Bitcoin Forum

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/US-Marshal.png

The U.S. Marshals is selling the Bitcoins that were seized from an FBI bust in October 2013.

The U.S. Marshals plan to sell the coins off in blocks of 3,000 coins for 9 blocks and the remainder in the last block.

They have been "washed", and and given a clean bill of health, backed by the US government.

From: http://bitcoinmagazine.com/13926/us-marshal-office-offers-100-washed-bitcoins/

How does he got 29 Million bitcoin? you mean 29 thousand?

Yeah, there can only be 21 million bitcoins ever and out of these, there are only about 12 million currently mined so the 29 million number is obviously incorrect. The image says 29,656.51306529 (or 29,656 whole bitcoins) so it must be 29 thousand bitcoins which the FBI is selling, which is a much more reasonable number and fits in with the other news reports that I've seen.

Doh!  Fixed it.  Thanks man.  Too much coffee already this morning.

So the bitcoins being sold were stolen from customer account balances at SR? 

Washed bitcoins? lol I doubt the US marshalls even understand bitcoin.

However, some undefined group in the US Government do have the private keys relating to this group of coins.

Who is to say that the bitcoins do not suddenly vanish either before or after delivery to the winners of the auction?

It would be interesting to know what the security protocols were they had in place.  Not that I would trust them to have what they said they had but it would illustrate the extent to which they understood Bitcoin.

us marshalls understand bitcoin?!  you kidding?!  apparently the don't even know how to use e-mail properly!

I don't understand this attitude they are "washed", "verified", etc. My bitcoins are accepted anywhere bitcoins are accepted. Aren't they worth just the same? :)

They are, OP was just being sarcastic

I hope we will know the price they are bought to, any chance it will be public?

I wonder what soap they used...

I think they should keep their stolen bitcoins and buy their crack with them.

can we track the outputs and have the network reject them?

It's possible to rewrite the code to do just that, but that's a really bad idea. By implementing something like that, the fungibility of Bitcoin will be compromised. You can't start something like that because there will never be an end to it. Why would you even want to reject those coins anyway? What would be the point? What principle would you be defending? The whole idea seems to be driven by envy more than rationality.

I believe it was pineapple with a hint of vaseline.

Well they must have to use dettol . then the bitcoins will be completely washed..:)

What about the price after the sale, what is your prediction it will continue to fall down or go up?

Indeed, the chief attraction of buying these coins is that they are kosher by fiat decree
The irony is killing me

Agree, this is a situation which could happen. I think to keep this large amount of btc in one single address is not very responsible;

I guess if the Marshalls send their stolen bitcoins to someone's address, he's got them.

But it would certainly be funny if they went to do that and found they've lost a few.  Or a lot.

Comedy Gold.

I wonder how they got them washed or even they know those coins are actually there. I hope a hacker gets those coins first.

Fucking organized crime, they went after the easiest money they can make, so they can make money, I wonder how much it cost them to do an investigation on silkroad, my guess is nothing since it was the tax payers that paid it.  Tax payers should get that money back from bitcoins.

Bitcoin is fungable however people often do not wish for the bitcoin in their wallet to be associated with other addresses associated with illegal activity

That is pretty stupid "wish". Open your purse an take out a coin or a bank note. Are you sure that note was not associated with some shady activity? No. Most probably it is. Do you throw that bill away? No. The same expectations should be applied to Bitcoin by default.

I doubt most people would know however. When I buy BTC, all I see is the amount that I want and an address (or addresses) with random characters that sends it to me. Same goes for everyone else. Most people (shops included) aren't going to put in the time and effort to trace back any of the transactions that they receive. Plus the practice of using change addresses would make it rather difficult to know whose money actually belongs to whom.

Once the coins hit an exchange or mixer it's pretty much a moot point.  I'm sure I get change from the dope dealer when I buy some carrots at the supermarket.  As long as the bill is not laced I don't care.