Finders keepers? I found an address with 50 BTC via brain wallet!

[Justbyteme]

  WOW! I am so shocked! Doesn't anyone have morals these days? It is WRONG to steal period! Yet, here is a debate about it. Just because you found a way into someone else's property, doesn't give you ANY right to take it! It shouldn't even be a question! If you do take it, I hope you get caught! Either you will end up in jail or dead! No concept of right or wrong in society anymore.....  This is just sickening. Well, I am about ready to leave this forum as quick as I joined. Seems like there are a lot of criminals on here.  Not everyone is but, lowering my moral standards just to talk on a forum with criminals is not something I wanted to do at all. If this message upsets anyone... I apologize. It is only directed at a certain few, not everyone as a whole. I am just disappointed. Maybe I am just getting too old or I am too old fashioned. 

Justbyteme

[hunainshahzad]

OMG OMG cant believe that it can happen . If you can guess someones passphrase imagine what will happen if everyone starts doing the same thing. That means its very unsafe

BTW can you plz send 0.5 btc to me plz plz because i am in need of serious cash :p

[vonstauff]

Don't do anything. As others have pointed out, it is just like stealing someone's wallet, even if they weren't too smart to begin with and picked a weak passphrase.
If you found a wallet in a taxi cab, would you keep it or try to find the owner and return it? I guess it depends on your morals. I would return it, but that's just me.

[bolty187]

So you've been trying to hack accounts on brainwallet for a few months, you've finally got one, and now you're asking what you should do?  Hmmm...

[Akka]

Question is how can you verify the one who contacts you with the correct passphrase is the REAL owner?
He could be just another brainwallet cracker...

He has most likely transferred the coins from his ´normal Wallet to the brain wallet. So have him sign a message with the address the coins have been moved from to the brain wallet and the brain wallet itself.

[CIYAM]

Question is how can you verify the one who contacts you with the correct passphrase is the REAL owner?
He could be just another brainwallet cracker...

He has most likely transferred the coins from his ´normal Wallet to the brain wallet. So have him sign a message with the address the coins have been moved from to the brain wallet and the brain wallet itself.

I'd agree that in many cases people would be transferring BTC from their own "hot wallet" to "cold storage" although of course it is also possible that the transfer was done from an exchange (in which case the input UTXO's would not belong to the person with the address in question at all).

[DannyHamilton]

Don't do anything. As others have pointed out, it is just like stealing someone's wallet, even if they weren't too smart to begin with and picked a weak passphrase.
If you found a wallet in a taxi cab, would you keep it or try to find the owner and return it? I guess it depends on your morals. I would return it, but that's just me.

This is a great analogy and if you think about the situation it points out the dilemma that the OP is facing.

Doing nothing is equivalent to leaving the wallet you found alone.  So, you find a wallet in a taxi, and you just leave it there for the next guy to steal.  If the OP does nothing with these bitcoins, then he is just leaving them there for someone else to discover and steal.

Transferring the bitcoins to his own wallet but not spending them is equivalent to picking up the wallet, but not spending the money that is inside.  He can then make sure that nobody else steals it, but he's left with the complicated project of trying to find the original owner.  If that wallet in the taxi has only cash and no identification in it, how would you prove that you are the owner of the wallet?

You say you, "try to find the owner and return it".  Ok fine.  How long do you look for the owner of that wallet in the back of the taxi?  A few days? A few months? A few years?  If you still haven't found the owner after 50 years, what do you do with the cash that is in it? Do you just toss the wallet and all the cash into the trash?

[vonstauff]

Don't do anything. As others have pointed out, it is just like stealing someone's wallet, even if they weren't too smart to begin with and picked a weak passphrase.
If you found a wallet in a taxi cab, would you keep it or try to find the owner and return it? I guess it depends on your morals. I would return it, but that's just me.

This is a great analogy and if you think about the situation it points out the dilemma that the OP is facing.

Doing nothing is equivalent to leaving the wallet you found alone.  So, you find a wallet in a taxi, and you just leave it there for the next guy to steal.  If the OP does nothing with these bitcoins, then he is just leaving them there for someone else to discover and steal.

Transferring the bitcoins to his own wallet but not spending them is equivalent to picking up the wallet, but not spending the money that is inside.  He can then make sure that nobody else steals it, but he's left with the complicated project of trying to find the original owner.  If that wallet in the taxi has only cash and no identification in it, how would you prove that you are the owner of the wallet?

You say you, "try to find the owner and return it".  Ok fine.  How long do you look for the owner of that wallet in the back of the taxi?  A few days? A few months? A few years?  If you still haven't found the owner after 50 years, what do you do with the cash that is in it? Do you just toss the wallet and all the cash into the trash?

Good point. I guess how long you try depends a little on common sense and your own level of perseverance. I imagine after a reasonable effort has been made to find the owner, without success, then it would be ok to keep the BTC, or, even better, donate them to some charity.