In the case of this Ross, did he really need to cultivate relationships that required personal details leaking? From his story it doesn't seem much of the case. After some initial startup time, people were just winning to trust SR (the stupid ....). The hustle to sell some initial product looks to be the only exception, and yeah, with no risk you might have a hard time starting a business.
The ideas I've outlined would work for more than one person, though I'd be very hesitant to trust others, and you would need to find such candidates in the first place.
Hiring agents should have been taken as a given. You're paying someone a few thousand bucks, and you don't think they're going to sell out if someone comes along that has far more? SR should have been robust to malicious actors. DPR can keep the root level stuff to himself, while allowing his admins to have limited tools. Periodically review stuff.
I fail to see how organized crime would be an option for someone like Ross, wanting to start SR. So while that may be an option for some (a Mafia style threat profile is not something I'd likely be happy with) it's not really that viable for a random startup. I mean, here's another way to be immune from a lot of regulations: be really rich!
Also, when I say persona, I'm referring to the currently active one that you're using at the moment. Silk Road claimed to have been run by a line of these guys. Yet there was no real evidence of that, eh? If multiple personas would have been properly used, we'd see changes on the site, the staff would know, you be wouldn't have old documents, etc. That's what I mean by fully going into a persona. You might use one disposable persona to buy an order or two of bitcoins. Another to run a server. Etc. Anywhere you need to draw a line between one act d another.
The ideas I've outlined would work for more than one person, though I'd be very hesitant to trust others, and you would need to find such candidates in the first place.
Hiring agents should have been taken as a given. You're paying someone a few thousand bucks, and you don't think they're going to sell out if someone comes along that has far more? SR should have been robust to malicious actors. DPR can keep the root level stuff to himself, while allowing his admins to have limited tools. Periodically review stuff.
I fail to see how organized crime would be an option for someone like Ross, wanting to start SR. So while that may be an option for some (a Mafia style threat profile is not something I'd likely be happy with) it's not really that viable for a random startup. I mean, here's another way to be immune from a lot of regulations: be really rich!
Also, when I say persona, I'm referring to the currently active one that you're using at the moment. Silk Road claimed to have been run by a line of these guys. Yet there was no real evidence of that, eh? If multiple personas would have been properly used, we'd see changes on the site, the staff would know, you be wouldn't have old documents, etc. That's what I mean by fully going into a persona. You might use one disposable persona to buy an order or two of bitcoins. Another to run a server. Etc. Anywhere you need to draw a line between one act d another.