1999: ‘The one thing that’s missing that will soon be developed is a reliable e-cash.’ Bitcoin: Beyond the Bubble, Milton Friedman, 2018
Beneath all the hype and hysteria lies what could be the most important technology of our lifetimes. ibid.
It’s a digital currency, much like the electronic currency we use today. But it’s also the payment network which facilitates the transfer of this new digital currency from one person to another. ibid.
The Bitcoin network is decentralised. ibid.
All Bitcoin transactions are crytographically verified by thousands of computers on the Bitcoin network. ibid.
Bitcoin hits $11,000 as cryptocurrencies fuel renewed interest. ibid. RT news header
Bitcoin jumps 1,000% this year. ibid. CNN news header
Silk Road was the world’s first multi-million-dollar dark web market for illegal drugs. Silk Road: Drugs, Death and the Dark Web, 2017
‘Silk Road was a new kind of black market that the internet had never seen before.’ ibid. expert
‘You will find easy access to things that could get you in trouble with your authorities.’ ibid. Silk Road welcome page
‘The alleged mastermind goes by the nickname Dread Pirate Roberts.’ ibid. news
The scale was worldwide: by 2013 Silk Road claimed to be making sales of up to $1.3 million every week. The US government had been trying to shut it down for over two years. ibid. caption
‘It had combined TOR with Bitcoin … the spark that changed the whole game.’ ibid. expert
By February 2013 FBI, HSI, IRS and DEA had task forces in multiple cities across the US trying to shut Silk Road down. ibid.
‘I am running a multi-million dollar enterprise.’ ibid. Ross’s encrypted diary entry
By March 2012, Silk Road had over 38,000 users per month and generated up to $600,000 of sales every week. ibid. caption
‘We’re talking about a monumental shift in the power structure of the world; power is being returned to the individual.’ ibid. DPR
‘He [DPR] wanted him [thief] tortured so they could get the money back.’ ibid. insider
Assisted by the authorities in Iceland, the FBI cyber team made a mirror copy of the Silk Road server and brought it back to New York. ibid. caption
After Ulbricht’s arrest, investigators found evidence on his computer that he had ordered five more murders. No bodies have ever been found. ibid.
Ulbricht was tried as ‘the kingpin’ of a criminal enterprise for conspiracy to commit money laundering, computer hacking to traffick narcotics: the jury took just three and a half hours to reach their verdict. ibid.
‘The real base of power lies with us. We are the darkness.’ Alex Winter, Deep Web, enthusiast, 2015
The deep web is vast: thousands of times larger than the visible internet, what’s called the surface web … All the unindexed content online … The deep web became inhabited by people of all types who wanted to use this terrain for privacy; this hidden area of the deep web is called the dark net. ibid.
‘Silk Road: nearly 960,000 users.’ ibid. news report
The Silk Road’s success was largely due to an innovative combination of Tor and Bitcoin. ibid.
Silk Road Reduced Violence in the Drugs Trade, Study Argues. ibid. wired online article
‘It makes sellers much more accountable to buyers.’ ibid. Christopher Ingraham
It is estimated that the number of content moderators scrubbing the world’s social media sites and mobile apps is over 150,000. That is more than twice the head count of Google and nearly nine times that of Facebook. Field of Vision: The Moderators, 2017
In the early years of the 21st century The Pirate Bay grows into the world’s largest file sharing site. In 2008 Hollywood and the media industry filed a lawsuit against the men behind the site. TPB AFK (The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard) caption, 2013
‘Three Swedes were arrested today suspected of running one of the world’s biggest websites for illegal downloading. ibid.
‘All four defendants are sentenced to one year in prison.’ ibid. news
The Pirate Bay won two seats in the EU parliament after the Pirate Bay conviction. ibid.
26 November 2010: the verdict: case proven. ibid.
Before the tents, the pepper-spraying, the evictions, and all those memes, Occupy Wall Street was a disparate group of activists roaming around north Manhattan. They felt cheated that American politics had become so bloated with corporate money that something had to give. Free the Network, Motherboard short 30.45 2012
Vigilante group Anonymous had thrown its weight behind the movement early on. ibid.
Freedom towers: these independent Wi-Fi sources can be seen beaming out free, secure internet. ibid.
‘Fucking this internet. Let’s build our own.’ ibid.
In 2006, WikiLeaks creates an online submission system that allows sources to leak documents anonymously. Four years later, they receive over 700,000 US military and State Department documents. Julian Assange: Risk, caption, BBC 2019
After months of making global headlines, WikiLeaks learns that their password to 250,000 US State Department documents has been exposed. ibid.
Assange and WikiLeaks staff are under secret US grand jury investigation for espionage and conspiracy. Several large institutions have blocked online donations, cutting off cash flow to the organisation. ibid.
As the Arab Spring spread across the Middle East, the Egyptian government cut off access to the internet. In the aftermath of the revolution, regional telecoms gather in Cairo. ibid.
In 2010, WikiLeaks published this leaked video showing the US military killing Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists. The source, 22-year-old intelligence analyst Private Manning, is arrested after a hacker informs the FBI. ibid.
As a teenager, Assange formed the International Subversives, a group that hacked into computer networks around the world. In 1996, he plead guilty to hacking a telecom and was ordered to pay damages. ibid.
Assange is wanted for questioning in Sweden over sexual assault allegations made by two women. He is under house arrest at a supporter’s home, and has a 10 p.m. curfew. Sweden has requested Assange’s extradition for questioning over the allegations. The possible counts include unlawful coercion and rape. Assange denies all allegations. No charges have been filed. ibid.
Assange’s final option for appeal is the UK Supreme Court. His lawyers believe if he is sent to Sweden, he will then be extradited to the US as part of the grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks. ibid.
Ecuador grants Assange political asylum. ibid.
Will the next devastating attack against the United States be deliberate with the tap of a key? Using only a computer, a terrorist or a nation can attack critical infrastructure. Nova: Cyberwar Threat, PBS 2015
Cyber weapons have already been unleashed. ibid.
By 2010 [United States] Cyber Command was ready for action. About the same time that the world got a glimpse of the first true cyber weapon: a surprisingly destructive computer worm, a self-replicating program that came to be known as Stuxnet. ibid.
Stuxnet used a ‘Zero Day’ to take advantage of a vulnerability related to USB thumb drives. ibid.
In June 2012 The New York Times reported that Stuxnet was created jointly by the NSA and Israeli intelligence. ibid.
When I get up in the morning I’ll post on Instagram and then Facebook, Twitter … I have over fifty million followers … The American Meme, Paris Hilton, Netflix 2018
I love my fans just as much as they love me. ibid.
Time: The 30 Most Influential People on the Internet. ibid.
Most of these dogs are more famous than me … That’s why I have a puppy mansion. ibid. Josh Ostrovsky
I get paid great money to show the dark corners of life. ibid. Krill Buchutsky
The web transforms us. We become data, code, uploading our very selves to a place we call the Cloud. But this cloud is grounded in hardware, a chaos of code. Dark Net s1e1: Crush, Netflix 2016
Love – you can find it and lose it inside your screen. ibid.