Ross William Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American serving life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013.[4] The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network and facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services.[5][6] Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts", after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.