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In the second installment of our three part series on the Free Ross Campaign (www.freeross.org) we share the second half of our interview with Lyn Ulbricht and we rally further momentum with the support of Roger Ver revealing the physical effects the campaign is having on Lyn and her family. Our conversation deepens almost immediately when we ask about the emotional, financial, psychological and mental impact on her life.

“Mental. Yes, absolutely. You're right. I mean literally I almost died, my heart just gave out because I was so stressed. Well they said it was this thing called broken heart syndrome, which affects the left ventricle of your heart. It was after the trial and the sentencing and I mean, my heart gave out.  I'm okay now, but yeah, it's, you know, it's like seeing your child killed in front of you, murdered in front of you.”

Ver speaks not only on the thoughts behind the extreme sentencing but also his thoughts on the hypocrisy of the state:

“And from my point of view, if there's no victim, there's no crime - other than maybe the only crime that's been committed is the people that's imprisoning those people that haven't committed a crime. It's the police, the judges, the lawyers and prosecutors that are prosecuting those people and locking them in, in prison. Those are the bad people. Those are the ones that are committing a crime. And so my heart goes out to all these people. It's not just Ross, he's one of literally millions of people who's in prison for having committed no crime against any victim whatsoever.”

Lyn’s son, Ross Ulbricht was arrested in October, 2013 on allegations centred on the presumption that he created and operated the anonymous e-commerce website Silk Road under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR). It was this website that many believe was the fundamental piece in the success of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The Silk Road was an open marketplace with minimal control that allowed vendors to sell both legal goods (books and clothing) and illegal goods including drugs.  Silk Road prohibited any items and activity that victimised anyone including anything that was stolen, child pornography and murder. 

Hosted on TOR, the Silk Road site was a well-known e-commerce website that only used Bitcoin and thus one theory behind Ross Ulbricht’s extreme sentencing is that those handing down the ruling wanted to cast an even darker shadow over cryptocurrency by making Ross an example.  

On this point Ver points out that perhaps Bitcoin wasn’t the reason behind Ross’ extreme sentencing instead pointing out that disobedience and treason result in the harshest penalties. 

“This is a global revolt and I feel that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and the Internet really is, it's a global revolt, not in any sort of violent way and it's just a global revolt in the sense that now we're building the tools in which individuals have the ability to tell the state, no, you don't own me, you don't own my life.”

It is vital to this interview to point out that the case against Ulbricht cited no victims for any of the charges.The case was laden with inconsistencies, corrupted evidence and the fact that the Dreaded Pirate Roberts logged back into the Silk Road when Ross Ulbricht was in solitary confinement. 

“It was discovered after trial that some evidence had been tampered with and deleted, and it was also discovered that dread pirate Roberts logged in to the Silk Road forum after Ross was already in solitary. So if it wasn't Ross. Who was it?”

Ross Ulbricht, a victim of extreme sentencing, is a vital member of the cryptocurrency space. He is sitting in a maximum security prison until he dies for victimless crimes on an e-commerce website.

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