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There's something to this. It's entirely possible that the password is some randomly generated one that you wrote on a piece of paper taped under a desk somewhe
by eksith 13y ago
There's something to this. It's entirely possible that the password is some randomly generated one that you wrote on a piece of paper taped under a desk somewhere.
During the "raid" (I.E. your desperate attempt to set fire to your own property to destroy evidence), this password was lost.
The court can't force you to hand over something you no longer have. Of course, the court also can't give you a polygraph test since it isn't admissible as evidence anyway.
If the Bitcoins do get spent sometime later, you could argue someone likely bruteforced the passphrase (it was only 12 characters long). That's still reasonable doubt.
Edit: After reading my own post, I'm quite terrified of my own imagination. I think you're a bad influence on me :(
- anigbrowl 13y agoIf the Bitcoins do get spent sometime later, you could argue someone likely bruteforced the passphrase (it was only 12 characters long). That's still reasonable doubt. Good luck arguing that that a password with 78-bit entropy (12 characters out of 95 in the ASCII set) was likely broken by brute force. 'Reasonable doubt' does not mean 'no matter how improbable,' otherwise nobody would ever get convicted.
- eksith 13y agoReasonable doubt means there is reasonable doubt. Or if you prefer metaphors, the term is naked. Doubt, that the progenitor of the pass phrase was likely the one who transferred the coins to another address(s) is sufficient to preclude it as a determining factor. That is, of course, if your lawyer is good enough to be persuasive. Meanwhile, people have been convicted with far more implausible evidence (eyewitness testimony comes to mind) so this will be the least of your worries.
- anigbrowl 13y agoReasonable doubt means there is reasonable doubt. Wow. You've certainly persuaded me.
- eksith 13y agoYou tried to infuse more meaning to that term by trying to add to its definition a-thing-that-it-isn't. >'Reasonable doubt' does not mean 'no matter how improbable,' You're right. "Reasonable doubt" also does not mean "Ice Cream Sunday", but that doesn't make it "Pudding" instead. The term means exactly what it says, so I say again, "Reasonable doubt means there is reasonable doubt". It's times like this I genuinely wish HN had an "ignore" feature since I don't believe in down votes.