Could there be a law on stolen bitcoins?

[Gahs]

The authorities will have a hard time finding who stole your bitcoins even Bitfinex does not know who stole its $67M in bitcoins.

Bitcoin mixing is quite anonymous and transactions cannot be reversed.

So what law are you going to make against that?

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[1Referee]

The authorities will have a hard time finding who stole your bitcoins

This is unfortunately true. If you report that you have been hacked, or perhaps that someone potentially has stolen your coins, there is no way the police department will know how to deal with it. They will just put it in their system, and that's it. Nothing will be done to actually have it worked out, or at least looked into.

even Bitfinex does not know who stole its $67M in bitcoins.

They know very well where these coins have gone... But that's another story.

Bitcoin mixing is quite anonymous and transactions cannot be reversed.

So what law are you going to make against that?

What mostly happens with things that are very difficult to sort out, is that they get banned all the way. That's the easiest and least time consuming option for them to deal with it. Just look at the policitians, police departments, etc, they have a huge tech related gap that is very difficult for them to fill. It's a matter of educating your own people, but that costs money....

[choppork]

I guess if the thief didn't put the coins in a bitcoin mixer first, it would be possible for you to track him and put him in jail. Even so, it's still hard to track someone online. In the history of bitcoin, there are big companies that have the money to hire an internet investigator or something to find who hacked their website but they were never able to put the hackers in jail. But I guess not all of those companies actually got hacked. Maybe there's some inside job that happened.

[Liad.Services]

One of the biggest adventages on bitcoin that nobody has the ability to reverse a transaction(unless the community agrees on doing a fork which is less likely to happen), which makes selling really easy and safe,but also makes buying risky ,as you wont be able to cancel the transaction if you need to.

[iamTom123]

Could there be a law on stolen bitcoins? What if there would be a law punishing those who steal bitcoins and those people behind scam sites? And if so, is it necessary to have such law? I'm just wondering, if there would be such law about stolen bitcoins, it could be a big relief to us bitcoin users. But then, there are so many questions and issues that goes with this ideal that makes me skeptical about it. 

We don't need a law on this because we have enough laws protecting the citizens from thievery. However, there can be a big problem if we implement the law on the use and misuse of Bitcoin because of the decentralized nature of this currency. I am sure that soon there can be solution on this regard and hope that it can be available for all of us. In the meantime, just be careful in your daily transactions involving Bitcoins.

[GregH37]

Could there be a law on stolen bitcoins? What if there would be a law punishing those who steal bitcoins and those people behind scam sites?

I believe almost every country now having regulations against cyber crime so bitcoin by default will fall within that category to punish them. Stealing digital or intellectual property is already an offense in most of the countries.

is it necessary to have such law? I'm just wondering

Never think bitcoin as an alien thing or just a free thing. It is just a money, so we need to give all the importance we are giving to fiats. Definitely, we must have regulations for punishing a bitcoin scammer/hacker.

[calkob]

There is already laws about theft, the problem is proving it or tracing the transactions.  plus the old quote also stands here:  if you dont own and secure the private keys then you dont own the bitcoin..... blunt but true 

[Tyrantt]

I already believe there's law in evry country about stealing other peoples stuff... just be smart and don't invest anything in some dodgy websites that offer services that are just too good to be true.

[Mark02]

There is already laws about theft, the problem is proving it or tracing the transactions.  plus the old quote also stands here:  if you dont own and secure the private keys then you dont own the bitcoin..... blunt but true 

Really? That was nice. Before there wasn't that's why PONZI's are scattered everywhere last time. Even the biggest company became scam and no one claims back their stolen investment. And we cannot file a case to them because bitcoin is not recognized by the government. It is our main problem when transacting to someone. But, its a good thing a law has been passed to prevent these things and we are not protected to those scammers. Its a great update in Bitcoin.

[rababo]

If there'll be a law for bitcoin then the government has control over bitcoin. We know that bitcoin is decentralized and no one has control on it, so I don't think there'll be a law fir bitcoin. Besides, tracing bitcoin is hard to do, nearly impossible, because it's anonymity.

[talkbitcoin]

apparently there has been no law that we could see being enforced about theft of bitcoin because if there were they should have started with all those bitcoin hacks and those were millions of dollars worth of bitcoin from big businesses like bitfinex for example, but we never see anybody get caught!

[Tyrantt]

Nope. If there is, then Bitcoin would have to be regulated by the government which is basically the exact opposite of what everyone wants Bitcoin to be.

There is a law, not just for bitcoins but fr every kind of theft, just it's kind of harder to track someone down if they're using btc.

[Kale99]

How will you find those who stoled?

[gufpmvgw3334]

Laws already exist in majority of the countries for stealing of money or something equivalent to money.  But the thing is bitcoin is anonymous it will be hard to track someone plus the government doesn't even recognized bitcoin, and  in some countries bitcoins are even banned.  There are many hurdles to overcome before something like this happens. 

[Doamader]

There is no way to get the scammer when he makes all hiden, even some companies, opened for scam purposes, the max you will get is the owner going jail, and your coins will be lost forever.

[iqlimasyadiqa]

could someday there will be a law about bitcoin. because it would be very useful, people will be more confident and comfortable in using bitcoin more often.

[deadsilent]

I think there are none because bitcoin i think is not covered of government laws. But stealing is illegal but i dont know if it can be apply for bitcoin. Also many hackers attacked exchange sites but cannot be trace nor identified. I have not also seen anyone punished by stealing because no one gets caught.

[thejaytiesto]

As far as I know there is already a law and it's the same that would apply to stolen regular money. It's not like the police doesn't care that you lose your bitcoin, but the thing is, it's too hard to try to trace them back that is a bit of a waste of time. If you lose your bitcoin it's better to start trying to assume that they are gone and they are not coming back. Most people never recover them after getting stolen.

[apesconcert]

As many people have said, the criminal law pertaining to theft in most countries will cover Bitcoin, since any theft of tangible and/or intangible items is sanctionable. The only worry comes with those jurisdictions who have an outdated definition of theft, particularly those which adhere to the continental definition of theft whereby the thief would have to physically move the location of the object to a different location than that last set by the owner. That definition would not only mean theft of Bitcoin cannot be prosecuted against, but also any theft of intangible property.

Leaving that aside, it is immaterial as to whether Bitcoin is considered as a property or a currency - currency as a form of money is still considered as property for the purpose of determining the crime of theft. Bank notes, coins can be stolen, same as any other property.

Keep in mind that theft of Bitcoin can also be prosecuted as a computer misuse crime, unless it's an actual paper wallet which is stolen for example. That in itself is a separate argument since some might say it was the paper which was stolen and not the private key itself.

[piloder]

I think stealing bitcoin also come under crime as bitcoin is also just like your currency/cash but main problem to file charge against the one who stole is due to anonymity bitcoin transactions have. So hard for even law/government to track down the real guy who is behind this crime.