It seems that some people are hoping that the US gov confiscated gox cold wallet

[notig]

but this would be the worst case scenario for bitcoin. If Mark stole the bitcoins...... that is bad. If he gave them away because of poor programming that is also bad. But if the government of the US can come and confiscate cold wallets of exchanges because some funds sent to that exchange were from crime........ then it sets a precedent for bitcoin that is terrible. It means that exchanges could no longer trust funds sent to them and they would voluntarily start going on "coin validation" schemes which would destroy fungibility.  If it is true it is also terribly unfair because cash goes into banks all the time that is from crime in some form or another and they never go into banks and confiscate everyones money because of it.

[1714808077]

1714808077

[grifferz]

It would be bad but it also might help to usher in exchanges which don't have access to your private keys. Exchanges can't hand over what they don't own, and government would have to start legal action against every single user.

Then again if a government were willing to seize an exchange's bitcoin assets then they would probably also be willing to just declare bitcoin illegal for their customers to use, leading to a similar situation where some nationalities are prohibited from accessing gambling sites.

[_Miracle]

Gox was not in the U.S. No The U.S. will not confiscate
and imo ALL governments need to keep their hands off of cryptographic currency wallets.

[Paladin69]

but this would be the worst case scenario for bitcoin. If Mark stole the bitcoins...... that is bad. If he gave them away because of poor programming that is also bad. But if the government of the US can come and confiscate cold wallets of exchanges because some funds sent to that exchange were from crime........ then it sets a precedent for bitcoin that is terrible. It means that exchanges could no longer trust funds sent to them and they would voluntarily start going on "coin validation" schemes which would destroy fungibility.  If it is true it is also terribly unfair because cash goes into banks all the time that is from crime in some form or another and they never go into banks and confiscate everyones money because of it.

What if the NSA decrypted the public keys and reverse engineered them to reveal the private keys?  Isn't SHA256 made by the NSA?

[Ximp]

If that happens then bitcoin is permanently broken.

[Paladin69]

If that happens then bitcoin is permanently broken.

I think people should get this $100K per btc idea out of their head.  An alt-coin will keep emerging that solves a previous flaw and the interest in 21m spreads out to others.

People that sold @ $1000+ were very smart.

[Tripjammer]

Whatever bitcoin will be back above $1000 by summer...we just got to get through March. GOX being dead is a good thing. GOX fraudulent use of bitcoin will be exposed.

[notig]

If that happens then bitcoin is permanently broken.

I think people should get this $100K per btc idea out of their head.  An alt-coin will keep emerging that solves a previous flaw and the interest in 21m spreads out to others.

People that sold @ $1000+ were very smart.

A hundred currencies with small worth aren't as useful as a single currency with large worth because of market depth and volume and stability

[cryptoanarchist]

It sure looks that way: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=493449.0

[Razick]

but this would be the worst case scenario for bitcoin. If Mark stole the bitcoins...... that is bad. If he gave them away because of poor programming that is also bad. But if the government of the US can come and confiscate cold wallets of exchanges because some funds sent to that exchange were from crime........ then it sets a precedent for bitcoin that is terrible. It means that exchanges could no longer trust funds sent to them and they would voluntarily start going on "coin validation" schemes which would destroy fungibility.  If it is true it is also terribly unfair because cash goes into banks all the time that is from crime in some form or another and they never go into banks and confiscate everyone's money because of it.

This could be a good opportunity to establish some positive precedents in the US Courts, and possibly force the government to return the coins. I don't think this is what happened though.

[cryptoanarchist]

but this would be the worst case scenario for bitcoin. If Mark stole the bitcoins...... that is bad. If he gave them away because of poor programming that is also bad. But if the government of the US can come and confiscate cold wallets of exchanges because some funds sent to that exchange were from crime........ then it sets a precedent for bitcoin that is terrible. It means that exchanges could no longer trust funds sent to them and they would voluntarily start going on "coin validation" schemes which would destroy fungibility.  If it is true it is also terribly unfair because cash goes into banks all the time that is from crime in some form or another and they never go into banks and confiscate everyone's money because of it.

This could be a good opportunity to establish some positive precedents in the US Courts, and possibly force the government to return the coins. I don't think this is what happened though.

LMAO...you're kidding, right? Ask some people who bought Liberty Dollars in Nov 2007 if they ever got their gold and silver back from the US govt.

[eddlow]

Isn't SHA256 made by the NSA?

Yes, it is. But the algorithm was fully analysed (like ECC, etc.) - so it's unlikely the NSA has backdoored it. But with enough computer power...

[redhawk979]

If that happens then bitcoin is permanently broken.

I think people should get this $100K per btc idea out of their head.  An alt-coin will keep emerging that solves a previous flaw and the interest in 21m spreads out to others.

People that sold @ $1000+ were very smart.

A hundred currencies with small worth aren't as useful as a single currency with large worth because of market depth and volume and stability

LOL @ stability

I've got a better quote for you.

DVDs with small market share aren't as useful as VHS with large market share because of market use and volume

[Nathonas]

If it is true, I'm REALLY curious what they're planning to do with it. On one hand, they could scare and destabilize bitcoin and the community by showing that the government can just confiscate people's wealth like this. On the other hand, people paid money for these coins, and law enforcement agencies are supposed to be stopping crime and helping people (in an ideal world at least)...IE, they should  give people their funds back. Can you imagine the outrage if they ARE holding the coins and not willing to distribute them back to Gox's customers?