UK passes bill to enable authorities to seize Bitcoin used for crime

[Oshosondy]

I saw this today on Cointelegraph: https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-bill-seize-bitcoin-passed

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.

Aliens? 

[1714483617]

1714483617

[Doan9269]

I saw this today on Cointelegraph: https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-bill-seize-bitcoin-passed

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.

Aliens? 

Thesame thing goes to US as well, not only UK is found with this, what are the account on stolen and recovered bitcoin asset recovered, the US claimed they are releasing back to the bitcoin network while some claim they are selling them out in auction, now it's UK turn, has there never been any record of ceased bitcoin before now from hackers or exchanges, what has been happening before now with the issue of their AML agencies, what are those asset used for, who are the unauthorized people in charge before the released of this official statement.

Remember once it's nit your keys, it's either governments or hackers bitcoin.

[Rikafip]

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.

Aliens?  Grin

You should have read the article you shared pass the title (which was imho misleadingly written ) as its mention later in the text that goal of this new bill is to make it even easier and faster for government agencies to seize cryptocurrencies that they belive were used in illegal activities.

[dothebeats]

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.

Aliens?  Grin

You should have read the article you shared pass the title (which was imho misleadingly written ) as its mention later in the text that goal of this new bill is to make it even easier and faster for government agencies to seize cryptocurrencies that they belive was used in illegal activities.

The government is known to make a lot of assumptions, and this one is just scary as it sounds. They could tag you with any illegal activities they have in mind and seize your property, and you cannot appeal because they have 'evidence' that the crypto you have is used for illegal activities. It seems like they're just trying to make everything easy for their daylight robbery.

One of the provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill permits the recovery of crypto assets used in crimes without conviction, as some individuals may avoid conviction by remaining remote. The legislation also aims to combat the use of digital assets “for the purposes of terrorism” or related reasons.

So it's like robbery, then. They just take your coins and pin you with no crime whatsoever, as long as they believe that you are related--or at least your coins are--to any illicit activity. Sounds super convenient to them.

[rat03gopoh]

The UK government should also publish a list of authorities who have received this special permission. Without involving a court decision, this may be a subjective confiscation action, especially if carried out by an institution that isn't competent in this field.
Overall, this is bad news, meaning the UK government is expanding its censorship institutions.

[m2017]

With each new news it becomes more and more interesting. This law opens up wide opportunities for the authorities to seize bitcoins. All they have to do is get a base of buyers of hardware wallet devices, who probably have bitcoin that should be confiscated. What’s also funny is that they previously pretended that the bitcoin didn't exist and was a nothing, but now they want to confiscate it. Has the bitcoin really become of any value to them now? Soon the governments of all countries will begin the hunt for bitcoiners and the contents of their wallets.

Which country will follow UK 's example and pass a similar law? We place bets.

[PX-Z]

Well, that's how a seized money is done in the first place. I'm talking of all kind of money not just bitcoin. Now the question is if they can recover the money used in crimes. If they are referring the last one who received the bitcoin based on its track record on blockchain then it's a different story.

[kryptqnick]

I think that if people commit financial crimes, their funds should be seized proportionately to the damage they've done. But that should account for cryptos, fiat, property, stocks, and anything else a person might own and might have obtained as a result of illegal activities. There also needs to be a conviction to take the funds or an investigation with strong evidence available to temporarily freeze the funds.
So, to be honest, I don't get it how a legislation that targets crypto holdings specifically and allows seizing funds without a conviction makes sense. What if a person turns out not to be guilty? What if it's funds that at some point belonged to criminals, but the current holder got them legally and wasn't aware of how those coins were previously used?

[coupable]

I saw this today on Cointelegraph: https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-bill-seize-bitcoin-passed

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.

Aliens? 

Thesame thing goes to US as well, not only UK is found with this, what are the account on stolen and recovered bitcoin asset recovered, the US claimed they are releasing back to the bitcoin network while some claim they are selling them out in auction, now it's UK turn, has there never been any record of ceased bitcoin before now from hackers or exchanges, what has been happening before now with the issue of their AML agencies, what are those asset used for, who are the unauthorized people in charge before the released of this official statement.

The most plausible claim is that the US authorities are cooperating with a digital asset exchange to preserve and exploit Bitcoin seized from scam attempts. I remember news that Coinbase was the platform used by the authorities, but later it was proven that this may not be entirely accurate after the platform was subjected to prosecution by the same authorities.
What is certain is that in the absence of a legal framework regulating the issue, the matter will remain suspicious and may put the authorities in an embarrassing position by asking about the fate of the confiscated funds every time. Today, the United States is considered one of the largest owners of Bitcoin in the world, without any regulatory framework at the present time.

[GeorgeJohn]

Government is seeking for a measure to ensure that bitcoin is been eliminated in the society, if their is anyone who is using bitcoin for illegal functions in their country I think the best option is to figure the person out and charge the person to court due he or crime, besides theirs is other crimes too.

But they will not act on a capacity of figuring the person that is involve for the illegal act alone but they will like to generalise it that bitcoin is used for illegal activities, its quite right that youths and even politicians are now using bitcoin scam and money laundering but I don't think that it's a crime that will affect the existence of bitcoin in the UK.

You should have read the article you shared pass the title (which was imho misleadingly written ) as its mention later in the text that goal of this new bill is to make it even easier and faster for government agencies to seize cryptocurrencies that they belive were used in illegal activities

If this what you stipulated here is the reason that makes UK to pass a bill, I don't think that their is anything wrong of seizing someone's money who used cryptocurrency for illegal activities, it happens everywhere across a country when you personal use something else to commit crime, it's obvious that government will definitely intervene in such criminal act.

I'm seeing this as a situation or method a UK government wants to use to abolish a cryptocurrency transactions over there, because whenever government is going for revolution they introduce a giant method they will use to come against what they want to fight, so this is the perspective I'm seeing this bill passed by the UK government.

[tbct_mt2]

I saw this today on Cointelegraph: https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-bill-seize-bitcoin-passed

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.

If you store your bitcoin in non custodial wallet and you secure it, nobody can steal it or seize it and take it away from you.

Exception is if you use a malicious wallet that has back doors for developers to steal your bitcoin. So you have to be careful when choosing a wallet. Let's use open source wallet software because community experts can reproduce it from source code and review it.

Need a wallet?
Open source, non custodial to go.

Need a wallet review?
https://walletscrutiny.com/

Exception is if you made criminal activities and you get caught by police like Jimmy Zhong. Then they will be able to seize your bitcoin by getting your private key, of course they get it from you.

[pawanjain]

Well in that case they should make everything transparent as in where they will be using these seized bitcoins.
They should only use it for their citizens and keep everything transparent and for the public to verify.
We never know who uses it for their personal gains.

[stompix]

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.
Aliens? 

Police, simple as this!
What makes you think this is something impossible?

The confusing part of this, and this is again Cointelegraph's fault for such a stupid title is that it has always been like that, the difference they should have pointed

New UK law grants authorities power to seize crypto without arrest

One such measure is the expansion of law enforcement's powers to seize digital assets without requiring a prior conviction, which will allow authorities to act swiftly in cases where there is strong evidence linking cryptocurrency to criminal activities.

If anyone is interested:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3339/publications

the US claimed they are releasing back to the bitcoin network while some claim they are selling them out in auction,

It's not a claim, it's a fact!
Open auctions, fully documented, you even have interviews from the guys that bought those coins available all over the Internet.
You can even join one such auction if you're a US citizen, there is nothing suspicious or god knows what other conspiracy about it!

So it's like robbery, then. They just take your coins and pin you with no crime whatsoever, as long as they believe that you are related--or at least your coins are--to any illicit activity. Sounds super convenient to them.

How many times have you walked on the street and got stopped by a police unit arresting you and confiscating your 10 phones, 10 kilos of PBX and 10 000 coins you have no receipt for and got pinned a crime you have no clue on you?
 
Besides, it's seizing! Seizing does not mean confiscating, that can ONLY be done with a final court verdict in the UK!
Unless you're proven guilty in a court of law they can't "rob" you of your coins!

When we have laws about seizing coins, why do we have them, it's turning the country into a police state! When we don't have laws to punish or actively seize funds like in the Do Kwon case, it's the state's fault, those damnd laws are so permissive!!!  

[TheUltraElite]

That recovery of assets without conviction put me off. I would like to see the faces of criminals who stole innocent people's money getting punished rather than just the recovery. The machinery for this recovery mechanism is also not mentioned clearly, because that would need cooperation between exchanges, mixers and the store where they are spent.

These are foundations of a crypto-friendly legal system that may be an upcoming thing. 

[Hispo]

That recovery of assets without conviction put me off. I would like to see the faces of criminals who stole innocent people's money getting punished rather than just the recovery. The machinery for this recovery mechanism is also not mentioned clearly, because that would need cooperation between exchanges, mixers and the store where they are spent.

These are foundations of a crypto-friendly legal system that may be an upcoming thing. 

That also concerns me.
Let us say that a criminal stole satoshis and then used those same satoshis to buy from a legitimate store owner who accepts Bitcoin. He could buy several hundreds of dollars in merchandise and leave.
What will stop the UK authorities from knocking onto the door of the business and seize those satoshis from the legitimate business owner ?
It is an scenario which could easily happen, because someone who is managing a business may commit the mistake of reusing addresses or using an address from an exchange, from there it would be just matter of time for police to get their name and address.
Hopefully nothing similar to that will ever happen .

[jrrsparkles]

Confiscating or seizure of funds acquired by illegal activities is not new and this bill doesn't affect bitcoin in any way cause the same goes for gold, fiat, and whatever the goods are obtained in an illegal way.

In the US, you can legally bid and buy confiscated Bitcoin and all other assets online so that's what the bill is about.

[cryptoaddictchie]

As long as they return that stolen or illegally acquire crypto or bitcoin to theit rightful owners. But if they given authorities to confiscate it and used on the Government behalf like (politician) people's money for spending on some cars and condo units then its off.

Putting up a Bill like that pretty convenient on their part but not for the welfare of the many I think. Cause we know some people have agenda and few of it is not for the right cause.

[avikz]

I saw this today on Cointelegraph: https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-bill-seize-bitcoin-passed

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.

Aliens? 

This is a part of their regulatory framework. If you think UK is the only one seizing stolen or illegal Bitcoins, then you are probably day dreaming. There are multiple countries like US, China, Saudi Arabia etc. Not every news come out in open especially from the middle eastern countries.

Please don't tell me that it wasn't expected. With the mainstream adoption of bitcoin, the risk of centralized control increases. If bitcoin had stayed as a parallel underground currency system, this would probably have been avoided.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

I saw this today on Cointelegraph: https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-bill-seize-bitcoin-passed

Who is seizing stolen and bitcoin used in illegal activities before in United Kingdom?.

Aliens? 

Though this statement by the UK government may sound funny, but It can be achievable only with a centralized exchange or wallet where KYC is compulsory, and yet the exchange has control over the peoples fund, unlike a Bitcoin used on a decentralized wallet/exchange that can not be traceable or neither can anyone have access to it except the original owner. And as such, I doubt if the governments will be able to successfully seize/freeze people's Bitcoin, if only such isn't done manually by law enforcement agencies, or another way through holding developers of coins suspected to have fraud and scammed people to repay the scammed funds.

[Z-tight]

Government is seeking for a measure to ensure that bitcoin is been eliminated in the society.

I don't think that is what the government want to do, they are smarter than that and they know that they cannot eliminate BTC, as it does not have any single point of failure. What the government want to do is to regulate the BTC network as much as they can, especially through centralized BTC businesses and right now they are even looking at doing so to privacy solutions. The government wants to have every information about your BTC and that is why they are now going after privacy solutions, they cannot eliminate BTC, but they want to know what you do with it.