U.S. Government Is Turning Seized Silk Road Bitcoins Into Cash

[the_poet]

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/28/us-government-is-turning-seized-silk-road-bitcoins-into-cash/

[1715484214]

1715484214

[1715484214]

1715484214

[1715484214]

1715484214

[1715484214]

1715484214

[1715484214]

1715484214

[jonald_fyookball]

good.  i dont want the US government being a large stakeholder.

[durrrr]

i keep hearing this but wouldnt they just put a sell order into an exchange for all the bitcoins and create a wall and then that would make price go down but yeah i dont get why its taking them so long and if they havnt dumped then why is price still going down

[Domino]

i keep hearing this but wouldnt they just put a sell order into an exchange for all the bitcoins and create a wall and then that would make price go down but yeah i dont get why its taking them so long and if they havnt dumped then why is price still going down

Shouldn't they do an auction to get the best price?

[bryant.coleman]

good.  i dont want the US government being a large stakeholder.

But these articles are just based upon unsubstantiated rumors. Do they have any real evidence that the FBI is really selling off those coins? I really doubt that. All are just baseless assumptions. 

[teukon]

i keep hearing this but wouldnt they just put a sell order into an exchange for all the bitcoins and create a wall and then that would make price go down but yeah i dont get why its taking them so long and if they havnt dumped then why is price still going down

Shouldn't they do an auction to get the best price?

Why would they try to get the best price?  This is a government agency, not a business.

[BitCoinDream]

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/28/us-government-is-turning-seized-silk-road-bitcoins-into-cash/

Faster they do it, quicker the market will revive

[the_poet]

i keep hearing this but wouldnt they just put a sell order into an exchange for all the bitcoins and create a wall and then that would make price go down but yeah i dont get why its taking them so long and if they havnt dumped then why is price still going down

Shouldn't they do an auction to get the best price?

Why would they try to get the best price?  This is a government agency, not a business.

Government-seized property is usually sold via auctions.

[gagalady]

Is there any proof that gov is really selling bitcoins? Or it's just a rumor. It's stated like a fact but Is there actual proof of this?

[SomethingElse]

The US government being the largest holder of bitcoin is kind of a good thing.  That way the US will not ban it.  Think if China had that many bitcoin right now.  We wouldn't be in this mess.  The worse thing that could happen is that the US totally dumps and then bans it. 

[beetcoin]

The US government being the largest holder of bitcoin is kind of a good thing.  That way the US will not ban it.  Think if China had that many bitcoin right now.  We wouldn't be in this mess.  The worse thing that could happen is that the US totally dumps and then bans it. 

they should just give it to the CIA so they can use it to bribe the people they already do.

[jbrnt]

They will never sell them on an exchange. They will be sold in an auction, but the person who bought them might. It all depends on who bought them. Whichever way, it is still in the interest of the new owner(s) to keep them off exchanges to maintain a good reference price for his/their assets.

[Bitcoin Magazine]

now they owe infinite dollars as a result of Silk Road's escrow agreement

[Cryptopher]

i keep hearing this but wouldnt they just put a sell order into an exchange for all the bitcoins and create a wall and then that would make price go down but yeah i dont get why its taking them so long and if they havnt dumped then why is price still going down

I don't believe that the US government would go down the exchange route for selling such a volume of bitcoins. Private auction(s) would be the likely option, no doubt a number of personnel will take their cut too...

[beetcoin]

would have thought they would somehow pump BTC up before dumping. why wouldn't they, right?

[Peter R]

The nice thing about bitcoin is that you can just check for yourself:

http://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX?offset=0&filter=0

None of the Silk Road seized coins have been moved.

[teukon]

i keep hearing this but wouldnt they just put a sell order into an exchange for all the bitcoins and create a wall and then that would make price go down but yeah i dont get why its taking them so long and if they havnt dumped then why is price still going down

Shouldn't they do an auction to get the best price?

Why would they try to get the best price?  This is a government agency, not a business.

Government-seized property is usually sold via auctions.

Yes, this is a much better reason for why an auction will likely take place.

[Noruka]

The US government being the largest holder of bitcoin is kind of a good thing.  That way the US will not ban it.  Think if China had that many bitcoin right now.  We wouldn't be in this mess.  The worse thing that could happen is that the US totally dumps and then bans it. 

unfortunately thats not how it works all at.

The US will have zero interest a stable bitcoin even if they own it. They would rather watch every coin they own disappear at zero value if it means bitcoin goes away.

[CoinDiver]

The worst possible outcome would be for the government to hold those bitcoins. Long term, or course. Short term, it's very likely going to cause some turmoil.

[Jcw188]

The nice thing about bitcoin is that you can just check for yourself:

http://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX?offset=0&filter=0

None of the Silk Road seized coins have been moved.

Hypothetically, couldn't the buyer of the BTC just get access/control to the coins, but decide not to move them?

[jinjuro]

I think they cannot sell it until the trial is done. That could take 2 years.

[CoinDiver]

Hypothetically, couldn't the buyer of the BTC just get access/control to the coins, but decide not to move them?

That would be stupid for them to do. They have no proof that the private key wont be used in the future.

[franky1]

back in the day when illigally gained money was boxed up and then incinerated, to ensure no one profited from the proceeds of crime.

but this topic today proves that authorities profit from crime.

it would have been much better to dump the coins into an address without a known privkey.. and let it become part of the lost bitcoins pile.

i would love to know who has the dollars and how they will be spent.

so remember next time you get a parking/speeding ticket, the cops are not there for road safety, they are there to get their monthly bonus

[Bitcoin Magazine]

great.  now the govt. has infinite money 

[Bit_Happy]

I think they cannot sell it until the trial is done. That could take 2 years.

Likely the truth here.
Either way we need more BTC, there is not enough in the world. 
I understand it's "divisible", but many people will want to own at least one BTC.

[franky1]

I think they cannot sell it until the trial is done. That could take 2 years.

Likely the truth here.
Either way we need more BTC, there is not enough in the world. 
I understand it's "divisible", but many people will want to own at least one BTC.

most people would also want to own a tonne of gold. but there is only 170,000 tonnes of gold in the world.. so grams and ounces have to suffice, much like microbitcoins and satoshi's will have to suffice

[bryant.coleman]

most people would also want to own a tonne of gold. but there is only 170,000 tonnes of gold in the world.. so grams and ounces have to suffice, much like microbitcoins and satoshi's will have to suffice

Most people measure the gold in either ounces or grams. So if we calculate based on that, then there are some 5,465,500,000 ounces of gold, or some 170,000,000,000 grams of gold. That is almost 25 grams for every human being on this earth. 

[counter]

This type of FUD has been being spread sense day one.  I anxiously await some facts but until then I'm putting on my fudblokers 

[Peter R]

The nice thing about bitcoin is that you can just check for yourself:

http://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX?offset=0&filter=0

None of the Silk Road seized coins have been moved.

Hypothetically, couldn't the buyer of the BTC just get access/control to the coins, but decide not to move them?

Uhhh…I suppose hypothetically someone could be stupid enough to purchase $13 million dollars of bitcoins and not move them to an address under their sole control.  That same hypothetical person could also withdraw $13 million in cash from Citibank and leave it for safe keeping in the bank's lunch room.

[Dannie]

I think they cannot sell it until the trial is done. That could take 2 years.

Likely the truth here.
Either way we need more BTC, there is not enough in the world. 
I understand it's "divisible", but many people will want to own at least one BTC.

Most of the people just want more BTC.
If they get 0.01 btc, they want to own 1 btc. If they own 10 btc, the want to own 100 btc.

[mktrader]

No way. They cannot legally sell those coins unless there is a final court verdict on this case - and that can take a long time.

[Bit_Happy]

No way. They cannot legally sell those coins unless there is a final court verdict on this case - and that can take a long time.

A final court verdict can include multiple appeals if one side is determined enough to reverse the original result.
...and that can take a much longer time.

[BitcoinUK]

most people would also want to own a tonne of gold. but there is only 170,000 tonnes of gold in the world.. so grams and ounces have to suffice, much like microbitcoins and satoshi's will have to suffice

Most people measure the gold in either ounces or grams. So if we calculate based on that, then there are some 5,465,500,000 ounces of gold, or some 170,000,000,000 grams of gold. That is almost 25 grams for every human being on this earth.  

and there's:
2,100,000,000,000,000 satoshi's. that is almost enough for 30000 satoshi's for every human being on this planet.

so lets put it into context.
in america the average life savings is $40-$50k (obviously averaged out from the super rich to the super poor)
in england the average life savings is £50-£60k (obviously averaged out from the super rich to the super poor)
in scotland  the average life savings is £30-£40k (obviously averaged out from the super rich to the super poor)

there are many other rich countries above 30000, and many countries below 30000 units of their local value

all in all on average it strangely shows that each person (based on units of value of their native country) is also proportionate to the 30000 satoshi / person. but remember within each community there will be some that have atleast double to 10000x the wealth of others meaning that some will have over a few btc(the wealthy), where others will be working minimum wage and only putting a couple satoshi's aside each paycheck for their "rainy day fund"

[Elwar]

The article I read was about a Silk Road vendor from the UK that was busted and his bitcoins were sold.

Not the huge FBI seized coins.

[franky1]

The article I read was about a Silk Road vendor from the UK that was busted and his bitcoins were sold.

Not the huge FBI seized coins.

i heard that slomp was from the netherlands... and busted in miami

kind of funny how fast 'chinese whispers' can easily turn him into a UK resident, even with the link in the OP and then the department of justice link inside the article..

[Eastwind]

Government-seized property is usually sold via auctions.

Selling on the exchanges is a kind of auction.