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I experienced the same with funds stolen from my project http://betco.in/ http://betco.in/ - whoever stole bitcoins just sit on them right now. I do not know if
by hippich 14y ago
I experienced the same with funds stolen from my project http://betco.in/ http://betco.in/ - whoever stole bitcoins just sit on them right now. I do not know if it is because they are looking for a way to launder them (although it seems simple to me) or just waiting when bitcoins will cost $100+/$1000+/etc may be?
- rscale 14y agoPerhaps waiting out the statute of limitations in their jurisdiction?
- rprasad 14y agoThere is no SOL in most nations, as virtual goods are generally not considered property. Bitcoin is regarded as a virtual good in the U.S., so it is not possible to "steal" a bitcoin. (Note: this is a distinct concept from intellectual property -- do not confuse the issues.) In China, Korea, Singapore, and Japan, virtual goods are considered property to varying degrees. EDIT: reply to discountgenius since there was no reply link. One of the functions of government is to create laws protecting property. There aren't any laws in the U.S. that treat virtual goods such as bitcoin as property. In the U.S., at least, courts have proven extremely reluctant to extend property protections to virtual goods, i.e., MMO items, because the state of the law and underlying technology is still too much in flux. At best, virtual goods are treated as licenses. However, licenses are not property that can be stolen (and this has been litigated in non-virtual contexts). In Japan and Korea a few years ago, some courts ruled that in-game purchases were considered property for specific purposes. I do not know if their respective courts followed those cases.
- discountgenius 14y agoDo you know of any precedent where Bitcoin (or another "virtual good") was specifically treated by the government in this way?
- tzs 14y agoEven if taking the bitcoins is not itself a crime in their jurisdiction, they may have committed other crimes as part of the operation to take the bitcoins, such as unauthorized access to a computer.
- nancyhua 14y agoHow do you launder bitcoins?
- discountgenius 14y agoOne method involves running a mining pool where you pay little bits of the "dirty" coins to hundreds of different miners and keep their "clean," freshly-minted coins for yourself. It's a relatively new protocol. There may be laundering methods that nobody's thought of yet.
- nancyhua 14y agoPeople don't trace the dirty bits to the miners?
- hippich 14y agomost obvious - transfer 'em to any mtgox-like account and withdraw a day later.