Thread by @george__mack

How one guy achieved more than the entire FBI...

Using *Google Search*.

This is the most underrated story on the internet.

THREAD...

THE BACKGROUND OF SILK ROAD:

• The anonymous marketplace operated between 2011 and 2013

• It was Amazon for illegal goods - ranging from magic mushrooms to heroin to AK47's

• It is estimated the website generated 600,000 Bitcoin in commission - $34 BILLION at today's prices

The FBI + DEA's top priority was to:

1. Unmask the founder - Known by the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts"

2. Shut the website down

Despite their billions of dollars of resources, highly trained divisions, and decades of experience - they couldn't do it.

FBI + DEA was outperformed by one guy *using Google in his spare time*.

The point of this thread isn't to debate the ethics of drugs being illegal.

The point is to highlight the power of an individual with:

1. High agency
2. Internet connection
3. Thinking outside the box

INTRODUCING GARY ALFORD:

• Gary Alford was a tax inspector in New York City

• When he started investigating the Silk Road, he had 0 knowledge of Bitcoin, Tor (Dark web) or online drugs

• Gary was like Elon in electronic cars or space - he had 0 qualifications.

Gary did have the following on his side:

1. Gary reads everything 3X:

• He reads every book, email or article 3 times

• He is obsessed with retaining more info than those around him

• Gary believed if he consumed everything at least three times, he would remember more

2. Gary's mental model:

• After reading the bitcoin whitepaper for the *3rd time*, he became obsessed with the "Gamblers Run Problem".

• No matter how much money you have in a betting scenario, the casino has infinite money, so if you continue playing - it will win.

• Gary believed the Dread Pirate Roberts was the gambler and he was the casino.

• If the Dread Pirate Roberts continued playing the game, Gary would eventually win.

3. Gary's thinking outside the box

• Gary was a student of history - his favorite case was The "Son of Sam".

• Son of Sam was a NY serial killer between 1976-1977.

• The NYPD threw unlimited resources and couldn't find him.

Until they began to think outside the box...

• Rather than search the crime scene for weapons, one officer started looking for parking tickets in the areas of the murder sprees

• His logic: No serial killer would stop mid-way through to pay for parking

• Bingo! The same Ford Galaxie had tickets for every murder night

• When detectives went to the murderer's home - he admitted on the spot and said "What took you so long?"

• Gary's lesson from this story:

You could outperform more experienced people by looking at the problem differently

• He applied this to the Silk Road case.

HOW GARY CAUGHT THE DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS:

• Gary was obsessed with the idea of a "digital parking ticket" that existed on the internet for Silk Road.

He worked from first principles on the following question:

• "What is the earliest post about Silk Road on the internet?"

• Gary simply searched "silkroad .onion" and filtered by date within Google search settings

• The oldest post he could find was on a bitcoin forum.

• "Has anyone seen Silk Road yet? It's kind of like an anonymous Amazon" - Altoid

• Gary contacted all forums that were associated with the "Altoid" handle.

• Most forums had fake emails in their database for the handle - except one...

• "[e-mail]" was associated with the oldest Altoid account.

• Despite weeks of Gary telling the FBI + DEA that Ross was the Dread Pirate Roberts - they ignored him.

• They eventually came round to his opinion as the evidence became undeniable.

• This story is mindblowing...

• The point of this story isn't whether drugs should be illegal or Ross' sentence is justified

• The point of this story is to highlight how an individual with:

1. Internet connection
2. High agency
3. Out of the box thinking

Can outperform the world's biggest organisations

Wherever you look, you can see the trend occurring:

• Zuckerberg and Dorsey used high agency + internet connection to beat the billion-dollar legacy media industry

• Bezos and Lutke used high agency + internet connection to beat the billion-dollar legacy commerce industry

• Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik are using high agency + internet connection to beat the trillion-dollar legacy finance industry.

• Rogan and Logan Paul are using high agency + internet connection to beat the billion-dollar legacy TV industry.

"Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage." - @naval

Don't forget high agency + internet connection too.

These are the blocks that Naval's trio is built on.

We are living in the age of information.

David can beat Goliath.

But David doesn't have a slingshot.

David has:

- Internet connection
- High agency
- Out the box thinking

TLDR:

• In 2021, people can now outperform billion-dollar organisations by...

1. Using a search engine effectively
2. Thinking outside the box

It's not easy.

But it is becoming more and more possible.

Ask Gary Alford.

(Or Rogan, Satoshi or Dorsey)

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Highly recommend the following:

1. True Crime: Silk Road podcast

2. American Kingpin by Nick Bilton