But the Silk Road, one of the first and most notorious dark web markets, soon spiralled into a criminal empire worth millions, transforming its founder Ross Ulbricht into a ruthless cybercriminal known as the ‘Kingpin of the Dark Web’.

Donald Trump pardoned the creator of the world’s first dark-web drug market, who is now a libertarian cause célèbre in some parts of the crypto community.

Ulbricht, who used the nom de plume “Dread Pirate Roberts” to hide his identity, was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison.

Until, of course, in 2013 the Silk Road was shut down by FBI agents and Mr Ulbricht, then 29 years old, was arrested in the science-fiction section of a San Francisco public library. In 2015, after a four-week trial,