American Kingpin: The Thrilling True Story of the Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

King Biff: What a sensational read.it's the type of story that just couldn't be made up, I was aware of the Silk road before I read this book,but you won't believe what really happened during the few years the site was operational.
Towards the end of the book when things are.comIng to a climax i couldn't put this book down.
Very,very well written and informative

United Kingdom on Oct 04, 2023

George Dearsley: This is a forensically researched story of a very clever university graduate who could have had a successful career in many fields but who turned to crime. And not just any old crime…a unique illegal way of selling illicit things on the Dark Web, away from the eyes of law enforcement. It follows the mistakes both the Kingpin and the police made and the inter-agency rivalries that allowed the crook to evade capture for nearly three years. A thrilling and fascinating read.

United Kingdom on Oct 02, 2023

Katarzyna Andersson: Köpte till sonen. Bra bok tyckte han

Sweden on Sep 18, 2023

Danesh Zaki: The book is written extremely well. Highly engrossing and hard to put down especially towards the end. It explains the web without going into too much technical details. A must read!

India on Aug 23, 2023

Amanda Burrier: Some things you just never knew existed or happened until you pick up the book. This book read very easy and very much like a novel.

United States on Jul 31, 2023

Ben: Great book!

Australia on Jul 19, 2023

Laura R.: Technology is fascinating and changing so much of our lives, when used for good purposes. In this instance, most people would believe the story of Ross Ulbright and The Silk Road was not a use for good purposes as he believed he was doing.

Engaging read. Hard to put down! Finished in a day.

United States on Jul 17, 2023

Tim Knight: I love a good non-fiction that reads like a story and this book fits that bill. A wild ride from the beginning to the end of the silk road. Also a great read, I can only imagine someone will try to make a movie of this and it will be some kid sitting at his computer for 55 minutes.

United States on May 24, 2023

Michael F. Pitsch: A well told story, but could have used more detail.
There are two mistakes where the author refers to PGP and an encrypted chat application. PGP or Pretty Good Privacy is an encryption algorithm and not a chat application.

So in this book Ross makes fun of Jeremy Hammond for using simple passwords and reusing them, but he is using the same cheap Samsung laptop for clear web and dark web work? He is worried about OpSec but he uses Facebook? Even before the Snowden info this was stupid.
If I would have been a millionaire like him I would have a nice 17 inch loaded Panasonic ToughBook for work and a nice 17 inch Alienware machine loaded for personal stuff.

United States on Dec 02, 2022

Masriki: American Kingpin is the best sort of nonfiction book. You get inside the antihero’s head enough to understand, though not necessarily empathize, with him. In the course of the book, Ross Ulbricht goes from a smart nobody who lives in someone's basement to the creator of the Silk Road, which brings in millions of dollars per day and becomes the locus of an Internet-based global drug empire.

Ulbricht would have been a more sympathetic character were he to have just admitted he was a very successful drug dealer and had not tried to pose as some sort of Libertarian political symbol. If Libertarian preaching has to be done (and it doesn’t), surely there must be a better symbol to hold up other than a drug dealer who also hired hit men for people who threatened his drug business. The guy was a smarter-than-average dope pusher, not a freedom fighter. (Of course, some Libertarian gun extremists have also held up David Koresh as a martyr, and he was a child molester who thought he was Jesus, so this at least seems like an improvement.)

You also understand the motivations of the law enforcement personnel after him, as well as the creativity and amount of work that went...

United States on Jun 17, 2021