Should miners collude to steal funds from wallet confiscated by US government?

[cypherdoc]

I still want to hear the steps required to accomplish such a feat.

ok. since you need it spelled out in detail for you:

1.  go around and talk to everybody.
2.  tell them "we need to steal all these coins NOW".
3.  get them to agree.
4.  make sure you have 51% of all miners.
5.  attack.
6.  Mission Accomplished.

[gmaxwell]

2.  tell them "we need to steal all these coins NOW".
3.  get them to agree.
4.  make sure you have 51% of all miners.
5.  attack.

LOL. I _fully_ welcome half the hashpower to go try this. I'd love to have twice the mining income again.

Here is a hint: This won't work.  You cannot do this with "51%" of the mining hashpower, nor 90% or whatever. There is no amount of hashpower which is sufficient to accomplish the proposed steps.

[cypherdoc]

2.  tell them "we need to steal all these coins NOW".
3.  get them to agree.
4.  make sure you have 51% of all miners.
5.  attack.

LOL. I _fully_ welcome half the hashpower to go try this. I'd love to have twice the mining income again.

Here is a hint: This won't work.  You cannot do this with "51%" of the mining hashpower, nor 90% or whatever. There is no amount of hashpower which is sufficient to accomplish the proposed steps.

it won't work?  darn...

[Birdy]

2.  tell them "we need to steal all these coins NOW".
3.  get them to agree.
4.  make sure you have 51% of all miners.
5.  attack.

LOL. I _fully_ welcome half the hashpower to go try this. I'd love to have twice the mining income again.

Here is a hint: This won't work.  You cannot do this with "51%" of the mining hashpower, nor 90% or whatever. There is no amount of hashpower which is sufficient to accomplish the proposed steps.

it won't work?  darn...

No, you would actually have to convince the Bitcoin users to switch to a Bitcoin version not accepting those coins. If you manage to convince nearly all of them, it would work and screw up all that didn't follow. If you only manage to convince a lot (e.g. 60%) it would create chaos.

[cypherdoc]

2.  tell them "we need to steal all these coins NOW".
3.  get them to agree.
4.  make sure you have 51% of all miners.
5.  attack.

LOL. I _fully_ welcome half the hashpower to go try this. I'd love to have twice the mining income again.

Here is a hint: This won't work.  You cannot do this with "51%" of the mining hashpower, nor 90% or whatever. There is no amount of hashpower which is sufficient to accomplish the proposed steps.

it won't work?  darn...

No, you would actually have to convince the Bitcoin users to switch to a Bitcoin version not accepting those coins. If you manage to convince nearly all of them, it would work and screw up all that didn't follow. If you only manage to convince a lot (e.g. 60%) it would create chaos.

 

[User705]

2.  tell them "we need to steal all these coins NOW".
3.  get them to agree.
4.  make sure you have 51% of all miners.
5.  attack.

LOL. I _fully_ welcome half the hashpower to go try this. I'd love to have twice the mining income again.

Here is a hint: This won't work.  You cannot do this with "51%" of the mining hashpower, nor 90% or whatever. There is no amount of hashpower which is sufficient to accomplish the proposed steps.

it won't work?  darn...

No, you would actually have to convince the Bitcoin users to switch to a Bitcoin version not accepting those coins. If you manage to convince nearly all of them, it would work and screw up all that didn't follow. If you only manage to convince a lot (e.g. 60%) it would create chaos.

You still wouldn't actually steal them.

[MAbtc]

This is likely the worst idea I've ever seen on these forums, and this place is full of bad ideas.

Ditto.  Bad precedent.

Yep, no good can come from it really. Bitcoin is enough of a political statement on its own. No need to go pissing on the US government -- we know what happens when people do that...

[americanpegasus]

People who voted "Yes," think about this a little more. If the Bitcoin community was going to pull such a stunt, it would have to save it for a cataclysmic situation. If the feds somehow seized half of all bitcoins in existence, then it might be time to have a careful debate about this...and probably still not do it. But for this little bit of money?

It would destroy Bitcoin's reputation as impartial, unimpeachable, immutable money. Not only would it turn governments against us, it would also show people that money they receive could be taken from them if they lose in the court of public opinion. It would be like a giant billboard saying BITCOIN: YOUR MONEY AT THE WHIMS OF THE MASSES.

And some people say there's a clean line we can draw in the case of the feds. How about legitimately seized bitcoins, from real criminals? How about those of the big banks? How about large companies like Apple and Walmart, that have close ties with the government just by virtue of their size? How about pirateat40's stash? Why not anyone with a Scammer tag on bitcointalk? Heck, why not annul the bitcoins of all taxpayers, since they feed the government by not resisting?

This is the most dangerous idea to come about in a long time. Please, please, please think this through.

 
 
Truly, a mind ahead of his time.