Is it illegal for someone to hack my BTC wallet?

[NoBit]

If you found their private key by mathematical computation or guessing, I think it will not be considered illegal. But if you got that by using malware or trojan that may be illegal.
If you hacked Nobody can expect you can claim that wallet is yours.

So,

1) If they hacked into my machine and stole the private key; (illegal)
2) If they sniped the pk while snooping on a public access connection; (illegal)
3) If they brute forced the private key into existence; (not illegal)
4) If they snapped a shot of my private key qr code over my shoulder at an ATM. (not illegal)

What if I claimed an address on the block chain with a signature and 3 or 4 happened?  Would I have a case then?

3) Is it illegal to write a check with your bank account and signature on it?
4) Is it illegal to look in the paper trash for cc information? Snap a shot and use it?

[1715013710]

1715013710

[Chris!]

So,

1) If they hacked into my machine and stole the private key; (illegal)
2) If they sniped the pk while snooping on a public access connection; (illegal)
3) If they brute forced the private key into existence; (not illegal)
4) If they snapped a shot of my private key qr code over my shoulder at an ATM. (not illegal)

What if I claimed an address on the block chain with a signature and 3 or 4 happened?  Would I have a case then?

If 3) happens then all Bitcoins become worthless and the question would become:  If I take something which is worth nothing is it illegal?

Well I guess you could argue that even though all Bitcoins are now worthless they still might have sentimental value.

Haha well I doubt we'll get there anytime soon s don't you worry you just keep on HODLing.

It is illegal to steal digital goods. It's a fact. But to others' points, the authorities will most likely do nothing or start a haphazard investigation and in the end getting your $500 back from a hacker off the coast of Taiwan won't be a priority. Giving those punk kids their $150 speeding tickets will meet the quota nicely

[baitanjzcop4282]

It is illegal , of course~~ do they have a clear legal provisions to specification.

[baitanjzcop4282]

The coin of sale founder holds another point of view that bitcoin doesn’t need to be regulated.

[Pbitcoin]

Very good question  in my opinion it will be illegal as no one can have unauthorized access to others system and in case of qr code that will be your fault !

[_Miracle]

Yes it would be theft. How it got handled is a whole other story, which likely would have a wide variance in process and punishment depending on local.

[BitcoinSupremo]

Yes it is illegal and to the guys who have happened such things here, like users of blockchain.info and a single person who was tricked to download a word file with trojan inside in a mac machine lost quite a lot of money. You cannot find the hacker in 100% of the cases so if you are so concerned with the security of your bitcoins you should definitely buy a hardware wallet.

[2c0de]

Stealing 0.0000001 Bitcoin is perfectly legal, because it's so small value. Nobody ever got arrested for stealing 1 cent for example.


When you do it 10000000000 times, it should be legal too.

[RankoYS]

It should be considered as theft but I think the legal procedure depends a lot on where you live.

[serjent05]

It is illegal especially in my country.  Cyber Crimes is one degree higher than the regular crime, for example, slander in normal cases will have a penalty of around 6 months imprisonment and some fine but if slander happens in the internet e.g. facebook or other social media, it is called cyber crime and is one degree higher where 6 months will be 6 years . Stating the fact that stealing your digital assets thru the use of hacking method, penalty is one degree higher than stealing your personal computer  

[groll]

Yes it is illegal, stealing and hacking are punishable by law.  But how could someone hack your BTC wallet?  We have unique addresses and it cannot be stolen.  You can file case but up to what extent?  How you will identify the hacker?  Who will you sue?  Just be sure to change your password every now and then.

[BitcoinSupremo]

Yes it is illegal, stealing and hacking are punishable by law.  But how could someone hack your BTC wallet?  We have unique addresses and it cannot be stolen.  You can file case but up to what extent?  How you will identify the hacker?  Who will you sue?  Just be sure to change your password every now and then.

Your BTC wallet can be hacked quite easily actually , especially if you have an online wallet, a phishing email or a keylogger trojan records all of your passwords and boom your bitcoins will be gone. A bit more difficult when you use desktop wallets , and regarding to trace it , in the bitcoin era is very difficult to trace the hacker if not impossible, it has been impossible in most of the cases. You can not identify him as he maybe using a lot of addresses and also decides to mix the coins in a mixer service making it even more difficult to track.

[7788bitcoin]

Stealing 0.0000001 Bitcoin is perfectly legal, because it's so small value. Nobody ever got arrested for stealing 1 cent for example.


When you do it 10000000000 times, it should be legal too.

Stealing 1 cent is also illegal!! It's not about the value of the thing you steal, it is your action which is illegal- even if you are not caught by police.

We should all go back to the Bible and refresh our memory on the Ten Commandment - "Thou shalt not steal".

[cjmoles]

I think this is kind of a related but murkier issue.

I have a lot of questions about "smart contracts" which have been raised by this event:

http://pastebin.com/CcGUBgDG

So the "smart contract" says that the entire contract is contained in the code and that whatever is defined/allowed by the code is what defined/allowed in the contract.

Then a loophole is found in the "contract" and someone uses it to their advantage.

Is executing this code, which was allowed by the smart contract code, admittedly unintentionally, then legal?

Now, the ETH/DAO community is considering reversing the transaction so ... would that be legal?  Wouldn't that be theft by the collective ETH/DAO community?

Some messy questions to say the least.

Yes, I agree.  That is why I asked the question.  It's not so "black and white" and it's getting more and more complicated as the technology advances.  I mean, many of us are "anti-regulatory" but at the same time, some of us have a sense of moral integrity....so....where do we draw the line and how will we allow that line to be corrected?  TheDAO was an excellent example.  Some of us agree that funneling investors funds into a private account is wrong but also agree that forking the blockchain to regulate the problem sets a bad precedent....so....what's worse and how is that decided?

[Cresciuanto]

is there any doubt about this. i don's think that any one can think that it is legal for some one to hack you r Bitcoin Wallet. can you allow some one to have access to your bank account.

[zodin]

yes it is even illegal to hack the yahoo id of some one. then how can it be legal to hack the BTC wallet. it is just like that if some one stole hck you band account. so what will be your reaction then.

[hacksmash]

If you found their private key by mathematical computation or guessing, I think it will not be considered illegal. But if you got that by using malware or trojan that may be illegal.
If you hacked Nobody can expect you can claim that wallet is yours.

So,

1) If they hacked into my machine and stole the private key; (illegal)
2) If they sniped the pk while snooping on a public access connection; (illegal)
3) If they brute forced the private key into existence; (not illegal)
4) If they snapped a shot of my private key qr code over my shoulder at an ATM. (not illegal)

What if I claimed an address on the block chain with a signature and 3 or 4 happened?  Would I have a case then?

3) Is it illegal to write a check with your bank account and signature on it?
4) Is it illegal to look in the paper trash for cc information? Snap a shot and use it?

4) yes it is illegal. There would be no difference to using an ATM Skimmer setup (very illegal).... as for "look in the paper trash for cc information" ... that's why it is not printed on paper that goes into the trash anymore ... it is used to complete the transaction then securely destroyed. That is IF paper is used at all anymore. Manual Written transactions have gone the way of the Dodo as far as I am aware. The last time I ever saw the carbon paper slips was almost 20 years ago.

[patronis]

So,

1) If they hacked into my machine and stole the private key; (illegal)
2) If they sniped the pk while snooping on a public access connection; (illegal)
3) If they brute forced the private key into existence; (not illegal)
4) If they snapped a shot of my private key qr code over my shoulder at an ATM. (not illegal)

What if I claimed an address on the block chain with a signature and 3 or 4 happened?  Would I have a case then?

If 3) happens then all Bitcoins become worthless and the question would become:  If I take something which is worth nothing is it illegal?

Well I guess you could argue that even though all Bitcoins are now worthless they still might have sentimental value.

Haha well I doubt we'll get there anytime soon s don't you worry you just keep on HODLing.

It is illegal to steal digital goods. It's a fact. But to others' points, the authorities will most likely do nothing or start a haphazard investigation and in the end getting your $500 back from a hacker off the coast of Taiwan won't be a priority. Giving those punk kids their $150 speeding tickets will meet the quota nicely

Great justice system huh, "make sure you arrest about this many people"
Back to the subject though, authorities would most likely just brush anything being digitally stolen as things they "don't have jurisdiction over" so why even bother? sure it's illegal to steal things, physical or digital, but if the authorities don't follow up then whats been stolen is just gone.

[Chuzzlewit]

Back to the subject though, authorities would most likely just brush anything being digitally stolen as things they "don't have jurisdiction over" so why even bother? sure it's illegal to steal things, physical or digital, but if the authorities don't follow up then whats been stolen is just gone.

This last part starts to go where I was thinking.
In order for something to be stolen it first needs to have a defined value.
Since most governments have not recognized BTC as a valid currency, or at the very least recognized how it is to be valued, BTC essentially has a value of zero.
Theft involves stealing something of value, no value, no theft.

I wouldn't want to test my theory in some countries and that is not to say you could not be punished in another way, in the US mobsters where often convicted of tax evasion.

[GreenBits]

Back to the subject though, authorities would most likely just brush anything being digitally stolen as things they "don't have jurisdiction over" so why even bother? sure it's illegal to steal things, physical or digital, but if the authorities don't follow up then whats been stolen is just gone.

This last part starts to go where I was thinking.
In order for something to be stolen it first needs to have a defined value.
Since most governments have not recognized BTC as a valid currency, or at the very least recognized how it is to be valued, BTC essentially has a value of zero.
Theft involves stealing something of value, no value, no theft.

I wouldn't want to test my theory in some countries and that is not to say you could not be punished in another way, in the US mobsters where often convicted of tax evasion.

In the United States, bitcoin is a commodity and definitely has a value. If you take something of value that doesn't belong to you, it's generally looked at as theft. Digital or otherwise.  Also, unauthorized intrusion into someone's network/server is a crime.  If bitcoin is essentially valueless, tell that to Mark Karpales and the FBI agent that was on the silk road case. They are looking at cells as we speak (save Mark, he just got out I think) for stealing 'worthless' bitcoin