I'm not a good shot. Personally, I think before any home invaders get past our two English Mastiffs we keep inside because they are our other "kids," the police will have responded to our call and the operator will be on the phone asking us to put the dogs up so the officers can take an incident report. I will stipulate that the care and feeding of the "kids" is probably more expensive than handgun practice and maintenance. Hey! 3D printed dog food! hmm...(grin)

As I think I mentioned before, I've been participating online since the BBS/Fidonet days. I even had the "fun" of moderating a very volatile "echo". One person's aggression or button is another's sincerely held belief, or casual statement meant without true malice, or mistaken assumption. I take it all as a learning curve. I learn something new about Bitcoin every day here, so it's worth it. Now all I have to do is shoot the guys who came up with...uh I mean, try to figure out what Ripple is and that will be cool. In my day, it was just a really bad, really cheap "wine". (grin)

I don't have any yet, so not a problem. If I do get some, I'll put em in a paper wallet after I create a linux partition on the old XP box my wife uses to play solitaire on again. That's always fun, but I haven't had a reason to play with linux for awhile. Other than the USB stick I boot into to update and run command line utility scans on the connected systems. I'd rather dual boot though for anything more than that. Linux on USB2 just runs too slow for anything other than letting scans run, in my experience. I won't exchange any for fiat currency until we are out of the temporary situation we are in now. If a reporting requirement happens, I don't think even reporting that I "own" something virtual with no actual value until it's exchanged for fiat currency, goods or services will cause a problem for us.

I'm trying to learn enough to explain it to my father the retired CPA. He just looks at me and asks the same question over and over again; "so, that bitcoinATM thingy, what bank supplies the money for that?" (grin)

Aww, don't stop the newbies from trolling. It's hurts their feelings. "Encourage" them to participate "correctly". Oldbies don't troll. They fight the good fight.

Assets are an issue for us at this time. We are allowed to have reasonable assets or debts, such as a single car paid off, a single mortgage(I'd say house, but the bank owns more of it than we do), reasonable home appliances, etc. We can have reasonable cash flows from our bank account, such as our monthly mortgage payment. We are expected to declare any new assets and/or changes in income and outflow of currency. Holding cash in our house is a grey area. As long as we spend it on necessities and not luxuries, I can justify it after the fact. I have the privilege of being "entitled" to print out copies of our bank statements, mortgage statements, credit card statements, and declare all assets again, at least twice a year to various interested parties. Any misstep in the process triggers automatic cutoffs and a fun round of appeals.
Fun factoid; when we were a lot younger and both worked full time, we cosigned a mortgage for the kids who had good jobs, but not the credit rating. We had to "force" their grandparents into taking that over just to get our names off the mortgage, and then wait the required period of time before my wife could qualify for these "entitlement" programs. Also, I'm required to apply for these same programs at least twice a year, or anytime one of these interested parties demands it, so I can send them a current denial letter for me. I'm so "entitled" I can hardly stand it! (grin)

Newbie question here, but am I reading this right and the stolen bitcoins are still in a blockchain account? Can't blockchain "freeze" the account until this is sorted out?

IMHO, the U.S. government is concerned that trying to "control" the distribution of 3D printers or plans is more of a 1rst amendment problem than a 2nd. They will do what they always do. Try to regulate the distribution of materials supplied in the 3D printer "ink cartridges."

pwi, I appreciate the backup and I'm sorry that this issue is still bothering you. The entire reason I raised the issue is because my wife and I are in a temporary catch 22 situation with our local government. If it hasn't become clear by now, we don't have the means financially, or permission under the guidelines of our particular situation, to save money in a bank account for essential expenditure situations that arise from time to time. This puts me in a situation where I have to save fiat currency in a portable fireproof safe to pay for these, or use our single credit card for such emergency purchases, pushing us further into debt. I did not mean for this to become an argument about the legality of these issues. I have no intention of offering proof one way or the other about our situation. It's not important to me one way or the other whether anyone here believes me or not. It won't change the temporary reality we live in. That will take another 7 years. I'm merely looking for a better way to save and spend on things we need than the equivalent of stuffing money in a mattress. The dispute DID remind me, as always, it's more important to me that we stay within the boundaries of our limitations than worrying about incurring debt that can't force us out of it. While I'm still waiting an answer as to the acceptability of Bitcoin as a savings and spending method, I now doubt that it will be allowed. I can probably spend fiat currency on purchasing Bitcoins, and posses them, as long as I don't exchange them back into fiat currency that has to be reported, especially if that earns us income. I am checking on that with the PTB, as there are members of our family that have been frustrated in their inability to help us financially due to those income limitations we are temporarily under. You may have noticed that I added and have left a BTC donation address to my messages. I'm not gonna remove it. No one has sent any there, but it's my little rebellion against the system I am trapped in, and it makes me feel better. If it becomes a problem, I can forget the address and never access it again. If anyone here feels the need to vent about that, feel free. I deal with stuff everyday that just makes a good online chewing out amusing and enlightening. (grin) I've enjoyed watching Bitcoin the same way I enjoyed watching the Internet go from being a weird hobby to changing the world as we know it. I think Bitcoin is doing the same thing. I'd like to participate, but it the PTB say no, Oh well. I'll still watch and it'll still be fun to do so. Life goes on.

I'll conclude by offering my sympathy and empathy for your own situation. Waiting on Medicaid with it's automatic rejections and required legal fight is one of the more ridiculous aspects of our system. Similar to the 24 month waiting period between qualifying for SSD and qualifying for Medicare. Why? "because that's the way the system works". If you've racked up medical debt at hospitals like we were forced to, check with their financial departments about Financial Assistant Programs. It's a lot of paperwork, but I managed to get the medical debt we incurred during those ever so fun 24 months down from $160k to $20k using them. Good luck!

So China has surpassed the U.S. in the number of Bitcoin Wallet users?

These actions seem to be causing the start of a U.S. government created pump and dump cycle. Accidental or not, that'd be interesting. (grin)

I don't think its illegal as long as I report it. I've definitely been persuaded that doing this without it being transparent would be a bad idea. But I'd hate for us to miss this opportunity if we don't have to. That should be an interesting conversation with her Case Manager. "What is Bitcoin? A paper wallet what?" (grin)

Now add the sudden cessation of the SatoshiDice effect.

Also our particular situation ends in 7 years when she can take her retirement. I'm willing to bet a few bitcoins now on the possibility that they'll be worth considerably more in 7 years.

Say the U.S. government is not happy with Mt. Gox's response to the "Dwolla lesson." Not happy with Mt. Gox continuing to face U.S. citizens with a non-FinCen compliant exchange that "handles over 80% of all Bitcoin trade." Say they take the next step and go after Mt. Gox directly. Freeze its assets, domain, issue warrants, go after any business using them to offer goods or services using BTC, etc. Full blown all out campaign to stop Mt. Gox's ability to function at all. What happens to Bitcoin?

Pain is subjective. I'm sorry you can relate. That sucks.

So, all this subjective stuff aside, is it worth the effort to cold store a paper wallet vs. keeping BTC in an online exchange wallet, on a USB stick or Offline PC HD? Especially if liquidity is not the goal? Or is it overkill?

See? If given the opportunity, most people do try to rise to a challenge! Still, nothing beats the fear of going to a caregiver "support" meeting and realizing that your situation is only going to get so much worse. Now that's real fear. Shame is laughable. Go for fear. I still have a few buttons there that work. (grin)

Well, you aren't that good at it either. You should have waited until I was foolish enough to give you more personal information. Tell you what, I'll share one out of the many many fun-time stories that come with being a caregiver of the person who use to be your spouse;
This one time after spending 10 hours at the ER waiting for her to be cleared while she ranted nonstop about how God had appointed her His messenger of the the Holy Blessing of the Nicotine patch and how they would cure the world of all ills and sins, so they could transport her to the locked "Senior Diagnostic Unit" so they could keep her alive while doping her into unconsciousness with haldol so she could finally get some sleep and hopefully end the manic energy that had led to a week of no sleep and you are finally at home feeling guilty and ashamed at how relieved you are the bitch is finally locked up somewhere safe so you can FINALLY sleep yourself, and you realize you just spent half a day talking to people about taking care of her and wondering why they were looking at you funny and you look in a mirror and see that you haven't shaved in a week, or changed your clothes in days, or taken a shower yourself in all that time, and you just start laughing and can't stop for a very scary amount of time, believe me, you haven't lived.

Statements by people that haven't personally experienced the living hell your life became years ago roll off you like rain on a warm summer day. So no worries. Bitcoins baby! FTW! (grin)

Dang. I knew I forgot something. (grin) If you can't laugh, take Xanax. About .25mg PRN works for me. It also helps to have grandchildren. They say the darndest things. And no, this is not my grampa's coat. It's mine. Now if only my thrift store took Bitcoin.

Let me ease your worried mind then. I don't get Medicaid. I don't have health insurance. When I get sick, I get to get over it. There. Feel better?

Dude. That is so wrong. (grin)

Investing in a few Bitcoins is a long term risk that I am willing to take. That doesn't mean I'm interested in engaging in any illegal activity. And we pay our taxes. But the assumptions have provided this old geek with some amusement. 

I agree with you JENNIFER_SUSAN. We should only hide our wealth legally.