I don’t have the answer. All I know is my friend’s kid got hooked on heroin, stopped going to school, turned to running drugs, stealing and robbing to support his habit and eventually ended up in prison. Could he have ended there regardless of Silk Road? Perhaps. 
They said Silk Road sold over 1B worth of drugs before being shut down. Is that enough to give Ross the Kingpin Status, that even a first-time conviction under could mean 20 years to life in federal prison? Technically, yes, because he took part of the proceed from every drug sale, but I am conflicted. 😐 

 Damn, so fkn sad, feel for him and his family 😔

And I too remain conflicted.. did he ‘sell’ the drugs or did he sell (by taking a cut) access to a platform that happened to be used by others to sell drugs?

this being human is no small task..
Easy to complain about things, not so easy to come up with solutions that will *really* work for everyone, or even most.

Effective governance (beyond oneself) remains a mystery, perhaps it always will be.. 

 He took a cut from every sale, so to the prosecutor, he is a drug dealer. Not fair, but that’s how the law is written. 🤷🏻‍♂️