy and sell whatever they want with no fear of consequences, because no one will no who they are.
Being a libertarian, Ross had no problem with drugs, he thought it was up to the individual to make his own decision. So, he decided to make drug trade the primary force behind his new website; he even started growing his own mushrooms to make the first sales. His site quickly gained immense popularity. Hundreds of different vendors were added and it was used by tens of thousands of people.
Eventually the FBI caught up with Ross and he was arrested and his website shut down. But this does not mean that he was not an entrepreneur. He had incredible ambition to do what he wanted, he displayed this by “Furthering human knowledge” (Ross) in his short career as an engineer, starting his own charity, and then creating a new world wide market. He was very good at finding what he wanted and taking the necessary measures to achieve it. Even though his work was not morally sound, he did many things that aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from.