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I would be very curious to know why he thought he would get away with this. Did he erroneously believe Bitcoin is anonymous? Have there been any interviews with

I would be very curious to know why he thought he would get away with this. Did he erroneously believe Bitcoin is anonymous? Have there been any interviews with the agent or those around him?

kbart 9y ago
Call me cynical, but I don't believe it's uncommon for them to take forfeit money after an arrest. This time the only difference was that Bitcoin transactions could be publicly seen, as opposed to cash/wire transfer, and the agent wasn't aware of that.
- jstanley 9y ago
  That normally wouldn't go directly to the agent though, right? So that's completely different.
  - cptskippy 9y ago
    I believe he was saying it's not uncommon for law enforcement officers to steal forfeitures from the state. If you're the one accounting for an arrested individual's belongings, it's very easy to falsify documents.
- emdowling 9y ago
  > the agent wasn't aware of that If thats the case, it's interesting that he wasn't aware of the fundamentals of the technology that enabled the people he was investigating.
  - draw_down 9y ago
    Is it? Criminals are often just dumb.
    - mrleinad 9y ago
      Well, you'd expect that the agents investigating those crimes would not be.
      - washadjeffmad 9y ago
        I'd expect agents to be organized and well versed in the goals and procedures of departments, not smarter or better at any random thing than any other human.
      - _jal 9y ago
        Why is that?
        yeahsure 9y ago
        Because they are expected to have the skills needed to perform their job, specially such an important one.
  - kbart 9y ago
    I personally know few quite technical people who even own some Bitcoins and tried to confront me in recent discussion when I stated that all BTC transactions can be publicly seen. They knew that BTC doesn't provide complete anonymity, but thought of it more like wire transfer, where you can only see transactions from some "authorized center", exchange or something, not that anyone can see them. So I guess this detail is easy to miss or misinterpret.
Arnt 9y ago
Bitcoin provides strong anonymity as long as you never tell anyone that wallet dcfb49fb16e688a46841c05b07b1ee40 is yours and never withdraw any money. "X is true if both Y and Z" is a UX problem waiting to happen. It's too subtle for people who check their smartphones every seven minutes, Y and/or Z will be lost in hearsay transmission.
- kobeya 9y ago
  Pseudoanonymity. There’s an important difference.
  - kaffeemitsahne 9y ago
    Pseudonymity, actually.
  - Arnt 9y ago
    If you digress into talking about important distinctions using weird long words, people are especially likely to forget the Y&Z conditions. Did you mean pseudoanonymity or pseudonymity, BTW? I can see the case for either/both, but the MSB is that is something hinges on distinctions as subtle as that, then it's too complex for 2017's general audience. UX accident waiting to happen.
    - kobeya 9y ago
      It’s not a nitpicking point. Bitcoin doesn’t provide any anonymity at all. It explicitly breaks anonymity and great lengths have to be taken to recover it. Pseudonymity is a fundamentally different property.

I would be very curious to know why he thought he would get away with this. Did he erroneously believe Bitcoin is anonymous? Have there been any interviews with the agent or those around him?

kbart 9y ago

Call me cynical, but I don't believe it's uncommon for them to take forfeit money after an arrest. This time the only difference was that Bitcoin transactions could be publicly seen, as opposed to cash/wire transfer, and the agent wasn't aware of that.

jstanley 9y ago
That normally wouldn't go directly to the agent though, right? So that's completely different.
- cptskippy 9y ago
  I believe he was saying it's not uncommon for law enforcement officers to steal forfeitures from the state. If you're the one accounting for an arrested individual's belongings, it's very easy to falsify documents.
emdowling 9y ago
> the agent wasn't aware of that If thats the case, it's interesting that he wasn't aware of the fundamentals of the technology that enabled the people he was investigating.
- draw_down 9y ago
  Is it? Criminals are often just dumb.
  - mrleinad 9y ago
    Well, you'd expect that the agents investigating those crimes would not be.
    - washadjeffmad 9y ago
      I'd expect agents to be organized and well versed in the goals and procedures of departments, not smarter or better at any random thing than any other human.
    - _jal 9y ago
      Why is that?
      - yeahsure 9y ago
        Because they are expected to have the skills needed to perform their job, specially such an important one.
- kbart 9y ago
  I personally know few quite technical people who even own some Bitcoins and tried to confront me in recent discussion when I stated that all BTC transactions can be publicly seen. They knew that BTC doesn't provide complete anonymity, but thought of it more like wire transfer, where you can only see transactions from some "authorized center", exchange or something, not that anyone can see them. So I guess this detail is easy to miss or misinterpret.

Arnt 9y ago

Bitcoin provides strong anonymity as long as you never tell anyone that wallet dcfb49fb16e688a46841c05b07b1ee40 is yours and never withdraw any money. "X is true if both Y and Z" is a UX problem waiting to happen. It's too subtle for people who check their smartphones every seven minutes, Y and/or Z will be lost in hearsay transmission.

kobeya 9y ago
Pseudoanonymity. There’s an important difference.
- kaffeemitsahne 9y ago
  Pseudonymity, actually.
- Arnt 9y ago
  If you digress into talking about important distinctions using weird long words, people are especially likely to forget the Y&Z conditions. Did you mean pseudoanonymity or pseudonymity, BTW? I can see the case for either/both, but the MSB is that is something hinges on distinctions as subtle as that, then it's too complex for 2017's general audience. UX accident waiting to happen.
  - kobeya 9y ago
    It’s not a nitpicking point. Bitcoin doesn’t provide any anonymity at all. It explicitly breaks anonymity and great lengths have to be taken to recover it. Pseudonymity is a fundamentally different property.