Las Vegas, Nevada – The founder of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, has a message for the cryptographic community: if you want to maintain your freedom, you must remain unified and decentralized, and you must be prepared for a fight.
In a discourse of sincere opening closing the Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas Thursday, Ulbricht, addressing the public in person for the first time since his release of prison in January, shared a story to illustrate his three guiding principles – freedom, decentralization and unity.
Ulbricht explained that at the start of the silk road, he wanted to cultivate hallucinogenic mushrooms to store the Darknet market, so he rented a distant cabin. The cabin, he said, was infested with wasps. He decided to face the wasps, using a trick that his father had taught him who involved trapping the wasps nests under a towel.
“My heart was beating,” said Ulbricht. “I selected the nest which was the furthest from the others, because I did not know if the other nests would bite me, spread the towel, I got closer as much as possible – ready to flee if I had to – but when I finished the nest, nothing happened. It was as if the other wasps hadn’t even noticed it. ”
Ulbricht said that the wasps were strong because they were free: “It was impossible to keep track of so many individual wasps, a bite could come from any direction. They were strong because they were decentralized, through seven nests.”
But, said Ulbricht, the wasps were ultimately weak because they were not unified and did not react when their wasp colleagues were withdrawn.
“Had a single daring wasp to come and bite me when I reached this first nest, I would have fled … But they did not do it. Thank God, you are not wasps,” said Ulbricht.
Before being forgiven by American president Donald Trump in January – the result of a promise that Trump made on the campaign campaign in 2024 – Ulbricht spent 12 years behind bars. His speech marked the 10th anniversary, the day, of a New York judge sentenced the Ulbricht, then 31 years old, with two perpetuity sentences, over 40 years old, for the possession and exploitation of the Dark Net market.
During his opening speech, Ulbricht, who has been free for four months, always seemed dynamic with his new freedom. In a video editing before its appearance on stage, Ulbricht clips experiencing life outside the prison – traveling, surfing, spending time with his wife – played on the screen, each showing a radiant Ulbricht.
“Winning your freedom is as incredible as losing is horrible,” said Ulbricht, creating the cryptographic community for pleading for its release. “I’m free, and it’s because of you. You made this moment possible… Thank you, thank you, thank you.
After more than a decade behind bars, Ulbricht compared himself to Rip Van Winkle, admitting that he was overwhelmed by all technological progress since he went to prison.
“There are dozens of new cryptocurrencies and blockchains, each fascinating in its own right, and thousands of others will never have time to discover. There is Defi and Web3 and Ai to help me sail in all of this. It’s crazy,” said Ulbricht. “I mean, just a few months ago, when I left prison, I had never seen a drone … Everything strikes me at the same time, freedom, the new technology, the fact that I have a future again.”
Ulbricht closed by speaking to the public gangs and prison factions, saying that he quickly understood that prison guards and prisoners are divided.
“The only times I saw the guards respect the prisoners are when we were united,” said Ulbricht. “Those who oppose decentralization and freedom love it when we are divided, I promise you, so stay united. As long as we can agree that we deserve freedom, and that decentralization is the way we guarantee it, then we can be united … Staying faithful to these principles and in the future is ours. “
