4 ms·

The problem here (by design) is jurisdiction, the US DOJ doesn't stretch as far as the bitcoin network. As an example, why would someone in Russia stop process

• svara 6y ago
  ... because any wallet downstream of the tainted wallet in the transaction graph could be considered tainted as well. This would be a highly effective attack on Bitcoin as an illegal payment method - the onus would be on every Bitcoin user to ensure that they have provably done everything they could to avoid obtaining "illegal bitcoins". Therefore, the person in Russia in your example would have an interest in not dealing with tainted coins, because they couldn't be sold for the same price anymore. It would basically split Bitcoin into white (provably legit), grey (unsure) and black (illegal) coins. Yes, this would probably also destroy Bitcoin, but that's a mechanism by which states could obtain extraterritorial power over what people do with Bitcoin.
  • maerF0x0 6y ago
    This is almost exactly the concept i was thinking of. If the exchanges want to continue to do business in the US they will blocklist the FBI's "suspect" wallets / blocks or something like that...