“American Kingpin” by Nick Bilton

American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

By Nick Bilton
2017
352 pages / 12 hours and 14 minutes
Nonfiction

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I am not one of those people who binge watch anything. I actually don't care much for serial TV or its Netflix equivalents. Because I teach ethics, there's always someone trying to persuade me there is something that I just have to watch, like when I was bombarded by Breaking Bad fans. To this day I still have not seen a single episode. Even so, I am easily drawn into true crime storytelling, which brings me to today’s book.

My ignorance of, and inability with, technology is somewhat legendary around my building. So when I heard phrases like the dark web I always thought they meant there was some really bad stuff on the internet. Well, that's not exactly newsworthy. But I didn't really understand that there are places on the web you can only reach with a special anonymous browser – the real dark web.

American Kingpin is the riveting story of Ross Ulbricht, a 26-year-old dark web entrepreneur with Libertarian sensibilities. He also created the Silk Road, a billion-dollar business in illegal drugs and guns. He didn’t so much sell the drugs (although he did a little of that) so much as he created a marketplace where sellers and buyers could anonymously do business through bitcoin.

Since this is a true story, spoilers are not quite the same problem as they are with a work of fiction. Nevertheless I don't want to give up too many of the details of one of the greatest contemporary detective stories you are likely to find. So let me stick to what you’d find through even a cursory search of the internet. Ulbricht is in prison and likely to be there for a very long time. His has become a somewhat celebrated cause. This does not appear to be a simple case of American greed, considering Ulbricht did not live extravagantly or really spend any of the money. And he pitches himself as a great Libertarian warrior fighting for freedom from government intrusion into the lives of consenting adults. Count me among the doubtful.

The story of the chase and capture is far more interesting than any piece of fiction is likely to be. What's not to love about a story that includes the Dread Pirate Roberts (if you don't know who that is you really need to get out more), crooked FBI agents, secret identities, and much double dealing? Oh, and by the way, there is an absolutely lovely baptism story involving the girlfriend of the book’s antihero.

There are obviously difficult issues to be resolved with regard to the internet, privacy, and security. And for anybody with computer savvy children, this book will be more than a little disturbing. Do you really know what your children are up to? I wouldn't be so sure.

In the meantime, the chase comes to its pulse-pounding conclusion not in a fiery shootout but in a library. Welcome to the computer age.