Are all bitcoins considered equal?

[ulhaq]

Hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in bitcoin has been stolen. Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin? For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

[romero121]

Hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in bitcoin has been stolen. Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin? For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

I don't think exchange has the accessibility to segregate the coins under different category. Everything that's been mined are bitcoins and there won't be any data to separate coins as mined, stolen coins, earned coins or purchased coins. Exchange just get it and give away the profit periodically.

[mrcash02]

The stolen Bitcoins can be tracked, if it's a billionary crime, surely the money's owner will want to retrieve it and will contact police, detectives, hackers to find the money. But for everyone the stolen Bitcoins will be like any other Bitcoin, no difference... But if this thief be caught, he will have serious problems with the law forces.

[batang_bitcoin]

Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin?

Remember that when someone invested to bitcoin and deposited billions or millions of dollars on it. It doesn't matter, that will add up to the total market cap of bitcoin.

For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

On this case, there are exchanges that doesn't really care and doesn't do some tracing back on where did you got those coins.

[Babayega31]

Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin?

Remember that when someone invested to bitcoin and deposited billions or millions of dollars on it. It doesn't matter, that will add up to the total market cap of bitcoin.

For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

On this case, there are exchanges that doesn't really care and doesn't do some tracing back on where did you got those coins.

I see the real score about this topic here that all bitcoin were created equal because exchangers doesn't have any screening on where that btc was earned, yet most of wallet exchangers were not that strict of account registrations and it remained anonymous wallet users. Those who steal bitcoins wss still hiding in a wealthy status of financial abundance but his reality has an end if ever authority will eventually track him down and fall him into trap.

[Nekutasa]

No... There's no way for the exchange to know. All bitcoin is the same price and treated equally. You can say rhw same thing about real money that's stolen... if you attain it regardless of how (intentional or not) it still has the same value

[GingerAle]

No... There's no way for the exchange to know. All bitcoin is the same price and treated equally. You can say rhw same thing about real money that's stolen... if you attain it regardless of how (intentional or not) it still has the same value

yeah but thats the problem with bitcoin. Its all traceable, forever.

[Text]

Exchanges are not responsible on tracking thieves. They can't give any informations about the certain owner of a wallet adddress. I already tried it before, I contacted our local exchange about scamming but they refuse to help me. So you should always make sure that you are making the right transactions.

[Kakmakr]

Bitcoins that were mined recently and not been used, would obviously have a little bit more value than coins that has been in circulation. Most of us, are using coins that may have been used in crimes. I always push all my coins through a Mixer service to wash them, just in case they were used by someone else for crimes. < to cover my ass >

So yes, some coins are more valuable than others in my opinion. ^smile^

[pooya87]

when you have a dollar bill in your pocket you have not gotten it from the dollar printing place! it has been in the hands of thousands of other people too. it may have been in the hands of a criminal and been used to trade something illegal. it may be drug money for example that you have in your pocket and use to buy coffee for example. these dollar bills have a number on them so government can trace it, if that number is known and government knows it was used for illegal activity they can trace it and know it is in your hands!

the same thing can be true about bitcoin.

[HabBear]

Hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in bitcoin has been stolen. Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin? For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

Does a $20 bill stolen from a stranger's pocket spend any less easily than the $20 bill found on the ground or the $20 bill found in your pocket?

No.

That's one of two tragedies of bitcoin, it's as anonymous as cash.

[olubams]

Hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in bitcoin has been stolen. Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin? For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

Does a $20 bill stolen from a stranger's pocket spend any less easily than the $20 bill found on the ground or the $20 bill found in your pocket?

No.

That's one of two tragedies of bitcoin, it's as anonymous as cash.

Same thing on my mind even the drug pushers who try to clean their money before spending does so to avoid tracing from authorities and also to find  a basis for the source of their cash and nothing else. If bitcoin now provides a platform where you can't even trace such fund, or any need to defend where the money it bitcoin is coming from, then there won't be need to have a clean one or a dirty one. Even the one we all have, do we know how many addresses it would have passed through before getting to our wallets?

[lionheart78]

Hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in bitcoin has been stolen. Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin? For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

If we look at the plain value of these Bitcoin, I do not think that there is difference, such us the tainted one being less valuable as I believe all Bitcoin are subject to the same value.  Though the problem with the tainted one if  the address holding it is known, and traced that it was deposited in an exchange, there is a possibility that the BTC will be freezed.  And definitely it will be subject to investigation and finaly sent back to the original owners.

[c789]

What you're referring to is the property of fungibility. Since all transactions are public, there's nothing stopping an entity (government, exchange, company, etc.) from blacklisting/rejecting coins. I've seen some people claim that their coins were rejected but I haven't seen that verified or anything official.

https://angel.co/blacklisted-bitcoins

http://www.coindesk.com/blacklist-debate-ok-meddle-bitcoins-code/

Andreas Antonopoulos, a former Bitcoin Core developer, mentions problems with Bitcoin fungibility here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak1iojpiHpM&feature=youtu.be&t=33m9s

The most fungibile coin is Monero since all transactions are private by default and therefore can't be blacklisted.

EDIT: People keep saying that Bitcoin is anonymous. It is not anonymous:

https://bitcoin.org/en/faq#is-bitcoin-anonymous

https://thenextweb.com/eu/2017/02/21/danish-police-hunt-down-criminals-using-bitcoin/#.tnw_9Qrx5Pxy#.tnw_mxEEpdJ2

[AliceWonderMiscreations]

All bitcoins are created equal, but some are more equal than others... 

Okay seriously I think freshly minted bitcoins can be harder to spend, but other than that, they are just inputs on a ledger you can use to fund outputs. As long as they are valid, there is no difference to the blockchain. That's the beauty of bitcoin.

[Juggy777]

Hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in bitcoin has been stolen. Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin? For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

No that's the answer to this question. First of all there is no mechanism to segerate the stolen coins from the unstolen coins. The coins will not come with a statutory warning that this coins are stolen. So how will exchange even realize that they were stolen in the first place. Maybe if someone complaints against the user and has proof, but then again where will he complain, the coins could have gone to any exchange and it may not even be used from the same account, different account different user. So I don't see any chance of that person coin being caught. I do hope you are not planning to do something like this, and I hope you have asked in good faith and for knowledge purposes only.

[michkima]

I think there is no point if it is tainted or not. There have been thousands of bitcoins that haven been stolen, and for sure everyone of us has held a fraction of those stolen bitcoins in our lifetime. This is because bitcoins do circulate and there is no telling where each portion came from. It is possible to trace but it is impractically and just a waste of time.

[Amph]

No... There's no way for the exchange to know. All bitcoin is the same price and treated equally. You can say rhw same thing about real money that's stolen... if you attain it regardless of how (intentional or not) it still has the same value

tainted coins can be easily traced back, i'm talking about those coin that were seized by the authority, so yes they know if a coins was tied with a criminal activity, and i heard that those coins may have a lower value

now i don't know if the exchange treat them as the other coin, but the possibility that they are sold off market for a lower or greater value is possibile, because of this bitcoin can lose its fungibility with it's someone connected to anonimity

[bamboylee]

They are all equal and the same. And if you put your stolen coins into mixers, they will be good as new and it will be harder to trace whether its stolen or not. Why do you ask OP? Do you have stolen bitcoins you want to send to exchanges?

[pinkpanther03]

Hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in bitcoin has been stolen. Are these considered less valuable than untainted bitcoin? For example, let's say someone makes a large purchase (unknowingly) of previously stolen bitcoin. They deposit it into an exchange. Will the exchange balk?

I think most of the exchanges doesn't care how much stolen you've loss for. Because they are only after for what the profit they can get if there is a whaler investors who will deposit to their exchange. And I think I fever there a stolen happened ex changer are not responsible for tracking the thieves.