Back in 2012, some buddies and I scrambled to figure out how to get Bitcoins to buy some cool stuff on Silk Road.

From Germany, we had to PayPal a stranger—no trustless escrow, iirc (not that we knew what that was back then)—and just hope the coins showed up in Electrum or our Silk Road accounts.

#Bitcoin has come a long way since then. The user experience has improved dramatically, just as it had from 2009 to 2012. Not to mention, the price has soared to unimaginable heights, and adoption has exploded. I’m excited to see how BTC evolves as it continues to reshape the world.

I never kept any coins from my brief Silk Road encounter and didn’t think much about Bitcoin for years after. In 2013, Ross was arrested.

For over a decade, he sat in prison while I was fortunate enough to rediscover Bitcoin in new ways, at new touchpoints—building on those strange but successful first interactions.

All the while, his mother, Lyn, and an army of Bitcoiners and libertarians fought for his freedom.

Thank you, Ross. You changed the course of Bitcoin, many of our lives, and, in turn, the world. We’re so happy you’re free! ❤️