FBI Seizes DPR's personal coins! 144,000 coins!

[Inedible]

Well that's certainly a nice take for them.  What a profitable venture that was.

Yeah no kidding...170k BTC already in hand from the SR seizure? That's about 1.5% of all BTC in existence from just one court case. Imagine Seizing 1.5% of all USD in circulation lol.

It's more like seizing 1.5% of a very small country's currency.

[NewLiberty]

It's a fail on his part and now that amount could crash the price.

Actually, by having the coins locked up for who knows how long, it increases the exchange rate. When Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it shouldn't have that much of an effect when they're finally liquidated.

Why not much effect?

When "bitcoin goes mainstream" 50M today may be 5B

[steeev]

why did they move them in 324btc chunks ?

[rpietila]

It's a fail on his part and now that amount could crash the price.

Actually, by having the coins locked up for who knows how long, it increases the exchange rate. When Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it shouldn't have that much of an effect when they're finally liquidated.

Why not much effect?

When "bitcoin goes mainstream" 50M today may be 5B

Percentage on seizure was about 1% of total coins, and should have about the same relative effect to the price if they are abruptly liquidated, regardless what the exchange rate is, (as long as bitcoin's monetary stock is very much smaller than dollar's).

[NewLiberty]

It's a fail on his part and now that amount could crash the price.

Actually, by having the coins locked up for who knows how long, it increases the exchange rate. When Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it shouldn't have that much of an effect when they're finally liquidated.

Why not much effect?

When "bitcoin goes mainstream" 50M today may be 5B

Percentage on seizure was about 1% of total coins, and should have about the same relative effect to the price if they are abruptly liquidated, regardless what the exchange rate is, (as long as bitcoin's monetary stock is very much smaller than dollar's).

Exactly

[jabetizo]

It's a fail on his part and now that amount could crash the price.

Actually, by having the coins locked up for who knows how long, it increases the exchange rate. When Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it shouldn't have that much of an effect when they're finally liquidated.

Why not much effect?

When "bitcoin goes mainstream" 50M today may be 5B

Percentage on seizure was about 1% of total coins, and should have about the same relative effect to the price if they are abruptly liquidated, regardless what the exchange rate is, (as long as bitcoin's monetary stock is very much smaller than dollar's).

if they liquidate them in a few years, millions more will have been mined by then

[TippingPoint]

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcement:
https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website

ULBRICHT’s residence was also searched on October 1, 2013, pursuant to a search warrant, and federal law enforcement agents conducting that search found several pieces of computer hardware belonging to ULBRICHT (collectively, along with ULBRICHT’s laptop, the “computer hardware”).  Through forensic analysis of the computer hardware, federal law enforcement agents recovered a Bitcoin wallet containing approximately 144,336 Bitcoins.

Flash drives?

[Chronikka]

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcement:
https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website

ULBRICHT’s residence was also searched on October 1, 2013, pursuant to a search warrant, and federal law enforcement agents conducting that search found several pieces of computer hardware belonging to ULBRICHT (collectively, along with ULBRICHT’s laptop, the “computer hardware”).  Through forensic analysis of the computer hardware, federal law enforcement agents recovered a Bitcoin wallet containing approximately 144,336 Bitcoins.

Flash drives?

Probably. Obviously Ulbricht's security measures weren't very strong. By default I would think any wallets would at least be encrypted with a unique key...that's pretty much "protect your btc 101"

It took ~3 weeks to transfer the coins if they were confiscated on October 1st. Probably not enough to break any encryption even with a weaker password. Means they probably got the password from someplace else he used it. I wonder what else uses that key...

[Vigil]

I don't see anything that proves they actually have cracked any encryption. For all we know they just have a wallet.dat file with no key.

They couldn't move the coins without the key. And they obviously did move...Anyways here is the official FBI press release from Friday. Straight from their site:

http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website

Where is the proof they moved coins? I haven't seen any. They just said they seized it, just like they said that they had seized his 600,000 BTC. They could just be talking about possessing a wallet.dat. They also could have asked Ulbricht for the key as part of working on a plea deal. If you have some info that demonstrates that they actually have full control over the 100,000+ BTC and have moved them to a different address then please show me, cause I haven't seen it. Maybe that info is there, I just haven't seen it. We know they have the 26,000 BTC on that other address.

The quote above says they recovered a wallet. So maybe it wasn't even encrypted. The point being that they didn't figure out that Ulbricht had an address and then cracked the encryption. Ulbricht may not have even really tried to protect these coins.

[og kush420]

I don't see anything that proves they actually have cracked any encryption. For all we know they just have a wallet.dat file with no key.

They couldn't move the coins without the key. And they obviously did move...Anyways here is the official FBI press release from Friday. Straight from their site:

http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website

Where is the proof they moved coins? I haven't seen any. They just said they seized it, just like they said that they had seized his 600,000 BTC. They could just be talking about possessing a wallet.dat. They also could have asked Ulbricht for the key as part of working on a plea deal. If you have some info that demonstrates that they actually have full control over the 100,000+ BTC and have moved them to a different address then please show me, cause I haven't seen it. Maybe that info is there, I just haven't seen it. We know they have the 26,000 BTC on that other address.

The quote above says they recovered a wallet. So maybe it wasn't even encrypted. The point being that they didn't figure out that Ulbricht had an address and then cracked the encryption. Ulbricht may not have even really tried to protect these coins.

https://blockchain.info/address/1FfmbHfnpaZjKFvyi1okTjJJusN455paPH?offset=400&filter=0

[hromobiti]

why did they move them in 324btc chunks ?

Seems they know how to launder BTC 

[TheButterZone]

Was Silk Road seriously that bloody profitable? Or should we also suspect some of this BTC is from the Bitfloor (24k), Slush (3k), Bitcoinica (43k), bitomat.pl (17k), et al., thefts?

[hayek]

Was Silk Road seriously that bloody profitable? Or should we also suspect some of this BTC is from the Bitfloor (24k), Slush (3k), Bitcoinica (43k), bitomat.pl (17k), et al., thefts?

lol "Are drugs really that profitable?!?"

[malevolent]

Was Silk Road seriously that bloody profitable?

Yup.

Or should we also suspect some of this BTC is from the Bitfloor (24k), Slush (3k), Bitcoinica (43k), bitomat.pl (17k), et al., thefts?

I doubt it.

http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkRoad/comments/1obvm2/estimating_dprs_income_after_expenses_exchange/

[jabetizo]

check this out:

this address has been making transactions with huge fees (some above 15 BTC). Look at the sent (reversed) taint, 79 transactions ended up at FBI's address 1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX.

Looks like FBI had difficulties with raw transactions and distributed some dirty drug money to miners

[TheButterZone]

Was Silk Road seriously that bloody profitable? Or should we also suspect some of this BTC is from the Bitfloor (24k), Slush (3k), Bitcoinica (43k), bitomat.pl (17k), et al., thefts?

lol "Are drugs really that profitable?!?"

I could see maybe if the commission for selling on Silk Road was 50% or something ridiculous.

[warut]

check this out:

this address has been making transactions with huge fees (some above 15 BTC). Look at the sent (reversed) taint, 79 transactions ended up at FBI's address 1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX.

Looks like FBI had difficulties with raw transactions and distributed some dirty drug money to miners

Maybe not difficulties, but just because some FBI bitcoin experts are also miners, so they intentionally increase the tx fees to siphon the dirty money. Hahaha

[oakpacific]

Was Silk Road seriously that bloody profitable? Or should we also suspect some of this BTC is from the Bitfloor (24k), Slush (3k), Bitcoinica (43k), bitomat.pl (17k), et al., thefts?

lol "Are drugs really that profitable?!?"

I could see maybe if the commission for selling on Silk Road was 50% or something ridiculous.

6.23%，but the total volume was something like 9.5 million BTCs.

Bitcoin could be utilized to run large business and make you super-rich, proven fact.

[knightmb]

Most Bitcoin users operate totally within the law.  So any thoughts on this subject would be purely academic.

Knightmb operated totally within the law.  He was still raided by the Secret Service*, solely for the crime of owning a lot of Bitcoins and being publicly identifiable.

*FYI the Secret Service is a division of the US Treasury.

It may be easier to imagine if you assume that the individual lives under a repressive regime.  You know.  One of those evil ones.

The US government loves to make press announcements, but never a public apology. I am still around, going strong! 

[knightmb]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/12yfnk/cats_lead_feds_to_knightmb_worth_371kbtc_in/

So as a quick read, they suspected him of an unrelated crime and investigation created lots of grief to him and the family. Just enough hints that the real issue is that he is having too many bitcoins and/or being too vocal about them. Poor guy, but good to see that he is still active in the forum.

The same trick was played on me on 2008 (due to silver, which prior to bitcoin was the lynchpin of the monetary economy) and it actually worsened my mental condition a lot. The good side is that I made my fortune as a result because I got a LOT more credibility for my claim that the govt hates silver, and as a result you should buy some from me

I've actually had the Service Service to my home *twice* now on two unrelated occasions. I am still around, going strong!