5 ms·

No doubt there are other copies of those codes, but now Collins has plausible deniability :)

capableweb 7y ago
Seems to be a little bit of doubt though: > Much of what he has told the Garda has been supported by a range of witnesses, including those who cleared his house, his landlord and others who helped him break up his bitcoin fortune into 12 accounts. Garda believe he has genuinely lost the codes for the accounts But if they are in on the reward, they might just help corroborate his story in order to get a piece. Who knows?
- 4rt 7y ago
  they've corroborated that he owned a fishing rod which was disposed of. even assuming the codes were stored there he could have 10 other copies of the same in other places and how would anybody know. they could be encoded in a simple way to make them unrecognisable and unusable to anybody but him.
  - 1000units 7y ago
    If he had disposed of any napkins in that timeframe they may contain the secret data as well.
- TwoBit 7y ago
  No way would he be stupid enough to have these only on a single sheet of paper. Surely he considered the possibility of a fire, for example. And just because witnesses seem to think something only shows that he did the right thing with respect to them too. I might leave as much as $300 with a sheet of paper, but not $50M+.
  - jacques_chester 7y ago
    There's no intelligence test required to become a criminal.
    - ur-whale 7y ago
      He sells weed so he's a criminal?
jacques_chester 7y ago
If they know the wallet address, any movements will be a giant neon sign screaming "hey, arrest me again!"
- psychlops 7y ago
  Or that someone found the rod in a landfill and enriched themselves. It would be difficult to prove that it was him.
- FDSGSG 7y ago
  Fairly easy to pull off without any chance of getting caught. Get a tails VM and use some Chinese exchanger to change those coins to monero, veeeery slowly spend the monero. Odds are you wouldn't be risking any significant punishment either.
  - mattnguyen 7y ago
    Or use coinjoin
    - FDSGSG 7y ago
      Also possible, but more difficult and significantly slower.
- bowmessage 7y ago
  I mean, that would make for an interesting legal case. I feel that you could try and argue though that some Bitcoin 0-day was used to move the funds and retain your deniability... Even the officers hope this happens one day (! good luck to them, if the tech existed the coins would be immediately worthless...) "... officers said they were hopeful advances in technology would one day enable them to access the bitcoin so it could be sold."
  - jacques_chester 7y ago
    Doubling down on perjury as a legal tactic is unwise. I think it would only be interesting in that folks who think crypto is magically law-proof would discover that no, it's not. Not at all.

Seems to be a little bit of doubt though: > Much of what he has told the Garda has been supported by a range of witnesses, including those who cleared his house, his landlord and others who helped him break up his bitcoin fortune into 12 accounts. Garda believe he has genuinely lost the codes for the accounts But if they are in on the reward, they might just help corroborate his story in order to get a piece. Who knows?

4rt 7y ago
they've corroborated that he owned a fishing rod which was disposed of. even assuming the codes were stored there he could have 10 other copies of the same in other places and how would anybody know. they could be encoded in a simple way to make them unrecognisable and unusable to anybody but him.
- 1000units 7y ago
  If he had disposed of any napkins in that timeframe they may contain the secret data as well.
TwoBit 7y ago
No way would he be stupid enough to have these only on a single sheet of paper. Surely he considered the possibility of a fire, for example. And just because witnesses seem to think something only shows that he did the right thing with respect to them too. I might leave as much as $300 with a sheet of paper, but not $50M+.
- jacques_chester 7y ago
  There's no intelligence test required to become a criminal.
  - ur-whale 7y ago
    He sells weed so he's a criminal?

jacques_chester 7y ago

If they know the wallet address, any movements will be a giant neon sign screaming "hey, arrest me again!"

psychlops 7y ago
Or that someone found the rod in a landfill and enriched themselves. It would be difficult to prove that it was him.
FDSGSG 7y ago
Fairly easy to pull off without any chance of getting caught. Get a tails VM and use some Chinese exchanger to change those coins to monero, veeeery slowly spend the monero. Odds are you wouldn't be risking any significant punishment either.
- mattnguyen 7y ago
  Or use coinjoin
  - FDSGSG 7y ago
    Also possible, but more difficult and significantly slower.
bowmessage 7y ago
I mean, that would make for an interesting legal case. I feel that you could try and argue though that some Bitcoin 0-day was used to move the funds and retain your deniability... Even the officers hope this happens one day (! good luck to them, if the tech existed the coins would be immediately worthless...) "... officers said they were hopeful advances in technology would one day enable them to access the bitcoin so it could be sold."
- jacques_chester 7y ago
  Doubling down on perjury as a legal tactic is unwise. I think it would only be interesting in that folks who think crypto is magically law-proof would discover that no, it's not. Not at all.