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> What if there was a way to tag bitcoins as stolen and declare them null and void? When you say that sentence, replace the word bitcoins with gold. I say thi
by joeblau 13y ago
> What if there was a way to tag bitcoins as stolen and declare them null and void?
When you say that sentence, replace the word bitcoins with gold. I say this because in essence, bitcoins are a finite resource that have perceived value. They also are harder to obtain the more people mine them. Now think about what would happen if someone stole gold and an authority (which doesn't exist) declared the stolen gold null and void. Someone, somewhere with lower ethics would be very happy to take the "null and void" gold because the fact that it's stolen has absolutely impact on it's value.
- gus_massa 13y agoGold is much easier to melt and cast in new “clean” ingots. It’s not possible to trace it, so nobody could declare some of it void. But each Bitcoin transaction is public, so it’s easy to see the origin of each Bitcoin. But I think this idea has many technical and psychological problems . You essentially need to fork the Blockchain and convince the “51%” to use the new fork where these Bitcoins are illegal. Doge recently changed some details of the mining procedure using a hard fork, but they have a strong central organization and they pretend that Doge is not a serious coin. An equivalent change in Bitcoin would be much more difficult.
- sentenza 13y agoIs it really not possible to trace gold? I was under the impression that for much of the gold out there you could use the "footprint" of contaminations in the gold to infer the age (since mining) and procedence to a certain degree. Of course, if you melt it in a top-notch facility, they'd probably be able to heat out the contaminants (or remove them chemically?), but people trading in stolen or otherwise "hot" gold probably don't have access to such facilities.
- gus_massa 13y agoI guess that removing the contaminant traces is very difficult or impossible (unless you have a very hi-tech facility), adding a few contaminants looks easier. Anyway, mixing gold from different source should give a new contaminant composition that makes it very difficult to trace.
- mason240 13y ago> When you say that sentence, replace the word bitcoins with gold. Let's suppose that this gold is Nazi gold, taken from Jews. You know that Nazi gold will be traced to you(because each gold atom has an address). Would you still accept that gold as payment? I'm not an expert on bitcoin though, so my analoy could be way off.