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Something's off about the article: "Authorities have seized his digital wallet" How do you seize a digital wallet when all you need to access or recreate it i

Something's off about the article: "Authorities have seized his digital wallet" How do you seize a digital wallet when all you need to access or recreate it is a private key (or recovery text)? What have they seized exactly?

auggierose 6y ago
They've seized the file, but don't have the key. So, they haven't seized anything really, as I am pretty sure the guy has a copy of that file.
- heckerhut 6y ago
  Sure, ok, so they have an encrypted version of the private key!?
  - auggierose 6y ago
    From the Wiki: > The wallet.dat file is located in the Bitcoin data directory and may be encrypted with a password. I guess they have the encrypted wallet.dat, but not the password for decrypting it.
    - realce 6y ago
      Obviously it has been seized. They put it in the /police/property/seized dir and therefore it is the government's!
      - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
        More likely C:\Users\OfficerDibble\Desktop\
- grlass 6y ago
  If he doesn't have a copy of the file, then even if the cops can't access it, semantically they could be said to have seized them?
  - tyingq 6y ago
    He might know the 12 word key phrase. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Brainwallet https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Brainwallet
- miked85 6y ago
  If you have a paper wallet or memorized it, that file doesn't really matter though. Nothing was seized other than encrypted data.
heckerhut 6y ago
Exactly. They have seized nothing, apparently. The author over at the verge apparently doesn‘t get it either. The only way this would make any sense is if we were looking at a multi-sig wallet where police has seized one out of two necessary keys, where the second one is a brain wallet or hidden somewhere.
woah 6y ago
I imagine that if he tries to spend it, that would be considered theft
- ckdarby 6y ago
  The owner could hold and hope for another fork to happen if it ever does and spend on the fork side. If they were determined and willing to break the law they'll probably wait to do a crypto swap. Trading BTC for another crypto that is easier to hide behind in the future. The usual arguments I get is none of this matters because the individual won't be able to spend the crypto into anything of value. Government will monitor the wallet and then monitor any assets, securities, etc the German man has. Nobody knows what the future will look like though and what happens if any country comes out supporting crypto as their default day to day currency? German man moves, becomes citizen, denounces his German citizenship to not need to report anything and is able to exchange crypto for assets and securities. For $60M today and what might be +$100M when the time comes I'm sure there will be a path of spending 90%, keeping 10% and living a life of very little worry.
  - ur-whale 6y ago
    >The owner could hold and hope for another fork to happen if it ever does and spend on the fork side. Or move to the country next door. For 60 mils, uprooting yourself is definitely an option.
    - wheybags 6y ago
      You'll probably find that Germany has extradition treaties with most countries worth living in though.
      - ur-whale 6y ago
        >most countries worth living in With 60 mils USD in pocket. the list of "countries worth living in" becomes a lot longer than you may think.
  - 6y ago
reagent_finder 6y ago
| How do you seize a digital wallet You look at the culprit very, very sternly.
- ur-whale 6y ago
  Or (obligatory): https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/

auggierose 6y ago

They've seized the file, but don't have the key. So, they haven't seized anything really, as I am pretty sure the guy has a copy of that file.

heckerhut 6y ago
Sure, ok, so they have an encrypted version of the private key!?
- auggierose 6y ago
  From the Wiki: > The wallet.dat file is located in the Bitcoin data directory and may be encrypted with a password. I guess they have the encrypted wallet.dat, but not the password for decrypting it.
  - realce 6y ago
    Obviously it has been seized. They put it in the /police/property/seized dir and therefore it is the government's!
    - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
      More likely C:\Users\OfficerDibble\Desktop\
grlass 6y ago
If he doesn't have a copy of the file, then even if the cops can't access it, semantically they could be said to have seized them?
- tyingq 6y ago
  He might know the 12 word key phrase. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Brainwallet https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Brainwallet
miked85 6y ago
If you have a paper wallet or memorized it, that file doesn't really matter though. Nothing was seized other than encrypted data.

heckerhut 6y ago

Exactly. They have seized nothing, apparently. The author over at the verge apparently doesn‘t get it either. The only way this would make any sense is if we were looking at a multi-sig wallet where police has seized one out of two necessary keys, where the second one is a brain wallet or hidden somewhere.

woah 6y ago

I imagine that if he tries to spend it, that would be considered theft

ckdarby 6y ago
The owner could hold and hope for another fork to happen if it ever does and spend on the fork side. If they were determined and willing to break the law they'll probably wait to do a crypto swap. Trading BTC for another crypto that is easier to hide behind in the future. The usual arguments I get is none of this matters because the individual won't be able to spend the crypto into anything of value. Government will monitor the wallet and then monitor any assets, securities, etc the German man has. Nobody knows what the future will look like though and what happens if any country comes out supporting crypto as their default day to day currency? German man moves, becomes citizen, denounces his German citizenship to not need to report anything and is able to exchange crypto for assets and securities. For $60M today and what might be +$100M when the time comes I'm sure there will be a path of spending 90%, keeping 10% and living a life of very little worry.
- ur-whale 6y ago
  >The owner could hold and hope for another fork to happen if it ever does and spend on the fork side. Or move to the country next door. For 60 mils, uprooting yourself is definitely an option.
  - wheybags 6y ago
    You'll probably find that Germany has extradition treaties with most countries worth living in though.
    - ur-whale 6y ago
      >most countries worth living in With 60 mils USD in pocket. the list of "countries worth living in" becomes a lot longer than you may think.
- 6y ago

reagent_finder 6y ago

| How do you seize a digital wallet You look at the culprit very, very sternly.

ur-whale 6y ago
Or (obligatory): https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/