Here's an interesting question....

[serenitys]

That's only if they have the key...just getting the wallet isn't really a big deal is it? I mean it's the address, not the wallet, right? It reads to me - unless I missed something, and if so, I'm sure I'll get set straight - but it reads to me like they just got his machine and it had the wallet on it...

But that doesn't mean that was the only copy of it or that they got the key. Isn't the big rule to have backups all over the place so if it's lost or crashes in one spot it's recoverable elsewhere? The dude's a pirate, I'm pretty sure he's not also a huge dumbass like the feds might be trying to paint him...and he has a "brain wallet" and his addresses and keys only he knows, regardless of whatever the feds found on his computer.

No key, no btc. They can't do shit with it...so aside from the rest of the story, sounds like the joke's on the FBI.

[Bit_Happy]

That's only if they have the key...just getting the wallet isn't really a big deal is it? I mean it's the address, not the wallet, right? ...

The wallet has the private keys.
The FBI probably has full control of the SR bitcoins.

[serenitys]

I see.

Still think there's probably more to it and there are some fear mongering bs tales being spread around. If the guy was clever enough to do this to begin with, can't see him being a huge dumbass like that when the whole security issue is harped all over the place - back ups, extra copies, not in one place, various wallets, etc.

It would be really cool to see this trial televised (and to watch HLN try to cover it! LOL)

[bryant.coleman]

I heard that they are doing some work for giving these coins back to community but currently have not confirmed how and when they are doing this

That is just BS. They will never give it back to the community. Those Bitcoins are now worth close to $75 million. What makes you think that they'll give away all of that for free?

[Bit_Happy]

I see.

Still think there's probably more to it and there are some fear mongering bs tales being spread around. If the guy was clever enough to do this to begin with, can't see him being a huge dumbass like that when the whole security issue is harped all over the place - back ups, extra copies, not in one place, various wallets, etc.

It would be really cool to see this trial televised (and to watch HLN try to cover it! LOL)

Yes, If that trial was televised, I would start paying for TV again.

[K128kevin]

Are they really going to destroy them? I don't see why they wouldn't use them for funding or something...

[grifferz]

If the guy was clever enough to do this to begin with, can't see him being a huge dumbass like that when the whole security issue is harped all over the place - back ups, extra copies, not in one place, various wallets, etc.

I suppose it is possible that he has offsite backups of the wallet that the FBI have not discovered and he simply hasn't had chance (given his incarceration) to do anything with them.

But equally I really can believe that even someone with 75-150 million $ worth of bitcoins doesn't make backups.

The blockchain allows us to tell that the coins still exist in the address and haven't been moved elsewhere yet, so we'd know if someone did anything with them (but we probably wouldn't know who or what).

The FBI would know too, so if they bitcoins move and they aren't the ones moving them then I guess they'd have some hard questions for Ulbricht. He could just claim complete ignorance but imagine the difficulty of ever using those funds later in life.

[amspir]

If the guy was clever enough to do this to begin with, can't see him being a huge dumbass like that when the whole security issue is harped all over the place - back ups, extra copies, not in one place, various wallets, etc.

I suppose it is possible that he has offsite backups of the wallet that the FBI have not discovered and he simply hasn't had chance (given his incarceration) to do anything with them.

From what I read, Ross had the wallet on his laptop with the "offline" money, when he was arrested by the feds (administering silk road from a coffee shop) The feds hired a UK firm to crack the wallet password, and that's how most of the money was seized.   They already had control of the silk road server before the shutdown, so it was trivial to get that wallet.

[LostDutchman]

OK, I know that the SilkRoad case is still under investigation but....

What will happen to all the seized coins after the case is closed?

Logically those coins should be destroyed, but is there any way to prove that they are?

That's an odd form of logic you're advocating here......................................

My $.02.

[serenitys]

I'm curious to know from the tech side, given this limit of mining or creating btc if it's possible the whole network could scan for all these stagnant btc out there, or in cases such as the above when it's been seized, and change the code so that every 10 years (or whatever is reasonable) to average all the btc that's been stolen, seized, lost, stuck or burned, etc and create an average amount of btc to make up for it.

Like tag certain btc/wallets that haven't been active for a decade - considered lost forever - and just create more based only on that.

Would that be hard to do, or supported by the btc network?

[amspir]

I'm curious to know from the tech side, given this limit of mining or creating btc if it's possible the whole network could scan for all these stagnant btc out there, or in cases such as the above when it's been seized, and change the code so that every 10 years (or whatever is reasonable) to average all the btc that's been stolen, seized, lost, stuck or burned, etc and create an average amount of btc to make up for it.

Like tag certain btc/wallets that haven't been active for a decade - considered lost forever - and just create more based only on that.

Would that be hard to do, or supported by the btc network?

IMHO, I really don't see much sense in doing this.   There's no way of knowing whether an address has a private key that is unknown to human-kind, it is at best an educated guess.   Who know if some kids find a dusty old USB drive with long dead great-grandpa's bitcoin stash in the attic after 50 years of non-use.

Coins are being added at a known, mathematical rate.  "recreating" lost coins breaks the promise that coins are only being added at that rate.

[dogechode]

In theory one would think they'd simply demand that he send the coins to an address of their choosing and if he refused, hold him in contempt for refusing to cooperate. The same thing they can do if a suspect refuses to produce a requested item as evidence.

[ensarwyckven]

If the Bitcoins were earned from illegal activity then the Feds can seize them and sell them off in an auction. If the owner refuses to cooperate by giving up the illegally gotten BTC to the Govt, then he could-would receive a much tougher prison sentence.