The general user of bitcoin will be rather pissed off, if his rightly obtained coins were not accepted somewhere because of taint. So in the aggregate, I think it will not be possible for the enemies of bitcoin to use that as a weapon. Tainting will only work as long as a great majority of users accept the taint and that their coins will at random be declared valueless. And that is not going to happen.
not true. i'd starting looking for taint as soon as courts state that they will confiscate coins which origins from a theft - i am already curious what happens to coinbase customer who have "tainted coins" (i really hate that word) AFAIK they already have lists (for someone who knows better than me: do they acept coins from a mixer without questions?.
I wouldn't put it pass them but why would Coinbase have any right to confiscate "tainted coins", unless they are going to do all the work and hand the coins back to the exchange or wherever the coins were stolen from in the first place, i very much doubt that will happen.
For a court to rule that Coinbase can confiscate their customers coins they would have to prove that the coins will be returned to the rightful owner.
i did not say coinbase would confiscate.
i'd say courts do.
if you have a stolen car you have to give it back to the rightful owner. if you where paid with stolen money thats not the case.
is bitcoin a car or money
(the coinbase question is unrelated to my point about courts. just curious to hear what they do if someone has experienced it - i'd heard before that hey have lists, but dont know how they use them (or even if)) - i am in germany btw. so i dont use coinbase