Government confiscation

[mistercoin]

If Bitcoins aren't in your wallet, they aren't yours.

Very true. I only keep money on 3rd party sites when i'm trading. Other than that, not a good idea.

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[GreatWinter]

That type of thinking is a bit on the extreme side, but you never know what will happen. The good thing is it is hard to track in a lot of ways. The safest is probably to use some anonymous solution so that it cannot be tracked or linked to an address.

[panju1]

That type of thinking is a bit on the extreme side, but you never know what will happen. The good thing is it is hard to track in a lot of ways. The safest is probably to use some anonymous solution so that it cannot be tracked or linked to an address.

True. The government cannot seize from you only things that they know you have. 

[p2pbucks]

I keep about 80% of my bitcoins in my Coinbase (US company) online vault, and about 20% online in my BTC-E (foreign company) account.  I always have a teeny tiny worry in the back of mind that I'll wake up one day and the headlines will read "US Government bans Bitcoin, freezes all Bitcoin assets" and I will be unable to access my Coinbase coins.  Am I paranoid?

  hey dude,
keep your bitcoins in your own wallet ,for eg . multibit or electrum . Coinbase is a bank , you can't risk 80% btc assets on it . And so does the platform.

[Tirapon]

Ok I'm convinced.  I'm taking them all offline and putting them on a USB stick & paper for redundancy.  Then I'll stick the USB stick & paper in a safe.

Is there a particular "bullet-proof" USB stick that y'all would recommend for this purpose, like one that would survive Armageddon?  I think they also make encrypted ones, is that necessary do y'all think?

What about this one?

Corsair Flash Survivor
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash-Survivor-32GB-CMFSV3-32GB/dp/B006B7R8ZG/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1421074386&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=usb+thumb+drive+heavy+duty+encrypted

I'd suggest several USB sticks in various safe locations.

[cyberpinoy]

unless you are doing something illegal the US Government can not seize anything. Sure they can frame you and find ways liek they do with everything else, but they can not confiscate property. Not even in times of war can they just confiscate personal property, they can however in times of war confiscate cash, gold and silver to help them finance a war if they deem it necessary. Better sell yoru cash for bitcoins because war is the most profitable business there is.

[bf4btc]

unless you are doing something illegal the US Government can not seize anything. Sure they can frame you and find ways liek they do with everything else, but they can not confiscate property. Not even in times of war can they just confiscate personal property, they can however in times of war confiscate cash, gold and silver to help them finance a war if they deem it necessary. Better sell yoru cash for bitcoins because war is the most profitable business there is.

There are laws called civil forfeiture laws that are used by both federal and state governments that essentially make people prove that assets were legally acquired and not gained via criminal activity. There has been a lot of controversy regarding this as of recently and hopefully voters will demand changes to these laws

[jbreher]

unless you are doing something illegal the US Government can not seize anything.

Jeebs - I thought you were an ex-pat? You musta been gone a loooooong time. Google "civil forfeiture". It is a real problem, and it is quickly growing worse.

Sure they can frame you and find ways liek they do with everything else, but they can not confiscate property. Not even in times of war can they just confiscate personal property,

Never was it so. And it gets worse. Not only can they seize entire automobile manufacturing companies, they can seize you too, and put you on the front line in the role of slave cannon fodder.

[BADecker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6b70TUbdfs   

[henryreardon]

I feel much more educated on this subject now thanks to y'all's replies and to coinbase support

https://community.coinbase.com/t/saving-all-bitcoins-on-usb-stick-so-they-are-safe-from-usg-confiscation/233

[jbreher]

I feel much more educated on this subject now thanks to y'all's replies and to coinbase support

https://community.coinbase.com/t/saving-all-bitcoins-on-usb-stick-so-they-are-safe-from-usg-confiscation/233

Is there some reason you might think the usg might not confiscate all your USB sticks?

[inBitweTrust]

Coinbase is a great company, unfortunately The US is very corrupt and coinbase will roll over to their demands at a whim.
By storing your Bitcoins at coinbase the best outcome you can hope for is the government stealing 15% of them.

Do not store your Bitcoins in coinbase, but in a paperwalet or hardware wallet-

Read this -
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=858604.0

and this

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0

For more information.

I feel much more educated on this subject now thanks to y'all's replies and to coinbase support

https://community.coinbase.com/t/saving-all-bitcoins-on-usb-stick-so-they-are-safe-from-usg-confiscation/233

This is not secure because all the IRS or an ex-wife has to have knowledge of is mere suspicion which can and will happen
 with normal reporting or an audit. Remove your bitcoin and transfer them a few times to other new addresses before
securing them with one of the options above.

Personally, I am very sloppy with my bitcoin and keep losing it, forgetting my passwords, and giving it away.

[Grand_Voyageur]

Coinbase is a great company, unfortunately The US is very corrupt and coinbase will roll over to their demands at a whim.
By storing your Bitcoins at coinbase the best outcome you can hope for is the government stealing 15% of them.

Do not store your Bitcoins in coinbase, but in a paperwalet or hardware wallet-

Read this -
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=858604.0

and this

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0

For more information.

I feel much more educated on this subject now thanks to y'all's replies and to coinbase support

https://community.coinbase.com/t/saving-all-bitcoins-on-usb-stick-so-they-are-safe-from-usg-confiscation/233

This is not secure because all the IRS or an ex-wife has to have knowledge of is mere suspicion which can and will happen
 with normal reporting or an audit. Remove your bitcoin and transfer them a few times to other new addresses before
securing them with one of the options above.

Personally, I am very sloppy with my bitcoin and keep losing it, forgetting my passwords, and giving it away.

I think transfer to other addresses should include processing such a transfer via one or more BTC-mixers like bitmixer.io, etc. Also, You may wish to use the Onion version of bitmixer.io to further improve your anonimity.

[fritz]

This Bitcoin mixer, is that acting like laundering your money buy mixing-up the lot?

[phillipsjk]

Ok I'm convinced.  I'm taking them all offline and putting them on a USB stick & paper for redundancy.  Then I'll stick the USB stick & paper in a safe.

Is there a particular "bullet-proof" USB stick that y'all would recommend for this purpose, like one that would survive Armageddon?  I think they also make encrypted ones, is that necessary do y'all think?

I recommend storing your private keys in two or more geographic locations.
Obviously each location increases the chance of physical compromise and theft.

I eventually hope to upgrade to m of n keys stored in 3 or more geographic locations.
If more than one key needs to be compromised. looking into Tamper-evident seals may be something you want to consider.

Video summary: if your are serious about tamper-evident seals, you should carefully check for tampering every time you break the seal.

[inBitweTrust]

I eventually hope to upgrade to m of n keys stored in 3 or more geographic locations.
If more than one key needs to be compromised. looking into Tamper-evident seals may be something you want to consider.[/b]

Video summary: if your are serious about tamper-evident seals, you should carefully check for tampering every time you break the seal.

Very important point.
The tamper evident seals is an excellent security precaution that I will add to my best practices thread.

[PaulPierce]

You can use a dedicated offline raspberry pi running electrum or something like that.

That you only use to sign transactions.

And have a watch only wallet on your daily computer, used to prepare and broadcast transaction.

And your long time holdings should be on paper wallets.

Yeah.. that would work like a charm..! I dont think other than super early adopters there r many ppl who have long time holdings..!

[deluxeCITY]

I eventually hope to upgrade to m of n keys stored in 3 or more geographic locations.
If more than one key needs to be compromised. looking into Tamper-evident seals may be something you want to consider.[/b]

Video summary: if your are serious about tamper-evident seals, you should carefully check for tampering every time you break the seal.

Very important point.
The tamper evident seals is an excellent security precaution that I will add to my best practices thread.

I don't see how tamper evident seals/bags are going to help anything. All that an attacker would need to do is break the seal, get the key, repeat until they have enough to sign a transaction and spend the unspent inputs to an address they 100% control.

[inBitweTrust]

I don't see how tamper evident seals/bags are going to help anything. All that an attacker would need to do is break the seal, get the key, repeat until they have enough to sign a transaction and spend the unspent inputs to an address they 100% control.

It may take the attacker time to find , hack into , or acquire the other keys for a multisig. Knowing someone has some of the keys may allow to to prevent them mid heist. Additionally, knowing how the theft occurred is crucial for forensics after the fact.

[deluxeCITY]

I don't see how tamper evident seals/bags are going to help anything. All that an attacker would need to do is break the seal, get the key, repeat until they have enough to sign a transaction and spend the unspent inputs to an address they 100% control.

It may take the attacker time to find , hack into , or acquire the other keys for a multisig. Knowing someone has some of the keys may allow to to prevent them mid heist. Additionally, knowing how the theft occurred is crucial for forensics after the fact.

Well someone could just take the tamper resistant/evident bag with them and destroy it. The only thing that tamper evident bags are really good for is when someone transports something specific to another place and there and the person transporting the valuable items do not want to be blamed for any discrepancies.