Draft:Blake Benthall

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Instructions · What links here · Blake Benthall (talk: + · bio) · (log) · Copyvios report · reFill · Citation Bot · (Search: Google, Bing, Wikipedia) · Submitted 2 months ago by Entreprejon (talk: D · +) · Last edited 58 days ago by Citation bot

Warning: The page Blake Benthall redirects to Silk Road (marketplace). Please ensure it is not a copy or that this page is located to the correct title.

Submission declined on 29 February 2024 by Robert McClenon (talk).

This submission's references do not show that the subject qualifies for a Wikipedia article—that is, they do not show significant coverage (not just passing mentions) about the subject in published, reliable, secondary sources that are independent of the subject (see the guidelines on the notability of people). Before any resubmission, additional references meeting these criteria should be added (see technical help and learn about mistakes to avoid when addressing this issue). If no additional references exist, the subject is not suitable for Wikipedia.

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Declined by Robert McClenon 2 months ago. Last edited by Citation bot 58 days ago. Reviewer: Inform author.

This draft has been resubmitted and is currently awaiting re-review.

Comment: This draft, as written, does not appear to indicate that the appropriate notability criterion is satisfied. In particular, this draft does not appear to indicate that WP:NBIO is satisfied. If one of the criteria is satisfied, please revise this draft appropriately, with a reliable source, if necessary stating on the talk page or in AFC comments which criterion is met, and resubmit. It is the responsibility of the submitter to show that a subject satisfies a notability criterion.
You may ask for advice about the notability criteria at the Teahouse.
In particular, see and refer to WP:NBIO for notability, which is the guideline that the subject should be evaluated against.
The claim of notability appears to be based on the second paragraph, about Silk Road 2.0, but that section is unsourced, although it is about a living person. Robert McClenon (talk) 06:11, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Blake Benthall (born in Houston, Texas) is an American software engineer who allegedly served as the administrator of Silk Road 2.0 under the pseudonym "Defcon". Benthall was arrested on November 6, 2014 by the FBI in San Francisco as part of Operation Onymous, a joint operation between the FBI and Europol, aimed at shutting down illegal goods trading on the deep web.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] He was released from federal custody on November 21, 2014.^[7]

Early life[edit]

Blake Benthall was homeschooled and had a traditional Christian upbringing^[8]. Growing up, Blake was an Eagle Scout and was a computer programmer from the age of nine.^[9] According to a LinkedIn account seemingly belonging to Benthall, he attended Florida College, a private Christian school, from 2007 to 2009. During this time, he participated in college theater groups, was a keyboardist and vocalist for a school promotional touring band, and extensively traveled the country while working as a freelance programmer. On his personal website, he claims to have "founded [his] first web business at age 15," and he adopted a nomadic lifestyle, turning down various job offers from recruiters.^[8]^[10]

Benthall moved to San Francisco in 2009 and began his career in the technology field, working at startups such as Quicktate, Momentum Design Lab, RPX Corporation, and Carbon Five.^[4] He was described by a former colleague as "a talented developer."^[10]He then began working at SpaceX^[11], an aerospace company, helping to develop rocket flight software, where he worked from December 9, 2013, to February 21, 2014 - around the same time he allegedly took over Silk Road 2.0.

Silk Road 2.0 and Arrest[edit]

Blake Benthall was arrested in San Francisco on November 6, 2014, through Operation Onymous, on charges of allegedly running the Silk Road 2.0, an online marketplace designed to allow people to buy and sell illegal drugs and other illegal products and services anonymously. Benthall, under the username "Defcon," allegedly revived Silk Road after the original site was shut down by the FBI the previous year and its alleged operator was arrested.^[12].

According to the FBI complaint, Benthall allegedly controlled "all aspects of Silk Road 2.0...including...the computer infrastructure and the programming code underlying the site; the terms of service and commission rates imposed on the site's vendors and customers; the small team of forum administrators and moderators who assisted in the site's daily operation; and the huge profits generated by the business operation."^[13]

The site operated on the Tor network^[14], a network designed to allow online anonymity. Silk Road 2.0 had about 150,000 users per month and facilitated about $8 million in transactions of illegal or controlled products, such as narcotics. The site's server was seized, and the page was taken down. ^[15]

In May 2019, a Vice report revealed that the Department of Justice is negotiating a plea deal whereby Benthall would cooperate with investigators, and in return, he would only face tax-related charges and be free from more serious charges.^[16]

Early life[edit]

Silk Road 2.0 and Arrest[edit]

See also[edit]