Could there be a law on stolen bitcoins?

[jayvictor]

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. 

It will take more years before it is implemented ,when bitcoin awareness is well established and there are laws governing bitcoin on every country ..

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[amacar2]

Stealing bitcoin can be considered cyber crime and even asking ransome in bitcoin is also cyber crime but implementing this law depends upon how good is your countries government and investigation force in finding the one who is envolved in stealing as well as tracking bitcoin may need lots of time as well as lots of sophisticated tools and computer powers.

[BitHodler]

Whether it's Bitcoin that gets stolen or the equivalent in fiat, it shouldn't matter as money is money.

In that aspect you are breaking the law, and thus should receive the same treatment as you would have stolen solely fiat money or gold for example.

However, the current old fashion law enforcements don't even know how to deal with internet related scams.

So how can we expect them to deal with something (Bitcoin in this case) that they have never heard of? It's difficult. They probably won't even take it serious.

[carlfebz2]

Stealing bitcoin can be considered cyber crime and even asking ransome in bitcoin is also cyber crime but implementing this law depends upon how good is your countries government and investigation force in finding the one who is envolved in stealing as well as tracking bitcoin may need lots of time as well as lots of sophisticated tools and computer powers.

It would  be still useless  even  if   certain country would  implement  such  laws  because   tracing  up those  coins seems too  impossible. It may sounds for  us  to be a crime hence  we are talking about  stolen bitcoins  but  we  cant really do  anything   about  it   because theres  no such law   that would  haunt them  down because  government  doesn't  legalize  bitcoin  anyway.

[Blitzboy]

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.

Yeah being stolen bitcoin seems to be quite common to bitcoin users but yet there are still no laws can cover it. As bitcoin belongs to nobody and no government can control it, it's quite an impossible mission to put a laws on bitcoin stealing. Moreover, because there is no trace or evidence of each bitcoin transaction, it becomes even more tricky to stop this.

[AgentofCoin]

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.

Though most of what you are saying is true, most legal systems have not determined bitcoin to
be a legal property type, like fiat, coins, collectables, and etc. It is easy to say that it is, since that would
be the obvious assumption since in normal legal systems everything can fall into some form of pre-existing law,
but the true legal issue arises where when does the new "owner" of those inputs take possession of those
coins within the blockchain system? Isn't the blockchain always the owner and possessor of the coins and
the blockchain only grants you a temporary control?

The legal question is, can bitcoin be a legal property if the value token never leaves the possession of the
blockchain system? If the Bitcoin blockchain itself does not care about who owns what nor can prove who
owns what nor will correct or reverse stolen bitcoins, would it be the correct legal theory to place bitcoins
within the normal standards for property, or should a new type/term and definition be created?

For example, maybe bitcoin is a virtual item or virtual good?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverherzfeld/2012/12/04/what-is-the-legal-status-of-virtual-goods/#25b527a6be21
My understanding is Bitcoin is a free to participate experiment that can never grant users/miners/devs any rights or guarantees
and as such if the system fails or disappears, users have no legal right to take any enforceable action against anyone, including
the developers, since bitcoin was not intended to be a currency/asset that governmental laws would "protect" or "regulate".
When a user/miner/dev participates within the Bitcoin system, they waive any and all rights by default. If users do not agree
with automatically waving their rights when using this experimental system, then they should not participate within the bitcoin
blockchain, but only with bitcoin within regulated exchanges.

In the context of a virtual item, can it be a legally enforceable property that should fall under normal theft laws?
I don't think so, users are granted no rights by any human or governmental authority on-chain.

[croutonhexagon]

Bitcoin itself have no law and bitcoin is somewhat against government's law so how could we expect law on bitcoin scammer. Bitcoin it's all about scam and legit if you could find the right one then you will make millions and if yup get trapped in scammers world then you forget your money that's the reality of bitcoin and its decentralized nature. Hope now you could understand why we need centralization in money sector.

[requester]

Since there is no rules and regulations in bitcoin and no hand of any single institute to control bitcoin so who would make law. But well if government wants then definitely they could but its decentralized and no law could be imposed. User have full freedom to use it

[bitcoinsforall]

Since bitcoin is getting popular quite a sometime..the more it gets adopt..govt will try to make new laws and also they could pose somekind of tax,also laws may be implemented to protect the cryptocurrency

[marleybobthedog]

Who would come to control bitcoin. Obviously no one have that much free time and money to setup organization to control bitcoin. It was launched for freedom and they are taking the advantages of it. When bitcoin doesn't flow government rules and regulations so government also will not come to help in bitcoin related cases. And neither government could make any profit out of it unlike paper money which yields taxes.

[Supercrypt]

Bitcoin is decentralized so it is not covered by the government, It has no law however claiming someones property yours or theft is still on the law.  The only problem is bitcoin is anonymous so it is hard to track. This will make the stolen bitcoin back to owner or even punish the one who stole it impossible.

A government will cover a person who is using bitcoins, for that bitcoin ecosystem need not to have a central authority. Bitcoin is a technology/application which must be binding within the regulations to the user who is using it.

So, obviously every country must be having strict law against bitcoin theft, because, a crime is done by a citizen but in a decentralized environment.

[jak3]

its nearly impossible for a normal human to track down the thieves until you have sone special knowledge on programming,networking and scrypting. i have sewn some users they can track transactions and can find fron where the txd was

[Gasturcas]

In my own opinion. I believe law for stolen bitcoin is not yet existing. For me, as a responsible individual. We must be responsible enough in securing our Bitcoin wallets same with logins. When it comes to smart investing, make sure that we join legit investments, not investment scams. Before joining one, we must invest our time first in doing some research or do background checks. That way we can figure it out if its true or hoax. Again, we must ensure our safety, security for our Bitcoins.

[Zadicar]

In my own opinion. I believe law for stolen bitcoin is not yet existing. For me, as a responsible individual. We must be responsible enough in securing our Bitcoin wallets same with logins. When it comes to smart investing, make sure that we join legit investments, not investment scams. Before joining one, we must invest our time first in doing some research or do background checks. That way we can figure it out if its true or hoax. Again, we must ensure our safety, security for our Bitcoins.

Laws for stolen  bitcoin  does not  really exist at all and  no one  would  intend to  implement that. I do agree on your  opinion  regarding  on  handling  our bitcoin  , we must  be   responsible  on  our  bitcoin  holding and  we  must  be sure on any investments that we would made to avoid such scams or  loss of  money.  Background checks would be the  best  move and do  also search always for users  feedbacks.

[olushakes]

Yes, there will be law on stolen bitcoin, if certain conditions are met and one of the conditions is that Bitcoin itself should be given its due place in law before talking about regulating its stealing because one cannot place something on nothing and until that is done, I guess stealing Bitcoin whether right or wrong is a matter of individual attitude to morality.

[erikalui]

I too filed a case when my bitcoins were stolen but nothing was done as bitcoins are not considered legal. If there is a huge amount involved, there can be chances of such scammers being arrested else the chances are very less. It's mainly the persons who trade in bitcoins who suffer in the end while scammers easily escape.

[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? 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. 

If it is a website, there have been many instances where the website owner has been arrested for cheating users and there was a case on this forum too where details of those staff members were taken from theymos. There are less chances that such stolen bitcoins would be returned but yes, stealing is a crime whether is any currency.

[danherbias07]

I think they are not looking if it is just a little amount. But with higher transactions they are really looking into it. Just like what happened with Gox and Bitfinex but still there should be some reward that is why they are going to take it seriously.

[hase0278]

Everywhere in this world, stealing is illegal even in bitcoin. They just don't respond to cases when it is bitcoin since it is not a legal currency just yet in the eye of the law. They will only pursue a bitcoin stealing case if it is very big like what happened in bitfinex. If it is little like what the ponzi schemes do, They won't even bother to pursue it in my opinion, they will just leave it be.

[error08]

I agree we should have law on bitcoin but it set by government and for now bitcoin not an authorized currency, so nothing to do with it.
Even we have the law, so hard to track down the thief since bitcoin transaction made anonymous and hard to proof that your bitcoin has been stolen if your wallet been hacked.