Bitcoin Forum

Would ownership of a large stake of BTC (obviously not that much since total market cap is only around 1.5 bil, but I could see say some drug bust that might have a few million is BTC seized) by a government agency force any kind of regularization of BTC in a governments eyes?

This thought originally popped up when thinking about Mt Gox's massive stash of BTC and what would happen if it was seized by regulatory agencies. I don't think this is going to happen, but I definitely entered hypothetical land and was wondering what ya'll thought about it.

And before the troll posts about how they can just send all the BTC away or refuse to give up the coin, not everyone's wealth is solely stored in BTC and not everyone is willing to live life on the run from the law.

I don't know about the Bitcoins but I've certainly heard regularly about exchanges in particular having their funds seized or their bank accounts frozen, Bitcoin is an interesting predicament at the moment. On the one hand, governments know it's valuable and if they started taking it for themselves they could make shit tons of money, on the other hand this would mean they would end up unofficially acknowledging its value as a currency ( Even if they didn't say anything, they would have considered it valuable enough to steal ) so all we can do is just wait and see what happens. If they do end up taking Bitcoin they'll most likely risk angering their central bank masters and putting their paper money at risk so it will be awhile yet before we see anything at least openly happen.

I think Mt. Gox have been the only victims so far

The only seizure of bitcoin I've heard about was to do with a dealer/user connected to SR (in one of the Carolinas?). It could have been a case of the authorities seizing computer equipment that coïncidentally contained a bitcoin wallet, rather than the police specifically seeking out "illicit bitcoin" as money.

mtgox had its FIAT seized.

as for bitcoin only 11BTC was seized due to some stings involving Silk road, but during those stings MILLIONS of dollars and gold were seized. so it just goes to show even in the silk road land... FIAT is the most drug tainted currency of all.

What about freedom host getting busted for pedoporn. I think they went down because of their bitcoins being traced.

nope there was a javascript exploit they used with tor to get the true IP of freedom hosting.. so it was TOR related not bitcoin.... well thats what a quick google search on it just revealed to me atleast.

Most probably, if thats a word combination lol
Mt gox has had fiat money seized over bitcoin problems!

I think there was a SR bust where they confiscated bitcoins, google it

Some bitcoins were seized and later destroyed when the police raided the occupy wall street camp. They took the laptops and later destroyed them. I don't think those policemen even know what bitcoin is ...

Ouch. It sure would be nice to see some lawsuits demanding FMV back on those coins. I'd imagine they had them in the tens or hundreds as pocket change in those days.

You sure they were destroyed? I would suggest to anyone in NYC to keep an eye out for laptops on police auction ;)

So it seems there have been no significant seizures. I wonder if a gov like germany, whom has declared bitcoin a legal currency, seized some bitcoins, could they legally destroy the BTC? (As in, its illegal to destroy cash money in the USA).

you can't really destroy btc, (without deleting every single copy of the blockchain), only stop btc being moved,

There was a significant seizure in Germany at the owner of bitcoin24 just 4 months ago. Although the police suspected fraud, they have just seized Euros and have frozen the bank accounts. They didn't seize the bitcoins although they could have done it and it would have made sense. Many people were wondering why not. Maybe the police was just not smart enough...

What about pirateat40? Didn't Trendon Shavers' computers get seized?

yes, as far as i can remember, thats fact.

What do you mean, "seizures of BTC".

Bitcoins can be encrypted and backed up, you know. Even with plausible deniability. Seizing computer ≠ seizing bitcoins. The government can't just go around and start seizing bitcoins, even if they wanted to.

In case you hadn't heard, the US seems to think it can bloody well do what it wants

O.o

KnightMB's private keys were seized. 374000BTC were in those keys.

There are images of the destroyed laptops between minutes 25 and 27 of this video:
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/motherboard-tv-free-the-network

Apparently some people didn't have a backup of their wallets.

OK, but then the problem is not the seizure of bitcoins, but just plain stupidity.

Not backing up your bitcoins (on multiple places, also outside your house/office) is an accident waiting to happen. Crashing harddisks, laptops getting stolen, dogs chewing on USB drives, you know.

My original curiosity was more how would a gov react to owning a large sum of BTC, not really how they would acquire it. Yes, if you are smart no one can take BTC from you, but barring a life of financial ruin and being on the run from courts and tax agencies, one can be compelled to give up BTC just like any other asset. Apologies if I was not clear enough.

Lets try to keep this on topic to a gov holding BTC and what they ultimately did with it. (or speculation on what would happen).

Well, that'd be new and fascinating information on the case. Have a source?

What did KnightMB do? Why was his BTC seized?

He allegedly demanded a $1m ransom in BTC from Mitt Romney in exchange for not releasing his tax returns.

After raiding his house and handcuffing him and his wife, they determined he didn't have the tax returns. Authorities' smoking gun in the case are images of cats recovered on a USB drive, which they claim match a nearby woman's cats whose computer he worked on. The SS previously raided his house, which makes him extra-suspicious...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6825.msg2583493#msg2583493