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The ‘Growth Collection’ — Ross Ulbricht to Auction Bitcoin-Backed NFTs on Satoshi’s Birthday

29/03/2022 by Idelto Editor

Following Ross Ulbricht’s non-fungible token (NFT) sale that raised 1,446 ether or $6.27 million at auction, Ulbricht is dropping another NFT compilation called the “Growth Collection.” According to the announcement, the NFTs will be minted using the Bitcoin blockchain and will be auctioned at the Bitcoin22 conference in Miami on April 6-8.

Ross Ulbricht Is Preparing Another NFT Auction That Includes Four Physical Oil Paintings and One Hand-Drawn Animation

Ross Ulbricht is preparing to auction a new NFT collection on Satoshi Nakamoto’s birthday, according to an announcement sent to Bitcoin.com News. The latest NFT collection follows Ulbricht’s last NFT auction which was sold for 1,446 ether, or $6.27 million at the time of settlement. That specific collection was acquired by the Pleasrdao project and the collection was later fractionalized. The fractionalized NFT collection is the 9th-largest fractionalized NFT project with a market capitalization of around $2.68 million.

On October 1, 2022, Ulbricht will begin his 10th year in prison as he was handed a double life sentence without parole for his involvement with the Silk Road marketplace. The investigation into Ulbricht’s case was a travesty filled with controversy and rogue officers, and the following trial was considered by many to be a miscarriage of justice. Ulbricht and his family have been fighting for his freedom ever since, and currently Ulbricht has a clemency petition hosted on change.org that’s nearing 500K signatures as the petition currently has 474,438 signatures at the time of writing.

The latest Ulbricht NFT collection will be auctioned at the Bitcoin22 conference in Miami on April 6-8. The auction will take place on Satoshi Nakamoto’s birthday and instead of leveraging Ethereum, the Growth Collection will be minted on the Bitcoin blockchain via Counterparty. The collection will be auctioned on Scarce.City, a bitcoin (BTC) and Lightning Network-native auction platform. The Growth Collection will include “four physical oil paintings and one hand-drawn animation and five corresponding Bitcoin NFTs with Bitcoin-tokenized certificate of authenticity (COA).”

In a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News, Ross Ulbricht wrote that working on the NFT projects has invigorated him. “We can look more broadly at making the whole system just, rather than focusing just on me,” Ulbricht said. “That is as it should be. There is a lot of work to do…All of this has brought a new spark to my life. I have direction and purpose and I feel like I can make a difference again. The more money we raise the more good we can do. I have put my heart, soul, and mind into this collection, and I am really looking forward to unveiling it to you.”

What do you think about the upcoming Ross Ulbricht NFT collection sale at the Bitcoin22 conference in Miami? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Ross Ulbricht NFT Collection Raises Over $6 Million in Ethereum, Free Ross DAO Wins Auction

10/12/2021 by Idelto Editor

The Ross Ulbricht Genesis non-fungible token (NFT) collection auction has come to an end and the auction winner was the “Free Ross DAO,” backed by the Pleasrdao project. The NFT collection raised 1,446 ether or $6.27 million at the time of settlement.

Free Ross Decentralized Autonomous Organization Wins Ross Ulbricht’s NFT Auction, DAO Plans to Fractionalize NFT Collection

Four days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on the Ross Ulbricht Genesis NFT collection amassing millions of dollars worth of ethereum (ETH) bids on the Superrare NFT marketplace.
At the time, there were some very high bids from an individual called “@toxicbitcoinmaxi.” However, the report also explained that the Pleasrdao project also got involved in the bidding war for the collection and formed a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called the “Free Ross DAO.”
The Free Ross DAO raised 1,446 ETH or $6.27 million at the time of exchange. According to the DAO, the NFT collection will be “fractionalized between the 500 Free Ross DAO contributors.”

The NFT collection was an assortment of writings and ten artworks produced by Ross Ulbricht and it includes an animation developed by the NFT artist Levitate. Ulbricht also did the voice-over for the animated work. The NFT collection was curated by Entoptic and proceeds will be handed by the Art4giving fund, and efforts to free Ulbricht.

“From the beginning with this NFT, I’ve wanted to help kids travel to see their moms and dads in prison,” Ulbricht said. “But with such high bids, we can now have a real impact on many other important causes as well.”
Information concerning Ross Ulbricht’s case can be found at freeross.org and Ulbricht’s clemency petition hosted on change.org is getting awfully close to reaching 500,000 signatures. The petition is 42,014 signatures away from reaching the half-million signature milestone.

What do you think about Ross Ulbricht’s NFT collection fetching more than $6 million in ethereum at the end of the auction? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Ross Ulbricht’s NFT Collection to Be Auctioned via Superrare at Art Basel Miami

19/11/2021 by Idelto Editor

On December 2nd at Art Basel Miami, the very first Ross Ulbricht non-fungible token (NFT) collection will be showcased at the event and auctioned via Superrare. The proceeds from the auction will support Ross Ulbricht’s freedom efforts and a donor-advised fund called Art4giving, which helps support people who have incarcerated family members.

10 NFTs Featuring Ross Ulbricht’s Personal Work

Non-fungible token (NFT) assets have become a big deal this year and turned into a billion-dollar industry in what seems like overnight. This week Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the now-defunct Silk Road marketplace, introduced his first NFT collection after spending nine years behind bars for a non-violent offense. Ulbricht was a first-time offender and a great majority of individuals believe his case was a “miscarriage of justice.” His double life sentence without parole, plus 40 years, for creating a website has been deemed draconian as well.

Ulbricht is still fighting for his freedom and a petition hosted on change.org has garnered a lot of attention and signatures since it was started. The petition asks the U.S. president and government to grant Ulbricht clemency and the number of signatures supporting Ulbricht’s freedom is nearing 500,000 at the time of writing. The announcement concerning the new NFT collection sent to Bitcoin.com News details that “portrayals of Ross Ulbricht’s case and story have been misleading. The NFT sale is meant to bring renewed attention and gather support from the NFT community.”

The announcement explains that the Ross Ulbricht NFT collection will be featured and sold at the Art Basel Miami event on December 2. The sale will take place on the NFT platform Superrare and the collection crafted by Entoptic is Ulbricht’s first NFT collection that showcases his personal work. “This NFT collection is Ross’s creative journey of expression; it is his living and evolving story. Through drawings and video, we see glimpses of a man’s unfolding existence. This is his way to reach outside the walls of prison, as we continue the campaign for his freedom,” Entoptic said in a statement.

Ulbricht NFT Collection to Leverage KSPEC Protocol, Proceeds to Go to Art4giving and Furthering Free Ross Efforts

The NFT collection curated by Entoptic leverages the open-source protocol KSPEC. The protocol KSPEC was developed by a pseudonymous collective of “institutional art, design, and cryptonative technology professionals” called Kanon. The organization believes that the protocol KSPEC “unlocks God Mode for NFTs.” According to the announcement, using KSPEC allows developers to “deliver the Ross Ulbricht Collection NFT in full quality, attach additional content onchain.” Ulbricht also spoke about how the NFT auction proceeds will help people with incarcerated family members.

“With proceeds from this NFT, we are starting a donor-advised fund called Art4giving, dedicated to relieving the suffering of the incarcerated and their families. One project I envision is to help kids travel to visit their moms and dads in prison,” Ulbricht detailed in a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News. Ulbricht further added:

“Decades of incarceration stretch out in front of me. As I face that future, my eventual old age and death in this cage, I find myself looking for meaning and purpose. Why am I here? What good can I do with the time I have left and from where I am? I hope that helping my fellow prisoners through my art is one way.”

Funding supports prisoners and their families in a myriad of ways and the auction’s funds will also be dedicated toward the efforts to free Ross. “These include new legal proceedings, raising awareness, and more — There is still a long road ahead,” the announcement concludes.

What do you think about the Ross Ulbricht NFT collection announcement? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Onecoin Victims Petition Bulgaria for Seizure of Assets and Compensation

19/11/2021 by Idelto Editor

A lawyer representing investors defrauded by the notorious crypto scam Onecoin has urged authorities in Bulgaria to act on the case, claiming that the “world’s largest pyramid scheme” is still operating from the country. In a petition with the Bulgarian Constitutional Ombudsman, Jonathan Levy accuses officials in Sofia of failing to provide justice to the victims while seemingly protecting “the most notorious criminal organization.”

Lawyer Slams Bulgarian Authorities for ‘Misfeasance’ in Onecoin Case

In the petition, Dr. Levy points out that Onecoin has been recognized as a criminal enterprise by a number of countries including the United States, Argentina, and Germany, and classified as a pyramid scheme by law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. At the same time, the €20 billion cryptocurrency scam allegedly maintains several offices in the Bulgarian capital, uses a number of corporate identities, continues its operations unabated, and has even held a recruitment event this past summer.

The Crypto Ponzi scheme Onecoin was launched in 2014 and promoted through Bulgaria-based offshore entities Onecoin Ltd, registered in Dubai, and the Belize-incorporated Onelife Network Ltd. Both were founded by the pyramid’s mastermind, Bulgaria-born ‘Crypto Queen’ Dr. Ruja Ignatova, also a German national holding a PhD in European private law, and her partner Sebastian Greenwood from Sweden.

Ignatova disappeared in 2017 while her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, another Onecoin co-founder, was arrested in Los Angeles in 2019 and charged with financial crimes. He has since started cooperating with law enforcement, testified about Onecoin’s association with organized crime in Bulgaria and elsewhere, pleaded guilty, and sought witness protection. The scheme has been linked to terrorism funding as well. A number of people involved in the investigation and legal proceedings, including Ignatov, have complained about receiving legal and other threats.

The document submitted by Jonathan Levy lists a number of other key figures in the scam and claims that “the Ignatovs, Onecoin and their proxies in Bulgaria and Dubai currently control moveable and immoveable property, investments, cryptocurrency, bank accounts and cash exceeding €12.5 billion” ($14.2 billion).

The lawyer slams Bulgarian authorities for their limited actions on the case, recalling a single general warning about Onecoin issued in 2015 by the Financial Supervision Commission, which later ignored the matter, as well as police raids on its offices in Sofia in 2018, ordered by Ivan Geshev who now serves as Bulgaria’s Prosecutor General and conducted on request from Europol and the German police. Levy also states:

We are unaware of any arrests or confiscation of bank accounts, cash, cryptocurrency, or property belonging to the victims. If Bulgarian law enforcement has confiscated assets it has not provided a public accounting or process for victims to be compensated.

According to the legal representative, Onecoin is the largest pyramid scheme in world history, exceeding both the Madoff and Mavrodi pyramids. However, the filed complaint largely concerns itself with Onecoin’s Bulgarian operation, the full extent of which remains unknown, and is “directed at the misfeasance by Bulgarian law enforcement in regard to their EU mandated duty to victims of crime.”

In the petition filed on behalf of clients from a number of countries, including the U.K., U.S., Germany, and Australia, Jonathan Levy highlights that under Article 47 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and similar provisions in Bulgarian law, Onecoin victims should be granted access to justice, which they have not yet received from Bulgaria. He accuses the country, an EU member state, saying it “seemingly protects and enables OneCoin to retain its assets and continue to operate despite being the most notorious criminal organization of the 21st Century.”

Petitioner Urges Bulgaria to Account for Crypto Scam’s Assets, Including Ignatova’s €12 Billion Bitcoin Stash

Levy requests that the Bulgarian Ombudsman investigate the conduct of various government institutions such as the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministries of Justice and Interior, and the country’s Financial Intelligence Directorate. He also insists on taking steps to terminate “Onecoin’s open and public operation in Bulgaria that continues to victimize investors worldwide.”

The lawyer further requires assistance from Bulgarian authorities to account for Onecoin assets controlled from within Bulgaria, allegedly consisting, according to the document, of 230,000 bitcoins, cash, yachts, luxury cars, jewelry and precious metals, bank accounts, investments, and real estate, in order to determine if they are still in the possession of Ignatova and her associates or have been seized by Bulgaria.

Jonathan Levy also insists that the government in Sofia fulfill its obligations pertaining to the compensation of Onecoin victims under European law such as Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and EU Council Directive 2004/80/EC of April 29, 2004.

The petitioner also calls for the “establishment of a monetary reward of up to €1 billion” to encourage associates of Onecoin to step forward and provide information about the crypto investment scam and its activities, “especially in regard to the 230,000 Bitcoins in the possession of Ruja Ignatova or her proxies currently valued at over €12 billion.” The money for that purpose, Dr. Levy suggests, should come from up to 10% of recovered Onecoin assets.

Reports in the Bulgarian press confirm that Onecoin companies in the country are still operational. According to an article by the business daily Capital, the One Network Services entity, formerly owned by Konstantin Ignatov and Ruja’s mother, which runs Onecoin’s main office in central Sofia, is actually expanding its workforce – from 17 employees at the end of last year, to 24 now. The publication reveals that the firm has declared revenues exceeding 2.9 million leva (over $1.7 million) for 2020 with a net profit of 75,000 leva (over $43,000).

The once open crypto center on the ground floor of a building on Slaveykov Square, is now closed but according to Capital, Onecoin leaders have been posting photographs of meetings held there during their visits to Sofia. The active promoters of the cryptocurrency investment scheme that has been rebranded to Oneecosystem, are new faces, and few of them are actually Bulgarians.

Do you expect authorities in Sofia to take action against Onecoin following the victims’ petition of the Bulgarian Ombudsman? Tell us in the comments section below.

The Ongoing Effort to Free Ross — Ulbricht’s Clemency Petition Closes in on Half a Million Signatures

16/10/2021 by Idelto Editor

As the end of 2021 nears, Ross Ulbricht remains in prison as he continues to serve his draconian double-life prison sentence for creating a website called the Silk Road. Ever since he was arrested, there’s been an ongoing effort to free Ulbricht, as a great majority of individuals and a large swathe of eminent organizations believe his sentence was unjust and the Silk Road court case was a complete miscarriage of justice.

Ross Ulbricht’s Change.org Clemency Petition Nears 500K Signatures, Georgetown Law Professor: ‘Sentence Was Grossly Excessive’

Over the last 12 months Ulbricht has been updating the public regularly about his well-being, and this past summer he spoke publicly for the first time since 2013. Today, Ulbricht’s clemency petition is closing in on half of a million signatures and the effort is only 51,014 signatures away from reaching the 500K signature goal.

Ross Ulbricht is still serving his double-life prison sentence for creating the Silk Road website and his family and close friends are still doubling down on getting him free. The 37-year-old Ulbricht was arrested in 2013 and in February 2015 he was convicted of a number of non-violent criminal charges.

In May 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to a double-life sentence plus forty years without the possibility of parole. Following his sentence, a great number of individuals and organizations criticized the U.S. government and Ulbricht’s judge for handing down such a harsh punishment. In a statement featured on the web portal freeross.org, Shon Hopwood, a law professor at Georgetown University explains:

Such a sentence should, at the very least, be reserved for the worst crimes committed by repeat offenders…Ross’s crime is nowhere near that category and his sentence was grossly excessive.

In 2017 and 2018, the Ulbricht family and Ross attempted to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Supreme Court. However, the attempts were unsuccessful and currently, Ulbricht remains locked up at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson.

This past summer, Ulbricht spoke publicly for the first time since 2013 at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. On Twitter, Ulbricht also keeps the public updated regularly in regards to his overall well-being. This past week, Ulbricht explained he finished teaching an eight-week meditation course.

“It’s very satisfying to teach my fellow prisoners how to meditate. Finding tranquility and equanimity is so valuable for us,” Ulbricht’s Twitter account said on October 8. “We recently finished an 8-week meditation course, and I am happy to say that my 4 students did well. They established a daily practice and learned to sit still without forgetting their breath or nodding off,” he added.

Ulbricht’s Clemency Petition Only 51K Signatures Away From Meeting the 500K Goal

Ulbricht also has the clemency petition addressed to the United States president which declares that his double-life sentence “shocks the conscience.” In the clemency petition’s opening statements, Ross’s mother, Lyn Ulbricht, stresses that “Ross was not treated fairly and his sentence is draconian. Justice was not served,” she adds.

Ulbricht’s clemency petition is nearing a milestone as the petition’s aggregate count of signatures nears 500K. At the time of writing, change.org’s data shows Ulbricht’s clemency petition is 51,014 signatures away from meeting that goal.

The petition sheds light on Ulbricht’s situation and it clearly shows that hundreds of thousands of individuals agree that his sentence was far too harsh. Ulbricht has already served nine years in prison.

“My future died that day in court when I was sentenced to life without parole,” Ulbricht explains in a recent blog post. The change.org clemency petition is filled with people adding commentary to their signatures as well, and signers agree Ulbricht’s current sentence is unjust and needs to be reversed.

“Ross’s sentence is a gross miscarriage of justice. Robbing a man of his life for a nonviolent offence is egregious,” Angela Bertalot writes on the change.org clemency petition. Another individual, Ethan Erkiletian, writes:

Justice should be just and this was anything but. It destroys the credibility of a just judiciary that this man is/was imprisoned the way he was.

Fact is, the more signatures Ulbricht’s petition gets the more it shows a great majority of people are fed up with draconian prison sentences such as Ulbricht’s. Many individuals are spending years behind bars for possession of a plant and society is increasingly realizing that the war on drugs was and still is a complete waste of time.

Ulbricht’s case also shows that the antiquated punishment of simply throwing every criminal in a cage, no matter what the crime, is simply not working and society needs to change this trend.

What do you think about Ross Ulbricht’s clemency petition nearing half of a million signatures? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.