Why didn't the government leave Silk Road open...

[Buffer Overflow]

Perhaps they should consider running a decentralized Silk Road with taxpayer money in order to keep bullets from flying around in the streets.

Yes because while Silk Road was open for business, all drug crime on our streets stopped didn't it.

[moriartybitcoin]

Why would they want people to withdraw their coins?  They made plenty of money by STEALING the coins and reselling them to Second Market and Tim Draper lol

[Lauda]

Perhaps they should consider running a decentralized Silk Road with taxpayer money in order to keep bullets from flying around in the streets.

Yes because while Silk Road was open for business, all drug crime on our streets stopped didn't it.

Anything that government is doing isn't really helping or wasn't intended to help anyone at all. The drug war and war on terrorism is pretty much pointless. But this comes down to the same subject, and we keep going in circles.

because those bitcoin were used for illegal stuff too and also the amount of money was too high, i don't see other reasons

thanks god they didn't close bitcoin generally. in russia they wanna do it and drugs are the main reason

isn't russia already out of bitcoin, i heard it got banned there

anyway they can't "close" bitcoin, bitcoin is decentralized...this is one of the beauty about bitcoin...ineluctable

Yes they have. It's been banned more or less. What did they achieve with this ban? Pretty much nothing. No amount of drugs was left unsold due to Bitcoin not being available in Russia.

[teppupkcos]

because those bitcoin were used for illegal stuff too and also the amount of money was too high, i don't see other reasons

thanks god they didn't close bitcoin generally. in russia they wanna do it and drugs are the main reason

isn't russia already out of bitcoin, i heard it got banned there

anyway they can't "close" bitcoin, bitcoin is decentralized...this is one of the beauty about bitcoin...ineluctable

Im not thinking drugs are the main reason Russia china clipped BTC wings.
Decentralization global movement of assets more a probability

[calme]

Well, let's see. Keeping in mind that they don't even know us, which is more important to them?

a) watching out for our wellbeing
or
b) controlling the money supply

These paradoxical questions are just so hard to answer. If only I'd stayed drug free, then I might know.

[teppupkcos]

C, Both of the above lol

[elvizzzzzzz]

"Anything that government is doing isn't really helping or wasn't intended to help anyone at all. The drug war and war on terrorism is pretty much pointless. But this comes down to the same subject, and we keep going in circles."

Somebody was left off the cc list ;-)

[TheButterZone]

It's called "civil asset forfeiture" aka "guilty until proven inno... fuck it, you're guilty, period".

[Amph]

because those bitcoin were used for illegal stuff too and also the amount of money was too high, i don't see other reasons

thanks god they didn't close bitcoin generally. in russia they wanna do it and drugs are the main reason

isn't russia already out of bitcoin, i heard it got banned there

anyway they can't "close" bitcoin, bitcoin is decentralized...this is one of the beauty about bitcoin...ineluctable

Im not thinking drugs are the main reason Russia china clipped BTC wings.
Decentralization global movement of assets more a probability

russia said that they did ban it because of child porn and other related illegal thing to the deep web, china because of large cny being converted in bitcoin and decentralization probably yes

[abyrnes81]

because those bitcoin were used for illegal stuff too and also the amount of money was too high, i don't see other reasons

thanks god they didn't close bitcoin generally. in russia they wanna do it and drugs are the main reason

isn't russia already out of bitcoin, i heard it got banned there

anyway they can't "close" bitcoin, bitcoin is decentralized...this is one of the beauty about bitcoin...ineluctable

Im not thinking drugs are the main reason Russia china clipped BTC wings.
Decentralization global movement of assets more a probability

russia said that they did ban it because of child porn and other related illegal thing to the deep web, china because of large cny being converted in bitcoin and decentralization probably yes

They cannot control the crypto-currencies sp they are scared and ban them without any possible dialogue. In the next few years the cash will be abandoned and and digital payment will survive.

[AGD]

...to allow people to withdraw their coins?

Once the government identified Ross Ulbricht and had control of the Silk Road servers, why didn't they keep the site open so that people could withdraw their bitcoins? They could have blocked the ability to trade (so as to not facilitate any drug deals) and instead only allow people to log onto their accounts at the site and withdraw their funds to their own Bitcoin addresses.

This is the part I'm talking about:

Funds held by users of the site, however, were not so well-protected. Before completing transactions on the Silk Road, users would load Bitcoins into an escrow account on the site. The agreed upon coins would only be transferred to the seller’s private wallet once the buyer had verified delivery of the goods. When the feds took over the Silk Road, there were over 26,000 Bitcoins in user accounts that were relatively easy to snatch up.

The FBI has transferred all 26,000-plus seized Bitcoins to its own personal wallet, but because Bitcoin transactions are tracked publicly, it didn’t take the internet long to find the FBI’s wallet address. Users have taken to transferring tiny fractions of a Bitcoin to the FBI with public comments attached decrying the war on drugs and the arrest of Ulbricht. Users have even helpfully tagged the wallet address as “Silkroad Seized Coins.” You can check out the comments as they come in by watching the blockchain for the FBI’s wallet.

Link: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/168139-fbi-unable-to-seize-600000-bitcoins-from-silk-road-operator

They seize money from 8 ys old children ( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=985596.0 ) , so what you expect from the "behemouth of the state" in case of an online crackhouse?

[Xch4ng3]

See "proceeds of crime" for relative country, you'll find during any investigation any asset found to be procured as a result of crime is susceptible to forfeiture proceedings.

[shogdite]

I did wonder whether legit sellers on Silk Road might have case for getting their btc back if they could prove they weren't engaged in any illegal activity.

Suppose it's guilty by association with the darkmarkets...

[Natalia_AnatolioPAMM]

thanks god they didn't close bitcoin generally. in russia they wanna do it and drugs are the main reason

I don't think Bitcoin is something that can really be "closed". Although I gotta admit the fact that they chose to auction the coins instead of destroying them did give Bitcoin a certain sense of legitimacy.

...to allow people to withdraw their coins?

Once the government identified Ross Ulbricht and had control of the Silk Road servers, why didn't they keep the site open so that people could withdraw their bitcoins? They could have blocked the ability to trade (so as to not facilitate any drug deals) and instead only allow people to log onto their accounts at the site and withdraw their funds to their own Bitcoin addresses.

Funds used in criminal activity... why on earth would the US government allow criminals to take them back?

As I said before, not all of it was criminal. And I don't think people who were simply buying small amounts of drugs for personal use should have their funds confiscated - although I understand that's probably more of a personal moral opinion on my part.

Perhaps they should consider running a decentralized Silk Road with taxpayer money in order to keep bullets from flying around in the streets.

I posted a thread a while ago about decentralizing websites. It would work well for sites that regularly prune their content (e.g. online auction sites, imageboards, torrent lists) as well as sites that have low bandwidth and storage requirements (e.g. microblogs). A decentralized Silk Road would be perfect and definitely worthy of implementation. Unfortunately, my programming skills are nowhere near good enough to do it myself and not many other people seem interested in the idea.

the reason is that you handed funds to a known blackmarket, so dont expect a refund.

lesson to learn, stick to legitimate product websites in future

I never actually used Silk Road myself. And besides, I only really got into Bitcoin a few months after it was seized anyway.

they do wanna forbid using, trading and doing anything with bitcoin in russia! all the websites would be closed etc. and i case you trade or do whatever operations with btw-it's illegal and you get into troubles

[WhatTheGox]

...to allow people to withdraw their coins?

The government doesnt opperate on a level of care like that.  Nobody really has the power in the government to slow down any process.  Once "bad" actions have taken place its all hands on deck to make things "right".

[maku]

...to allow people to withdraw their coins?

The government doesnt opperate on a level of care like that.  Nobody really has the power in the government to slow down any process.  Once "bad" actions have taken place its all hands on deck to make things "right".

There is no "right" in criminal activity. Do you think that government will allow people to withdraw their bitcoins? After all they know people used it to buy illegal stuff? What kind of government allows criminals to 'take their money and go home'?

[Mudd]

...to allow people to withdraw their coins?

The government doesnt opperate on a level of care like that.  Nobody really has the power in the government to slow down any process.  Once "bad" actions have taken place its all hands on deck to make things "right".

There is no "right" in criminal activity. Do you think that government will allow people to withdraw their bitcoins? After all they know people used it to buy illegal stuff? What kind of government allows criminals to 'take their money and go home'?

Not all the people were buying illegal stuff though. There was one seller from the UK who just sold headshop-types of stuff - papers, grinders etc and he wanted his coins back and should have got them if he wasn't doing anything wrong.

Edit Check out the story here http://www.coindesk.com/silk-road-seller-sues-stop-government-sale/

[gentlemand]

You don't have to have your money in a dodgy marketplace for US authorities to spirit it away. If they find your very own cash sat in your very own car, they'll help themselves to it with little to no recourse and for no justifiable reason.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/us/60343/hand-over-your-cash-how-us-cops-commit-highway-robbery

I'll stick to the occasional holiday there. With a brainwallet.

[MF Doom]

i think its more of making a statement that other currencies will not be allowed to compete with the USD, more so than stopping a drug site

[jbreher]

I think this may apply under "civil forfeiture", basically any asset you use or intend to use on illegal activity may be seized and taken away from you
in order to prevent misuse of goods.

FTFY. There is one way that government drones describe how civil asset forfeiture is _supposed_ to work, and there is the completely different way how the jackboots actually apply it in practice.