4 ms·

If they don't have the private keys and use them to move the balance to addresses that only they control, they didn't really seize anything.

NullPrefix 7y ago
Seize the day
est31 7y ago
The way I see it is that you can seize a car, airplane or ship without having keys for it. What's important is that the government considers those bitcoins as its property. So if anyone in the future is moving BTC from those addresses, they are infringing upon government property like someone who stole a police car. The government might even auction that right off, although the fact that they don't have immediate access probably reduces the value by a large amount.
- sickygnar 7y ago
  It's like they don't know where the car is, only which it is, and put the vin in some stolen car database. Bitcoin seems so terrible privacy wise. It's so much more traceable than cash. I don't know why people don't just use monero. That'd be like everyone on the planet drives the same car, and the only way to identify yours would be to have the keys to it. The analogy works because monero takes a long time to identify yours with your key - you have to check every "car". That's one of the major technological downsides to it unfortunately.
  - three_seagrass 7y ago
    Bitcoin is ridiculously anti-privacy. The public ledger of every single transaction throughout history coupled with everyone knowing exactly how much funds you have in your wallet is kind of absurd from a consumer standpoint.
- BubRoss 7y ago
  Good luck with that. After the coins are moved to various other addresses, then what? What if part of an address' balance is from a small transaction from one of these addresses?
- ur-whale 7y ago
  > What's important is that the government considers those bitcoins as its property "condiders", insofar as governments are concerned only reaches as far as their sovereignty does. In the case of Ireland, that IIRC, 12 miles from their shores [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_waters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_waters

NullPrefix 7y ago

Seize the day

est31 7y ago

The way I see it is that you can seize a car, airplane or ship without having keys for it. What's important is that the government considers those bitcoins as its property. So if anyone in the future is moving BTC from those addresses, they are infringing upon government property like someone who stole a police car. The government might even auction that right off, although the fact that they don't have immediate access probably reduces the value by a large amount.

sickygnar 7y ago
It's like they don't know where the car is, only which it is, and put the vin in some stolen car database. Bitcoin seems so terrible privacy wise. It's so much more traceable than cash. I don't know why people don't just use monero. That'd be like everyone on the planet drives the same car, and the only way to identify yours would be to have the keys to it. The analogy works because monero takes a long time to identify yours with your key - you have to check every "car". That's one of the major technological downsides to it unfortunately.
- three_seagrass 7y ago
  Bitcoin is ridiculously anti-privacy. The public ledger of every single transaction throughout history coupled with everyone knowing exactly how much funds you have in your wallet is kind of absurd from a consumer standpoint.
BubRoss 7y ago
Good luck with that. After the coins are moved to various other addresses, then what? What if part of an address' balance is from a small transaction from one of these addresses?
ur-whale 7y ago
> What's important is that the government considers those bitcoins as its property "condiders", insofar as governments are concerned only reaches as far as their sovereignty does. In the case of Ireland, that IIRC, 12 miles from their shores [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_waters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_waters