What are the rules for finding wallets

[acrom]

Like the title says what are the rules. If I miraculously got a private key to a wallet that had Bitcoin in it but was not mine originally then does that mean I now own the wallet like finders keepers and is there any legality issues with this in the usa,uk,canada,south america. Is this more of a morality should you or should you not.

[1714881522]

1714881522

[1714881522]

1714881522

[bobbybkk]

I would say it is similar to finding a bank note. You could report it to the police, but how should the person who lost the bank note should prove it is his bank note ?

So in total I would follow the general law of the universe: It is all gods will - so pocket the money and be happy

[acrom]

Ok so finders keepers but what about the law if you wanted to sell some of that for physical money like the US dollar how would the law see it.

[bobbybkk]

Ok so finders keepers but what about the law if you wanted to sell some of that for physical money like the US dollar how would the law see it.

If the Bitcoins in the wallet relate to a major crime, the law would be very happy to have a prime suspect for the crime and lock you up until at some distant point in the future the investigation shows that you are only trying to handle stolen goods or so......

At the end of the day it is up to the judge to decide if you go to prison or can walk away....

[mk4]

Theoretically speaking you shouldn't even worry about that because the chances of you generating a private key that someone already uses is virtually impossible.

Morally/ethically speaking though, of course, you shouldn't steal the wallet because the funds are simply not yours. In the same way, you're morally responsible for attempting to return a wallet accidentally dropped at the street. In the context of a bitcoin/crypto wallet though, the right move(morally/ethically speaking) is to not do anything.

[Text]

In general, the legality of your Bitcoin activities will depend on where you are and what you are doing with it.

In the U.S., Bitcoin is not illegal, but how you can buy it, what services and exchanges you can use, and what you can use it for might depend on which state you are in.

In the U.K., as of November 2023, Bitcoin was legal.

In Canada, Bitcoin is also legal but its usage is regulated by the government.

In South America, the legality varies from country to country. For example, in Brazil, Bitcoin is legal and regulated by the government, while in Bolivia, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are banned.

Here in the Philippines, Bitcoin exchange services are now registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Just because you have access to a Bitcoin wallet doesn’t necessarily mean you have the legal right to the funds within it. If you were to find a wallet and use the funds within it, this could potentially be seen as theft.

[Solosanz]

Bitcoin is a commodity in US, people are obliged to report all of their wealth, so in case someone lose access to their wallet, they can file a commodity loss report. If there's someone find the wallet, they need to give it back otherwise they're suspected as thefts.

If they didn't file a report and someone else is access the wallet, I don't think they stole the coins because the real owner wasn't declare the ownership of that wallet.

[adaseb]

You would not just random generate a private key for a Bitcoin address which has a balance on it. You actually wouldn’t even generate one which at one point was used in transactions. Doing this is highly unlikely and pretty much impossible.

Only way would be if you stole someone’s key with some virus and moved those funds to yourself. This is considered theft and not allowed.

Nobody really questioned what would happen if you generated a private key used in the past because it hasn’t happened yet.

[ranochigo]

If you find a wallet on the floor, is it legal for you to keep the money inside and leave the wallet on the floor? The answer is probably no in your jurisdiction. Same applies for Bitcoin as well, not legal advise but I'm fairly sure that it would be illegal in your jurisdiction. Regardless, it would be impossible for you to just come across a funded wallet. You would get yourself in trouble with something else in that case.

[hd49728]

It shows that you don't understand anything about Private key and Bitcoin.

It's your private key, it's your bitcoin.
It's not your private key, it's not your bitcoin.

By whatever chance, if you have a Bitcoin private key, you have access to that wallet address (public address) and if it stores bitcoins (not an empty wallet), you can spend (move) that bitcoin.

Being fearful about tainted coins?

You can use Samourai wallet, mixers and no KYC exchanges.

[franky1]

Ok so finders keepers but what about the law if you wanted to sell some of that for physical money like the US dollar how would the law see it.

even finders keepers is not as true as you hope

its not finders spenders.. its finders keepers.
you have to keep it and make an effort to reunite it with its owner whilst keeping it(not spending it).
if there is provable effort to reunite it and all avenues are exhausted and no one has made a valid claim after reasonable time. then it is deemed as unclaimed, to which you as the keeper can claim it, after all there is no one else that can claim it off you

[Despairo]

It shows that you don't understand anything about Private key and Bitcoin.

It's your private key, it's your bitcoin.
It's not your private key, it's not your bitcoin.

By whatever chance, if you have a Bitcoin private key, you have access to that wallet address (public address) and if it stores bitcoins (not an empty wallet), you can spend (move) that bitcoin.

Being fearful about tainted coins?

You can use Samourai wallet, mixers and no KYC exchanges.

I don't think he doesn't understand about that, actually what was been discussed in this thread and what you replied are on different context.

What if I found your private key regardless by accident or on purpose? does it still your coins or now it's my coins? or... our coins? so there's no harm to move the coins as long as I have access to the coins.

Using privacy tools in this case is pretty much like you're supporting criminal IMHO.

[SamReomo]

Like the title says what are the rules. If I miraculously got a private key to a wallet that had Bitcoin in it but was not mine originally then does that mean I now own the wallet like finders keepers and is there any legality issues with this in the usa,uk,canada,south america. Is this more of a morality should you or should you not.

No one miraculously get someone else's Bitcoin key unless he steals it or hacks it from that individual. It's totally illegal to transfer any amount from that wallet because it's not your wallet and you aren't the owner of it.

In most cases when an owner has a Bitcoin wallet they keep the wallet address with them all the time and when someone makes a transaction out of it then the wallet owner can file a theft case against that thief.
If you really want to be safe from legal actions then don't do anything with that wallet.

Can you tell me that how in this physical and practical world someone could get a private key of a Bitcoin wallet miraculously? As far as I know, no miracles take place in technical world unless someone does a shady thing and considers it a miracle. 

[m2017]

Like the title says what are the rules. If I miraculously got a private key to a wallet that had Bitcoin in it but was not mine originally then does that mean I now own the wallet like finders keepers and is there any legality issues with this in the usa,uk,canada,south america. Is this more of a morality should you or should you not.

At the moment, in almost all countries (including those you listed), bitcoin is not officially recognized and the issue of legality of access to someone else’s btc wallet remains outside the legal field. In fact, there are no rules (legislative field). Even if we assume the possibility that you will be very lucky to accidentally gain access to someone else’s BTC-wallet, then this should not constitute a crime, since there were no intentional actions in your actions (abuse for the purpose of illegal enrichment). Now, if you transfer bitcoin from someone else’s wallet to your own, then this will already be theft. Not within the field of current laws, but within the field of human morality. So far, everything is quite vague in the legislative field of everything related to cryptocurrencies and bitcoin.

So it turns out that when accessing someone else’s btc wallet, if you follow generally accepted human morality, then you should not touch other people’s bitcoin. And if you look at this from the perspective of the “morality” of the villains, then quickly take these bitcoin for yourself. The question is, what morals do you adhere to?

[leonair]

Like the title says what are the rules. If I miraculously got a private key to a wallet that had Bitcoin in it but was not mine originally then does that mean I now own the wallet like finders keepers and is there any legality issues with this in the usa,uk,canada,south america. Is this more of a morality should you or should you not.

You own a bitcoin wallet key means you own that wallet. and you can enjoy it. Because when you're logging that wallet how can anyone track you that you're enjoying that bitcoin? and if you don't want to take them, how can you find the real owner of that wallet? none of this is possible in this decentralized world. here if you lose your wallet key yourself then you cannot recover your wallet money. In case of Bitcoin you own the private key means you own the wallet

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

[/b]link=topic=5485525.msg63680292#msg63680292 date=1708218493]
Like the title says what are the rules. If I miraculously got a private key to a wallet that had Bitcoin in it but was not mine originally then does that mean I now own the wallet?

Technically, the answer is "Yes" since It's because you have access to the private key of the Bitcoin wallet. But morally it's "No" since you aren't the true owner of that coin. But however, if you could have access to the private key of a wallet, I think the area where you could have deficulty is identifying which wallet do the private key belongs to (i.e Blue wallet, Trust wallet, Electrum e.t.c), because having access to a private key to a wallet, do not automatically grant you access to the coins in that wallet, you still need to figure out which Bitcoin wallet does this belongs to, and there are several of them today online today.

Example: Because if only Craig White (i.e The Fake Satoshi) had have access to the private key of real Satoshi 's wallet with over 1million Bitcoin, I'm sure by today the world would have believed he is the real Satoshi, but since he couldn't, he remains fake.

[DannyHamilton]

Like the title says what are the rules. If I miraculously got a private key to a wallet that had Bitcoin in it but was not mine originally then does that mean I now own the wallet

It means you have control over those funds.  Weather you "own" it or not is a philosophical question (do any of us actually ever own anything?) for which the answer will depend entirely on who you ask, and their opinions on the concept of ownership.

is there any legality issues with this in the usa,uk,canada,south america.

Are you able to prove in a court of law that you "miraculously got" that private key, and that you didn't hack the person or company that initially had access to those funds to steal their private key?  The fact that you have access to the private key is going to be pretty strong evidence that you DID steal the private key.

I'm not aware of any court cases yet that have decided wether stealing private keys to steal bitcoins is a crime, but I strongly suspect that's what the courts in many jurisdictions would decide.

Is this more of a morality should you or should you not.

There definitely is a moral aspect to the question. There are a lot of things that are illegal, but probably ethical and moral. There are also things that are legal, but unethical or immoral. Regardless of wether courts in various jurisdictions decide that "finding" bitcoins is illegal, the moral and ethical implications will remain.

[Darker45]

The basic rule, unwritten or written, is that if it isn't yours you shouldn't touch it. If it isn't yours, then it means it is owned by somebody else. So why should it suddenly belong to you? Why should ownership suddenly move from another person to yourself simply because you got access to it?

I think this is an absurd question, a silly one.

In the first place, the Bitcoin in that wallet, a wallet that you do not own, if I may emphasize, will not move without an act of stealing. That wallet isn't lost. That wallet is under the control of somebody. And there's no reason why the ownership of that wallet is transferred just because you have access to it.

I don't suddenly own whatever is inside a house whose keys I found lying on the sidewalk. I don't suddenly own the money inside a vault just because I learned of its number combination.

[Kelward]

Like the title says what are the rules. If I miraculously got a private key to a wallet that had Bitcoin in it but was not mine originally then does that mean I now own the wallet like finders keepers and is there any legality issues with this in the usa,uk,canada,south america. Is this more of a morality should you or should you not.

I really don't see the possibilities of how you can miraculously get another person's wallet and private keys without that person gifting it to you, unless the original owner misplaced the list where they wrote it or you stole it. The former is acceptable, so far it's a gift, but the two latter that I mentioned is criminality, that's how I see it, unless you can enlighten us with the details of how you miraculously got it. But frankly I don't know the extent of criminality it'll be if my second option being when the owner misplaced it, and another person finds it, without knowing who own it? Unless the Bitcoin is in a centralized exchange, where KYC can determine the original owner, if there's no other means of determining who the owner is, the I guess the finder can keep it, but I don't know about selling it.

[Fiatless]

Like the title says what are the rules. If I miraculously got a private key to a wallet that had Bitcoin in it but was not mine originally then does that mean I now own the wallet like finders keepers and is there any legality issues with this in the usa,uk,canada,south america. Is this more of a morality should you or should you not.

Where did you find the private key? If you find it in a place where you can easily trace the owner, it will be wrong to claim the coin. The ideal thing to do is to look for the owner and transfer the keys. It becomes more complicated if you don't know who owns the bitcoin and it is impossible to trace the owner. Let's say there was a natural disaster like a flood and you see a metal that has these keys in your garden. And there is no announcement of any missing keys from anybody. At this point, your reaction will be based on morality. You might decide to keep it or donate it to charity. You will have to explain to the government how you got such an amount. They might suspect that you got it through illegal means.