The founder of silk road received a
life sentence. Here are 3 quick takeaways from this saga for platform creators
1: Pick Your Domain
What is illegal in country A may be
legal in country B but one thing you should do is that you should make sure
you are not a citizen of a country where your platform would be considered as
being illegal. Whether you are living in that country is irrelevant if they decide
to come after you. Now they might not get you but you should be ready to live
with the fact that you might seen as a criminal or lawbreaker in your home
country.
2: Its Smooth Sailing If The Authorities Are Behind You
I do not like the idea of bitcoin. If you
ask me, it looks criminal. That is, the potential for criminality is high. Bitcoin
looks more criminal than e-gold.
In a fair world, the government that prosecuted
the people behind e-gold would have apologized to them after the bitcoin/silk
road saga. Without bitcoin, Silk Road may never have sprouted. In fact, Silk Road
became a possibility because of bitcoin and it was built around bitcoin.
However, e-gold was shutdown. Bitcoin is
still being celebrated. Nothing touched bitcoin even when it was so glaring
that it was the key to the existence of Silk Road because the authorities have
looked at bitcoin and concluded that it was a good thing.
What is the difference between bitcoin
and e-gold? One was created with the full awareness and support of ‘the’
authority but e-gold is from Canada.
3: Do Not Get Carried Away
It is a crime to get carried away by
the success of your platform even when what you are doing is not criminal. This
man slipped in many ways but if there is a lesson to draw from this, it is that
your head should always be on your shoulder. If you have a growth plan for you
platform and have put in place actions you would take if the platform reaches
certain benchmarks of growth, stick to that plan. It might cost you something
for life if you allow its success to get to your head.
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