would you accept stolen bitcoins?

[lerelerele]

If a wallet asks you when you install it, "would you accept stolen bitcoins?" what will be your response?

If someone create a web to inform against stolen bitcoins gaving proofs and it gave you a wallet for money back marked and acepted stolen btc´s

I think Is time to make something with thieves.

[RGBKey]

I think this is an important question, but you can never tell who is a criminal and who ended up with stolen crimes from an exchange or shared wallet, so you can never tell who is malicious and who isnt.

[Rannasha]

Who defines what a 'stolen' bitcoin is?

Some consider the FBIs stack of bitcoins stolen. Others consider it legitimately confiscated.
Some consider coins returned to a buyer by an escrow agent to be stolen. Others consider it a legitimate refund.

Secondly, if Alice accepts stolen bitcoins and uses them to purchase something from Bob, who has his wallet set to reject stolen bitcoins. Will they reject Alice's coins? Even if only 1% of the payment consists of the stolen coins and the rest is from another source, not marked as stolen? Because if that's the case, then in not too long Bitcoin will be unusable by those that reject stolen coins, because coins have a tendency to get spread out over thousands of wallets. Take the famous 10000 BTC paid for a pizza: these coins were tracked by forum-user dooglus who concluded that many wallets contain traces of said pizza-coins: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/450/is-there-any-way-to-track-an-individual-bitcoin-or-satoshi/2900#2900

[nanonano]

If a wallet asks you when you install it, "would you accept stolen bitcoins?" what will be your response?

That's not a relevant question because it's not a situation that really happens. Maybe something like "Would like to accept transactions that include even trace amounts of coins that were sometime in history part of a transaction that someone on the internet alleges was a theft" would be a more realistic one. Unfortunately it's not very catchy.

[Sonny]

Every British bank note is contaminated by cocaine within weeks of entering circulation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241775/Every-British-bank-note-contaminated-cocaine-weeks-entering-circulation.html

The news is old (2010), and is about GBP.
But, I am sure it is more or less the same for other currencies.

If you don't want to accept "stolen" bitcoin, would you accept "dirty" banknotes?

[acoindr]

Yes I would. The integrity of the system, which relies on coins being fungible, is more important than a few thieves.

Even if I knew the victim was my grandmother I would accept the tainted coins. It's that important. There are other ways to catch thieves, even if not for that specific crime.

[guybrushthreepwood]

Would you accept stolen paper money? Most notes get 'dirty' somewhere along the chain.

[whtchocla7e]

Bitcoin cannot be stolen.

But yes, I would accept Bitcoins that someone unexpectedly lost control of.

[bennybong]

I will gladly accept all Bitcoins. If you don't want them just send them to my sig! 

[U1TRA_L0RD]

I would except bitcoins if they were stolen, Theres no way to find the owner right?

[Sutters Mill]

I wouldn't now that there is talk of Bitcoin blacklisting. I mean I'd probably accept it, but if a legitimate way of identifying stolen BTC is added into the protocol as proposed, they'd be worth nothing anyway.

[vervolioman]

I wouldn't now that there is talk of Bitcoin blacklisting. I mean I'd probably accept it, but if a legitimate way of identifying stolen BTC is added into the protocol as proposed, they'd be worth nothing anyway.

If blacklisting is added into the protocol, it would be begin of end for Bitcoin I think

[Sutters Mill]

I wouldn't now that there is talk of Bitcoin blacklisting. I mean I'd probably accept it, but if a legitimate way of identifying stolen BTC is added into the protocol as proposed, they'd be worth nothing anyway.

If blacklisting is added into the protocol, it would be begin of end for Bitcoin I think

I think it would have a massive impact. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it would definitely change things. If nothing else, it might limit the amount of posts we see starting 'help, I've lost X BTC!'

[EvilPanda]

Who defines what a 'stolen' bitcoin is?

Some consider the FBIs stack of bitcoins stolen. Others consider it legitimately confiscated.

Confiscated means stolen. It's just a wordplay made by the lawmakers to differentiate them from the common thieves. The outcome is exactly the same when they take something from you. Only diference is that an official will say that he has the right to do so, the typical robber won't even bother to explain himself

[mtnminer]

Short of blacklisting coins, there is no way to know if the coins you receive from a transaction are stolen or not!  I am against blacklist asit is a slippery slope that we would slide down way too fast!

Mtnminer

[shogdite]

Damn right.

[jonanon]

How would we know if the coins had been stolen by the sender, the sender to that sender or by someone else even further down the line?

[cr1776]

Who defines what a 'stolen' bitcoin is?

Some consider the FBIs stack of bitcoins stolen. Others consider it legitimately confiscated.

Confiscated means stolen. It's just a wordplay made by the lawmakers to differentiate them from the common thieves. The outcome is exactly the same when they take something from you. Only diference is that an official will say that he has the right to do so, the typical robber won't even bother to explain himself

Hogan's Heroes:

Col. Klink: When you defeat a country, you confiscate its gold. Stupid!
Sergeant Schultz: I thought, if you take something that does not belong to you, that is stealing. I'm stupid?

[cp1]

No I wouldn't accept them.  I check the serial number of every dollar bill in my wallet against the national database of stolen money  (Library of Laundering).  The LOL also tracks terrorist funds digitally and I refuse to take that.  Unfortunately it means I send most of my paycheck back and I'm totally broke.

[cr1776]

I wouldn't now that there is talk of Bitcoin blacklisting. I mean I'd probably accept it, but if a legitimate way of identifying stolen BTC is added into the protocol as proposed, they'd be worth nothing anyway.

If blacklisting is added into the protocol, it would be begin of end for Bitcoin I think

Yes, if bitcoin is added into the protocol then it will be a hard fork.  Those who want the non-fungible bitcoin will go in the new alt-coin, and everyone else will stay with bitcoin.  I think it will be clear quite quickly that people don't want a blacklist-able bitcoin.