No, you can blame them unless they dropped out of K-12 in the 3rd grade and don't understand anything about the system they live under. Everyone in the country saw the way the storm troopers handled the Boston bombing. Now, it's different if they see it and they want a new country where the storm troopers are allowed to bust your door down whenever they want to. That's a conscious choice to relinquish your freedom. Then they are not lazy but simply the worst kind of fool.

Ok, that's a good edit.

Strange quote from a man that reauthorized the Patriot Act extension. Lazy Americans don't deserve freedom because they refuse to rise up against the leaders that are taking it away from them.

Yeah, I see some people that have been here a long time. Satoshi considered this to be the main forum for Bitcoin info and development and it's losing the oldest supporters. Either this forum is losing it's position in the Bitcoin world as you suggest or people are moving on and losing interest for whatever reason (graduating, scammed out of their faith in the system, scared of the legal standing, finally see the fight will be decades not months).

They simply might not be doing as well as they were last year and not have the extra money to spend. It's too bad they don't maintain their accounts on here anymore. They could just tell us why they aren't doing it this year. Although, I do respect them for not having an account in trollville.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe your very first post was just an untimely accident. Welcome to Bitcoin and please take the advise of the older users and keep your Bitcoins in a wallet you control. I know it seems easy to use online wallets but it's not as safe.

What I think is that you're a shill. You're not even a good shill because you're not following the thrust of the conversation. The governments request for more info is suspicious or the investigative request by Coinbase for more info is suspicious not shady. It's understandable if someone in the reporting chain thinks a mining company is laundering money. I don't believe a company would irritate what has to be a large customer without needing to do it. That leads me to believe the government is requesting more info based on the filing of a CTR.

That's hard to believe but it doesn't matter because Coinbase isn't on trial here. They are doing what they must do as a financial services business. They must report large transactions using a CTR form and an SAR for suspicious transactions. Failure to turn in the forms or notifying the customer about intent to file a form or helping to change transactions is called structuring, and is punishable by federal law against both the customer and the employee. The info they requested could only be used to determine if the large deposits are possible by mining Bitcoins alone. This means they will likely file an SAR with the info they receive from the mining companies. It's odd for companies to initiate an SAR without a very big red flag being discovered or more info being requested by the government. But none of this is the fault of Coinbase. They are doing what Charlie Shrem should have done but didn't - their legally required job duties.

THIS is your first post? You probably work for Coinbase. LOL

That struck me as odd too. When they took down Liberty Reserve they used the patriot act. Does that mean what Burt was doing was as bad as Liberty Reserve? The government is throwing around the patriot act and walking on civil liberties so much since 9/11 that I don't even recognize this country anymore. Civil liberties are meaningless when you have laws that allow them to be trampled. The founding fathers of America are weeping in their graves.

That really would be sad, wouldn't it?

I suppose but I think I'd rather live free in Somalia than be a prisoner in America. It's not like he didn't have plenty of money to hire his own protection army.

You just don't get it. I'm not assuming the worst. I'm assuming they are going to do what they are being paid to do. If you don't read that back story then you can't understand how vicious the government can be in the pursuit of justice.

What confuses me about Ross isn't whether he was sentenced to life or got off completely free. Ross strikes me as a pretty bright kid. He must have known that the Christian Puritan laws in this country would eventually catch up with him because he wasn't 12 years old and tried to hide his identity. He's not a martyr because he did try very hard to hide his real identity. Martyrs usually want everyone to know who they are and don't mind taking a bullet for the team. What confuses me is why this bright kid didn't leave America to run his illegal business? Why stay in the Christian Lions jaws waiting for the eventual bite? Makes no sense to me.

Yes, but those are real democracies. The system insulates the U.S. president from scandal. Even Nixon wasn't impeached but was allowed to resign instead. He should have been tried for his crimes but instead they built him a presidential library like every other former president.

You can make it about me if you like but why don't you read this whole thread before you do. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=934268.0

I don't have to trust the government. It's their job to catch drug dealers and they pressure people to achieve the end goal.

Dude can't you see the reason for the government wanting to see the equipment. Is not paranoid, it's as plainly visible as the nose on your face.

Let's say one of these mining farms are turning in $2 million dollars a month for exchange to fiat. Coinbase has a reporting requirement so they notify the government. The little poorly paid agent functionary wants to know if they are turning in the proceeds of drug sales to convert or if they actually have the equipment to mine $2 million a month in Bitcoins. He notifies Coinbase to send a letter to them requesting a detailed inventory of equipment to verify the ability to mine that much. Coinbase says, I'm not doing that, that's your job mr. agent. Mr. Agent says, so your tired of having a business license. Ok, I can fix that and remove your license.

If the mining farms are smart and honestly turning in mined Bitcoins they would comply after making Coinbase sign a confidentiality agreement to not make their special mining system public. If they are criminals selling I'll gotten gains they will fight it until guys in blue wind breakers bust down their front door.

So you believe the guys at Coinbase got a wild idea to start fucking with their customers and said one day, hey let's make every mining farm customer send us photos of their setup with detailed information or we close their account and never exchange anymore Bitcoin for them? 

The government must have demanded the information. Most Bitcoin users I know would never ask for that kind of info and would have told the government to fuck off unless they were threatened. AML/KYC doesn't mean you need your customers cock size. It means you need to have verified their identity. 

Well they're putting people in prison for it, so yeah, I guess it's unauthorized.

See: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=934268.0

And: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=462846.0

You're right, other than facilitating international illegal drug distribution he didn't actually do anything wrong. He's no worse than a mule that brings drugs to the U.S from Mexico. It's not like he was selling the drugs. Why are they being so hard on him?