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 Replies: 13 / Views: 2,479 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4614 Posts |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday it had seized over $1 billion worth of bitcoin associated with the underground online marketplace Silk Road. Read the story here... https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...cid=msedgntp ANA ID: 3203813 - CONECA ID: N-5637 Clean a coin that may be worth collecting? Please DON'T! When in doubt, leave it dirty!! 
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1362 Posts |
I watched the video for awhile and noticed it's VERY dated. The tickers show silver at $18.01/oz and the DOW in the 26,000's; not even close to current numbers. Also, how can they 'seize' something that has no physical being? There is no such thing as a bitcoin that you can put in your pocket. If I'm wrong, I won't mind anyone showing me how stupid I am.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
857 Posts |
I share in Attic guys confusion. I'm not knowledgeable with cryptos, but I wouldn't think it would be possible to seize one.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21645 Posts |
Nice to know that authorities can justifiably 'steal' Bitcoin, that is the profit from illegal activity.
So long as they have irrefutable evidence for doing so.
But that can lead to a range of other questions.
How can something that is not physical be stolen?
Simple. Bank account data is stolen for all sorts of reasons, and by all sorts of people, - so why not Bitcoin?
I have always suspected that digital money could be less secure than cash or bullion - which can also be stolen.
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Moderator
United States
164408 Posts |
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New Member
United States
45 Posts |
Crypto miners can verify transactions in the blockchain.
It's fairly anonymous but in a nutshell I think it's like ok, who legitimately transacted millions of bitcoins based on public info. Vs the unknown transaction of other bitcoins based on blockchain history. Like if 1mil usd in bitcoins get moved it's a matter of verifying what wallet received that Bitcoin, especially if we know there's only so and so amount of honest people who have that kind of Bitcoin- it's likely a illegal transaction. Seizing it is probably the easy part once it's identified as icky dirty, since it's just ones and zeros encrypted on a physical storage / cloud. I think the piecing it to the perp with a wallet/ blockchain history would be dang near impossible with that info alone. Again that's what I think. I heard about this a little in my cyber security podcasts.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1471 Posts |
"Money", whether in paper, coin or digital form is only worth what a group of three-piece suits sitting around a polished oak table say it is. Has been since world currencies were taken off of the gold standard. So to think that one can "steal" an illusion is ludicrous. It is simply re-perceived. And this applies to personal identity, if "stolen" somehow you are worth less than before. And how so? Credit ratings. Yet to those who know you, are you not the same person as before?
ANA member - PAN Member - BCCS Member There are no problems only solutions - the late, great John Lennon
Edited by Ballyhoo
02/28/2021 12:34 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1590 Posts |
Most "money" is not real.
For instance, Uncle Sam direct deposits my pay into my bank account. However; they Never ship that physical money to my bank.They give the bank "digital" money. Meaning my bank now has the legal right to increase their holdings by that amount digitally. My bank can now use that digital money to invest in stocks, or derivitives such as silver futures, most of which is not real either. When they take the profits from this market those profits are sent back to them as digital numbers. There is no transfer of cash.
According to the BEP website, there is One Trillion dollars in circulation around the world. Yet the US produces 25 trillion a year in GDP. That does not even include the US dollars involved with World Oil production or that the US Dollar is the worlds international Currancy.
You can quickly see that there is no way that every dollar that is represented by gdp EACH year, can be physically produced.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4347 Posts |
This form of currency can really wipe you out!  |
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Moderator
United States
164408 Posts |
Needed to sell that stack before the TP crash last summer.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21645 Posts |
The value of the US Dollar is, for the most part indirectly related to the to the US GDP. If more dollars are issued and there is no growth in the US GDP, inflation of the US Dollar is the result.
The value Bitcoin is not related to anything, but can be expressed in terms of US Dollars.
Whatever people are prepared to pay for Bitcoin is entirely driven by speculation (or lack of it).
If the US Justice Department has seized Bitcoin, they have made a considerable profit out of it, if they sell soon, because recent speculative activity of Bitcoin caused a rapid rise in it's nominal value against the US Dollar.
Because this profit is entirely unrelated to the US GDP, such profit will have an absolute zero effect on the value of the US Dollar.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4541 Posts |
How about going after the crooks selling fake coins on ebay instead of the "Silk Road"? That would be more useful to us. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21645 Posts |
I think that the size of the problem with 'crook' coins is far smaller than the problem with illegal drugs. The US Justice Department did good.  Honest US Citizens are the beneficiaries. |
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Valued Member
United States
143 Posts |
Good one, @Exoguy. Something oh so traceable as crypto being used on silk road is just an invitation for legal trouble. Let's see if the money went to a better place...?
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Replies: 13 / Views: 2,479 |
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Posted 11/06/2020 12:56 am
