4 ms·

DOJ Wants to Make It Easier to Seize Crypto Without Criminal Charges

26 points by pr337h4m 4y ago

lucasyvas 4y ago
How about no? Keep your own wallet, people.
Cypher 4y ago
why don't they just seize the person they don't like
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  It's way more expensive both monetarily and politically to do it that way and therefore the bar for doing it would be set higher.
- viggity 4y ago
  because they'd actually have to file criminal charges to do that.
- thomascgalvin 4y ago
  Assets can't fight back.
dsfyu404ed 4y ago
Of course they work to subvert due process at every opportunity. Cops gonna cop.
kortex 4y ago
Looks like they are trying to put civil asset forfeiture on the blockchain. I've always wondered, would it be possible to have a system which is resistant to rubber hose cryptanalysis? Maybe a poison pill system which locks an asset until a future point in time, using smart contracts or something. You feel the heat and send your assets to such a time-safe, and no one would be able to access it for X months/years. Of course you'd need some data storage model to escrow it safely, but that could be hosted in some privacy-friendly country. Maybe even let the default state be locked and a deadman switch increases the timeout. Idk if that would just piss off the LEOs and make them wanna get retribution in some other way.
- HWR_14 4y ago
  That system is not great if you are in a regime (e.g. the UK) where "we will throw you in jail until you comply with a valid password" is legal. No valid password for 6 months is just a minimum 6 month jailcell. On top of which, I'm not sure how technically information can be distributed at time X but not be usable until time X + 6 months. Shouldn't I be able to beat out of you the password that will be valid, and test it on the smart contract, even if the blockchain won't accept movement based on that account for another six months?
  - QuadmasterXLII 4y ago
    Given 3 years, you can create a lockbox that takes ~2 years to open by repeatedly hashing a value on the fastest available single threaded processor.
    - HWR_14 4y ago
      I have no idea how that would work at all. I need to derive a private key (I assume) to move the money. So what's your solution? Keep in mind, it has to work with only the password I have, so if it's just a matter of hashing an attacker can start right away with "assume the password is 'password'"
frank_bb 4y ago

26 points by pr337h4m 4y ago

lucasyvas 4y ago

How about no? Keep your own wallet, people.

Cypher 4y ago

why don't they just seize the person they don't like

dsfyu404ed 4y ago
It's way more expensive both monetarily and politically to do it that way and therefore the bar for doing it would be set higher.
viggity 4y ago
because they'd actually have to file criminal charges to do that.
thomascgalvin 4y ago
Assets can't fight back.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago

Of course they work to subvert due process at every opportunity. Cops gonna cop.

kortex 4y ago

Looks like they are trying to put civil asset forfeiture on the blockchain. I've always wondered, would it be possible to have a system which is resistant to rubber hose cryptanalysis? Maybe a poison pill system which locks an asset until a future point in time, using smart contracts or something. You feel the heat and send your assets to such a time-safe, and no one would be able to access it for X months/years. Of course you'd need some data storage model to escrow it safely, but that could be hosted in some privacy-friendly country. Maybe even let the default state be locked and a deadman switch increases the timeout. Idk if that would just piss off the LEOs and make them wanna get retribution in some other way.

HWR_14 4y ago
That system is not great if you are in a regime (e.g. the UK) where "we will throw you in jail until you comply with a valid password" is legal. No valid password for 6 months is just a minimum 6 month jailcell. On top of which, I'm not sure how technically information can be distributed at time X but not be usable until time X + 6 months. Shouldn't I be able to beat out of you the password that will be valid, and test it on the smart contract, even if the blockchain won't accept movement based on that account for another six months?
- QuadmasterXLII 4y ago
  Given 3 years, you can create a lockbox that takes ~2 years to open by repeatedly hashing a value on the fastest available single threaded processor.
  - HWR_14 4y ago
    I have no idea how that would work at all. I need to derive a private key (I assume) to move the money. So what's your solution? Keep in mind, it has to work with only the password I have, so if it's just a matter of hashing an attacker can start right away with "assume the password is 'password'"

frank_bb 4y ago