Bitcoin Confiscation

[Luckybit]

I am reminded of FDR's executive order 6102 of 4/5/1933 which, by the stroke of a pen, made the mere possession of gold a federal crime, and offered rewards to anyone who betrayed anyone else. Sure, a handful of brave people tried to hide their gold, but the practice became as marginalized and shunned as, say, drugs or porn today.

I hate to say it, but if possession of a bitcoin privkey became a federal felony, with informant rewards, I can think of a couple of relatives who would rat me out in a heartbeat.

Try brainwallet.

"Yes, good sir, I do own some bitcoins, but only 3 BTCs, here is my private key. What, 500? Who told you so? Some of my relatives? You can't just rely on some hear-says as evidences right?"

Or if your prosecutor is more of a "by the book" type: "Yes sir, I did store 500 bitcoins in an address(which is too long, who the fuck will remember that?) And I use this brainwallet setup to protect my private key, but unfortunately, I have totally forgotten about my passphrase, so perhaps these bitcoins are forever lost. And I think you can't prove otherwise." or just simply: "Sorry I lost my private key."

They will torture you and destroy your brain to destroy your coins.

[Luckybit]

Mere possession can be outlawed, but those laws can never be successfully enforced.

Example: firearms - there are laws all over the world regulating the possession of firearms, and those laws are utterly ineffective in their attempt of preventing the illegal firearm possession. Those laws are only effective if applied to the legal and dully registered firearm owners - which ironically are the only ones who comply with those laws.

Same with Bitcoin - if the governments outlaw the Bitcoin, the only Bitcoins that could be (easily) confiscated will be the ones deposited with legally compliant institutions - the ones stored in a private wallet could never be effectively confiscated.

Time to post the Bitcoin version of a "MOLON LAVE" poster, I suppose. :-)

The way they will take down Bitcoin is by linking it's users to CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. If you use Bitcoin, Tor, etc, then you're a pedophile with a pedophile kit. Why else would you need all that?

And if accused of being a pedophile it's near impossible to prove you aren't when Nancy Grace or whomever in the media crucifies you.

[darkmule]

I am reminded of FDR's executive order 6102 of 4/5/1933 which, by the stroke of a pen, made the mere possession of gold a federal crime, and offered rewards to anyone who betrayed anyone else. Sure, a handful of brave people tried to hide their gold, but the practice became as marginalized and shunned as, say, drugs or porn today.

I hate to say it, but if possession of a bitcoin privkey became a federal felony, with informant rewards, I can think of a couple of relatives who would rat me out in a heartbeat.

FDR did this because the Nazis and their allies had control of the majority of the gold at the time. If you're gonna actually cite history please do so in context. It was World War 2 and FDR had no easy options, also the gold hoarders tried to launch a fascist coup attempt (Google the Business Plot) which triggered his response.

Additionally, as it was patently unconstitutional, the first court to try a case involving this law threw it out, albeit over a technicality.  While it was reissued, it effectively went away with the passage of the Gold Reserve Act.

This executive order was a clear blunder, but caused little to no actual effect in reality, except to the one guy actually prosecuted under it, who won his case.  Unfortunately for him, he actually lost his gold, but at least now, it is entirely legal to possess gold, gold certificates, or any similar objects.

While in theory, the government could do this again, in practice, I don't think it would be tolerated.

[Spendulus]

If the powers that be wanted to stop bitcoin they would just buy a lot of hardware and do a simple 51% attack and be done with it.

Not really true.

It's useful to consider the history of substitute currencies, historically.  There are several dozen studied cases where as one currency lost trust, others came to be used.  Often the death penalty was used to try to prevent the good money from coming in.

It never worked.

Good money always wins out in the end. 

[Spendulus]

how about BTC sucks up all fiat money in da wurlde


then the planet is on the BTC STANDARD

Wunder what all that paper could be used for then....

[im3w1l]

as marginalized and shunned as, say, drugs or porn today.

That doesn't sound so bad...

[jdbtracker]

how about BTC sucks up all fiat money in da wurlde


then the planet is on the BTC STANDARD

well it was designed to do that we do have 100,000,000 subdivisions of 1 bitcoin so if you consider we have 21,000,000 available coins thats... 21 quadrillion dollars; suspiciously... thats the number is 100 times the value of all money in circulation... so that would be enough to handle all the transactions on the planet.

It could happen, the deflationary characteristics of bitcoin would allow it to grab all of that safely forcing all failing government to switch their currencies to Bitcoin since it appreciates in value as more people begin using it, there fore no one would ever need to switch their money to fiat again...     Madness!!!! Satoshi! you are a Genius!!!

[manfred]

well it was designed to do that we do have 100,000,000 subdivisions of 1 bitcoin

u can divide a bitcoin as often as u like

[RodeoX]

They are coming for my bitcoins!

How many do I have? 

Oh right, no one knows. 

[BTCSylar]

They are coming for my bitcoins!

How many do I have? 

Oh right, no one knows. 

The block chain says.... at least 0.13751. 

[kano]

how about BTC sucks up all fiat money in da wurlde


then the planet is on the BTC STANDARD

Wunder what all that paper could be used for then....

Paper? You still have paper money?  Plastic (polypropylene polymer) bank notes have been here in Aus since 1988

[Spendulus]

I am reminded of FDR's executive order 6102 of 4/5/1933 which, by the stroke of a pen, made the mere possession of gold a federal crime, and offered rewards to anyone who betrayed anyone else. Sure, a handful of brave people tried to hide their gold, but the practice became as marginalized and shunned as, say, drugs or porn today.

I hate to say it, but if possession of a bitcoin privkey became a federal felony, with informant rewards, I can think of a couple of relatives who would rat me out in a heartbeat.

FDR did this because the Nazis and their allies had control of the majority of the gold at the time. If you're gonna actually cite history please do so in context. It was World War 2 and FDR had no easy options, also the gold hoarders tried to launch a fascist coup attempt (Google the Business Plot) which triggered his response.

You're right about informants though. In this world you cannot fully trust anyone, not friends, not family, not parents or siblings or best friend or husband or wife. For some things you can only trust yourself to look out for you.

No, it was not WW2 in 1933.

WTF??? WTF??? WHF???

As for the Business Plot, what a joke.  About on the level of arresting a two bit anti-arab filmaker and blaming Bengazi on him.

Wait, didn't that just happen?

[GodfatherBond]

What ever makes Bitcoin more secure and private should be considered, tested and implemented asap. It helps make it more popular ultimate world currency

[Spendulus]

how about BTC sucks up all fiat money in da wurlde


then the planet is on the BTC STANDARD

Wunder what all that paper could be used for then....

Paper? You still have paper money?  Plastic (polypropylene polymer) bank notes have been here in Aus since 1988

Will the time come when paper or plastic will not be accepted for bitcoin?

[kano]

What ever makes Bitcoin more secure and private should be considered, tested and implemented asap. It helps make it more popular ultimate world currency

No.
Decentralisation is the point of bitcoin.