A fun and interesting read, and I always appreciate short chapters! ( )

Good story, but the writing was a bit too choppy, Dragnet style, for me, and over the length of the book, it started feeling more like a list of facts than a book. ( )

Really well-done true crime story. Bilton get is inside the heads of the key figures in the Silk Road story. ( )

First time that I listened to a non-fiction audiobook. This was so well written that at times I had to remind myself that it's a true story and not a piece of fiction. This book was definitely riveting and I couldn't wait to listen to the next chapter. ( )

A quick read and a very good thriller based on the real story of the Silk Road. Really enjoyed it. ( )

Informative in a way but not what i expected. Guess i had my hopes a little too high ( )

A well told story told in a fictional manner. Written in a simplistic manner with a riveting storyline. ( )

Somewhat overtold/repetitive but still engaging story of the creator of Silk Road, the website where people could order drugs, guns, and poisons to be delivered through the mail and believe they’d stay anonymous. I learned that two of the main agents on the case used the opportunity to enrich themselves—one by stealing Bitcoin from a lower-level guy they arrested and another by selling information to the Dread Pirate Roberts who ran Silk Road. That they caught him at all ends up being a combination of his mistakes and the dedication of a couple of other, noncorrupt agents. The story is tightly focused on the Silk Road investigation, with only one story of a kid who died from the drugs it sold; we will never know many of its other impacts. ( )

Narrative non-fiction that reads like a cybercrime thriller, this book tells the true story of Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts), creator of the Silk Road website (now defunct) on the dark net where drugs, weapons, body parts, and other contraband were offered for sale using Bitcoin virtual currency. It is a story of the rise and fall of the Silk Road, the transformation of mild-mannered college-educated Ulbricht into the head of a global criminal enterprise, and the government agents and agencies that brought him down.

The author pieces together a vast array of data from Ulbricht’s electronic trail, chat logs, photos, social media, courtroom transcripts, and interviews with family, friends, and participants (excluding Ulbricht) to assemble this riveting story. He does not use footnotes or specifics in documenting sources but provides a summary of all resources in the Appendix and does not identify where the quoted conversations originate.

The reader does not need detailed technical knowledge to appreciate this book. In fact, techies will probably want more detail than is provided. It is a fast-paced engrossing story that I found hard to put down.
( )

Detailed story

Good investigative work on one of the least known commerce sites on the dark net. Could not put it down! ( )

A fast-paced read about the take-down of a young guy who thought he could save the world by selling drugs, guns, body parts and really, anything else illegal, on the "dark web". Ross Albright embraced the libertarian values that what you put in your body was your business, not the governments. He started out selling magic mushrooms that he grew in his apartment. From there the website escalated to the sale of anything illegal you could dream of, using Bitcon which could not be traced. The ABC agencies caught onto to the website early, and yet they could not uncover the person behind it.

A fast paced true-crime that had me reading late into the night. ( )

It was o.k. I guess. Although since I knew how everything ended, that probably made is less suspenseful but I'm glad I read it or at least week of my life that this is what I was reading. ( )

Ah, Silk Road -- the first "killer app" for cryptocurrency. While it's hard to really be sure of the truth in a relatively current criminal prosecution, this seems well researched and I'm reasonably confident broadly accurate. It was interesting how the lack of knowledge and biases of law enforcement made them blind to suspects -- thinking it required a huge amount of formal computer science education and programming skill to run a mediocre bulletin board site in >2010, etc.

Overall a good book and some insights into the psychology of the various characters. A little more exploration of the libertarian and cypherpunk roots, ties into the long-running battle for drug decriminalization, etc, might have been nice for context, but overall quite good. And very sad. ( )

A very interesting story about the person who set up a huge online store for purchasing illicit drugs, fake ids, weapons and even body parts. I would have given a better star rating but the writing style was so awful that I almost didn’t finish the book. ( )

Nick Bilton’s American Kingpin describes the rise and fall of the darknet market The Silk Road, and its creator, Ross Ulbricht. The book focuses primarily on Ulbricht and a handful of agents from the DEA, FBI, IRS, and Homeland Security who wage a semi-coordinated effort to identify and capture the Silk Road leader, who was known online as the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Ulbricht grew up in Austin, Texas, a middle-class kid with strong libertarian leanings. According to Bilton, he had thought about creating an unregulated online marketplace long before the Silk Road went online in 2011, but the technology he needed didn’t exist yet. By 2011, those technologies were widely available. The Tor web browser provided online anonymity, while Bitcoin allowed users to complete purchases without the buyer or seller having to reveal their idenities.

Ulbricht taught himself to code and created a website like eBay that initially sold only psychadelic mushrooms. He posted news of the site’s existence to a few user forums, and from there it grew into something beyond Ulbricht’s wildest dreams. New sellers signed on, peddling cocaine, heroine, LSD, designer drugs, guns, explosives, hacking kits, and human organs for transplant. Much of the book describes Ulbricht’s frantic attempts to keep up with the unstoppable growth of site he created.

Caught off guard by the site’s wild success, Ulbricht enlisted the help of a number of colorful characters to improve security, monitor user forums, and resolve disputes between buyers and sellers.

About six months after launch, Gawker published news of the site’s existence, describing it as the Amazon.com of drugs. This caught the attention of political figures and law enforcement, who vowed to shut the site down and arrest whoever ran it. The problem was that Tor, which had been created by the US government to protect the online anonymity of informants and political dissidents living under repressive regimes, also did a good job hiding the identity of The Dread Pirate Roberts. As Roberts/Ulbricht posted openly about his libertarian views and plans for The Silk Road, no one could figure out who or where he was. If anyone were to unmask him, it could only be due to an error on his part–some misuse of the technology that protected him, or some slip-up in the real world outside of Tor and the dark web.

American Kingpin does an excellent job chronicling how a number of low-level federal law enforcement agents found little clues here and there: a pink pill the in mail in Chicago, a few stray and seemingly unrelated posts in online forums, an envelope full of fake IDs. The government ultimately identified Ulbricht in spite of a poorly coordinated investigation marked by lack of communication and inter-agency turf wars.

In fact, the final identification came almost as a matter of chance, during a conference call when an IRS inspector made an offhand comment about a username Ulbricht had chosen on StackOverflow. Another agent listening in on the call was able to connect that information to a detail in the FBI’s investigation.

Ulbricht’s arrest, which was widely reported at time, is one of the most thrilling moments in contemporary crime, and Bilton does an excellent job recounting the minutes leading up to the unplanned encounter, in which a number of agents had to make a impromptu split-second decisions.

A number of reviewers have criticised Bilton’s writing for its hyperbole and occasional inaccuracies. Part of his job as writer is to flesh out a description of characters he has not met and scenes he did not witness. It’s impossible to do this with one-hundred percent accuracy, so the writer has to work with the facts he has. When the facts are limited, as they are about Ulbricht’s personality and private life, the author must resort to repeating them, and that can wear a little thin.

Bilton also has a bad habit of throwing in unnecessarily heavy-handed foreshadowing. The effect is like lathering cheap ketchup on a fine filet mignon. This story is so fascinating, it doesn’t need any dressing up.

On the plus side, Bilton’s research is thorough, and he does a good job handling a large cast of characters and a great deal of technical information. To get the full impact of a story as complex as this one, you need to keep all the details and players straight. This is where Bilton’s work shines. If you like a good crime read or a good procedural, or if you just want to learn about how online crime works in the twenty-first century, this is an excellent read. ( )

Fascinating account of the ‘dark web’; true-crime saga of how they caught the perpetrator. Well written; reads like a fast-paced thriller but it is TRUE! Amazing reportage! ( )

American Kingpin is the implausible but true story of a twenty-something self-taught programmer with intense libertarian beliefs, named Ross Ulbricht, who, in 2011, single-handedly set up a soon-to-be very popular covert site on the Dark Web called “the Silk Road.” The site was started as a marketplace for illegal drugs, but Ulbricht eventually expanded operations to trade in forged passports, counterfeit cash, guns, poisons, and even body parts. By using the Dark Web platform Tor, financing his activities with Bitcoin, and adopting the nom-de-guerre Dread Pirate Roberts, Ulbricht remained anonymous, free, and unpunished for two years.

[The Dark Web is a part of the internet that is incapable of being penetrated by conventional search engines. Therefore it tends to be used by those engaged in illicit activities and/or those excessively concerned with privacy. Tor is the internet browser of choice for exploring the Dark Web. It operates on a worldwide network of servers specifically made for private communication. Tor was created by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in the mid-1990s by military researchers, and employs technology enabling users to engage in online activity with masked identities, encrypting any data sent from anyone's computer. Bitcoin makes it possible to send and receive money without giving any personal identifying information.]

In June 2011, "Gawker" published an article about the site which led to an increase in website traffic, helping to expand the Silk Road to a $1.2 billion per year enterprise. Once the site was known publicly, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer asked federal law enforcement authorities to shut it down, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Justice. As the Feds closed in, Ulbricht took even more drastic steps to protect himself and silence anyone who might know his identity. After an online quest that seemed as thrilling for this reader as any car chase in the movies, Ulbricht was finally arrested, convicted, and sentenced to a life in prison. (He is currently working on securing a presidential pardon.)

Nick Bilton was able to piece together the convoluted history of the rise and eventual capture of Ulbricht with the help of some relentless government agents finding unusual clues as to Ulbricht’s identity and whereabouts. Adding yet another dramatic twist to the story was the involvement of two now-convicted, corrupt federal agents. A Secret Service agent stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin from the Silk Road, and a DEA agent attempted to extort Ulbricht, and even sold him secret information from the Silk Road investigation.

Bilton is somewhat sympathetic in his treatment of Ulbricht, whom he describes as oddly idealistic in attempting to establish a libertarian Shangri-La where freedom-loving people could enjoy personal pleasures without interference from Big Brother. Judge Katherine Forrest, who ultimately sentenced him, was not similarly disposed. In her words:

"You are no better a person than any other drug dealer, and your education does not give you a special place of privilege in our criminal system.”

Evaluation: American Kingpin is a fascinating account of a tale almost too quixotic to be fiction. If you want a non-fiction page turner, this book will not disappoint.

(JAB) ( )

Surprisingly good. I had no particular interest in the Silk Road story, and had given up on Bilton's Twitter book. But this reads like a lightweight thriller. Short chapters, short words: very readable, and you only occasionally want to throw the book across the room. "The laws of time, like gravity, are nonnegotiable. And time for Ross was running out." The book includes good portraits of several interesting people, from Ross Ulbricht (the "Dread Pirate Roberts") to certain FBI and IRS agents. Flawed people in a flawed system, and all interesting in their own ways. ( )

Best for:
People who enjoy investigative journalism told in narrative form.

In a nutshell:
A very Libertarian dude decides to make a statement and start a website that sells drugs. Things spiral. The federal government gets involved in multiple ways.

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
After listening to Bad Blood, I needed another audio book for my runs. Memoirs have been my go-to in this format, but I think they have been replaced, as it’s easy to stay invested when it’s essential real-life suspense. And bonus: the narrator for this book happened to be the same one, and I like his style, so double-win.

Review:
I was vaguely aware of the Silk Road website, where people could buy and sell drugs and other contraband, but I had no idea about the story behind it. And OH MY GOD is it absurd. Like, this young guy with very specific ideals who is desperate to be successful in some realm just .. Starts a site. And it blows up to the point that it is doing hundreds of thousands of dollars of business a week.

A week.

What?!

The story alternates among a few major players: the site’s founder, two different homeland security inspectors, the FBI, and an IRS agent. The personalities are strong and interesting. Some people make horrible decisions. Some people make good decisions. And I yell “Are you KIDDING ME?” at least every 15 minutes. I felt like I was listening to a suspense novel, and then had to remind myself that this was real life.

If the whole Theranos situation has you intrigued, I think you’ll find this an interesting read as well.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it ( )

Story of 26-year-old mastermind who created the ‘silk road’ site on the ‘dark web.’ How, what and why he did it. And his downfall and eventual arrest.

This was a fascinating true crime narrative about how an underachieving college drop-out from Austin came to establish one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises ever. Ross Ulbricht rode high for a couple of years and then made a few seemingly inconsequential mistakes, which, despite many instances of ineptitude and corruption, allowed the federal government to find him and bring him down. I couldn't stop turning the pages.

4 stars ( )