Hilo oficial del Bitcoin (III)

The Dread Pirate's Cash Stash is Still Safe

As a quick addendum to our recent post on the Silk Road bust and what it means for bitcoin (surprisingly little), here is something that strikes us as truly funny. Apparently the FBI finds itself unable to confiscate the Dread Pirate's stash of bitcoins:

“Closing down the Silk Road and arresting its alleged operator has left the FBI in uncharted territory. After shuttering the ****** site, law enforcement went to work confiscating the money and materials belonging to supposed drug kingpin Ross Ulbricht, but this usually routine procedure is proving especially troublesome in this case. The cache of more than 600,000 bitcoins in Ulbricht’s personal fortune are still inaccessible to the FBI. The only way to move Bitcoins out of a private wallet is to have the corresponding private key to authorize the tras*action. The FBI has been unable to get through the encryption protecting Ulbricht’s wallet, leaving all those Bitcoins — amounting to roughly $80 million at current rates — out of reach. Based on publicly available data, this is about 5% of all Bitcoins in existence right now.

Funds held by users of the site, however, were not so well-protected. Before completing tras*actions on the Silk Road, users would load Bitcoins into an escrow account on the site. The agreed upon coins would only be tras*ferred to the seller’s private wallet once the buyer had verified delivery of the goods. When the feds took over the Silk Road, there were over 26,000 Bitcoins in user accounts that were relatively easy to snatch up.

The FBI has tras*ferred all 26,000-plus seized Bitcoins to its own personal wallet, but because Bitcoin tras*actions are tracked publicly, it didn’t take the internet long to find the FBI’s wallet address. Users have taken to tras*ferring tiny fractions of a Bitcoin to the FBI with public comments attached decrying the war on drugs and the arrest of Ulbricht. Users have even helpfully tagged the wallet address as “Silkroad Seized Coins.” You can check out the comments as they come in by watching the blockchain for the FBI’s wallet.”


In other words, one of bitcoin's main attraction – that it is untraceable like cash and cannot be 'stolen' in the conventional sense by outsiders – remains in perfectly fine fettle. The FBI's inability to seize the Dread Pirate's bitcoin stash is a great PR victory for bitcoin.

As to users inundating the FBI's bitcoin wallet with protests against the drug war, this is an additional irony. Since it is not possible to identify them, they need not antiestéticar any reprisals, which is giving them an excellent opportunity to vent their opinion on the senseless 'drug war'. That isn't going to change anything, but we suspect that even within the FBI there are by now many people who are questioning whether the 'war on drugs' makes any sense. As noted previously, after more than 30 years, it has yet to attain a single one of its purported official objectives. That leaves basically only one possibility if one employs Occam's razor in pondering the question why it is continued: the official objectives are not the true objectives. There is a ****** agenda.



Pecunia Non Olet

The authorities have seized Ulbricht's bitcoin 'wallet' – but this is not sufficient to take control of the funds:

“While authorities have control of Ulbricht’s wallet, that’s not the same as having the funds. It’s akin to seizing a computer from a suspect with valuable data inside, but being unable to access it because strong encryption was used to prevent access. Ulbricht himself surely has the necessary information to unlock his wallet — otherwise there would be little use in accumulating $80 million worth of Bitcoins. It’s possible prosecutors will use the leverage they have on him to work out a deal that includes turning over the encryption keys.”
If Ulbricht is betting on government's greed providing him with a little bit of leverage in negotiations, he is probably correct. It gets even funnier though – the government doesn't recognize bitcoins as 'money' – but that won't keep it from spending this 'non-money'. As the author notes, the essentially bankrupt government no doubt can use the cash infusion:

“The government doesn’t even want to recognize Bitcoins as money, but that apparently won’t stop it from spending them. In these dark days of government shutdowns and sequestration, Uncle Sam could use the infusion of cash. The Bitcoins taken as part of the Silk Road operation will be held until legal proceedings have finished, then they will be liquidated, according to an FBI spokesperson. Users who are out those 26,000 BTC are unlikely to be seeing them again. Even if Ulbricht avoids spending the remainder of his days in prison, his $80 million fortune probably won’t be waiting for him.”

They will throw the book at Ulbricht, so it is highly doubtful he will ever leave prison again. Of course it cannot be categorically ruled out that drug laws will change one day and some drug-related sentences will then be altered retroactively. Anyway, bitcoin's reputation as a safe and anonymous form of money remains intact and may even be enhanced in the wake of the Silk Road bust. As to Uncle Sam, he is simply acting according to the ages old maxim:

“Pecunia non olet”.

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hdb3 dijo:

Vaya, veo que el volumen de troleo se está recuperando, en el post. Suele haber una correlación entre el troleo general de bitcoin y su valoración respecto al dollar. Por la intensidad del troleo de ayer parece que se preparé un nuevo rally. Hasta a vuelto el judío errante. Ladrán, luego cabalgamos...

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Spielzeug dijo:

No os acordais de cuando este hilo estaba lleno de gente distinta a los 4 monos que escribimos actualmente en el hilo, queriendo comprar, preguntando sus dudas mientras se hablaba de precios de 4 o 5 cifras? :fiufiu:

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Spielzeug dijo:

Que va, el volumen de troleo lleva bajando desde que pincho la burbuja

No os acordais de cuando este hilo estaba lleno de gente distinta a los 4 monos que escribimos actualmente en el hilo, queriendo comprar, preguntando sus dudas mientras se hablaba de precios de 4 o 5 cifras? :fiufiu:

Por cierto, recomiendo una relectura del hilo desde un par de meses antes del maximo para ver en retrospectiva lo que es la fase de euforia de una burbuja. Es muy interesante... 8:

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hdb3 dijo:

Aha, según tu en que fase de burbuja estallado nos encontramos, porque a mi me da que muchos esperaban que volviéramos a valores de dos dígitos bajos, y se han llevado un gran chasco.

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Idiocracia dijo:

Se llama "bull trap" (esto vuelve p'arriba). Llega inevitablemente después del pico.

Aunque yo diría que estamos ya en "vuelta a la normalidad" porque el nuevo meme de los mas alucinados es la "estabilidad"

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hdb3 dijo:

Aha, según tu en que fase de burbuja estallado nos encontramos, porque a mi me da que muchos esperaban que volviéramos a valores de dos dígitos bajos, y se han llevado un gran chasco.

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Spielzeug dijo:

En que punto te situas?

Yo he visto ya la "Media attention" (salio en todos los mas media promocionado como la moneda del futuro al margen del control de los bancos centrales)

El "Enthusiasm" tambien (en el foro durante un tiempo no paraban de abrirse hilo con bitcoin)

Y tambien el "New paradigm" cuando la gente estaba flipada de tener el dinero del futuro en el presente.

Yo lo veo mas bien el el "Return to normal"...

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Idiocracia dijo:

Se llama "bull trap" (esto vuelve p'arriba). Llega inevitablemente después del pico.

Aunque yo diría que estamos ya en "vuelta a la normalidad" porque el nuevo meme de los mas alucinados es la "estabilidad"

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I bought bitcoin at $95

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I wish I bought bitcoin at $95

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Spielzeug dijo:

Ya respondi a eso y coincido con el post de Gen:

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Spielzeug dijo:

Ya respondi a eso y coincido con el post de Gen:

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hdb3 dijo:

Ya llegó el broker experto, buenos días Gen. Te has equivocado el hilo del oro esta unos clics más abajo.

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hdb3 dijo:

Era solo una una una recomendación caritativa....

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Sr.elemento dijo:

¿Un bull trap de seis meses de duración (desde abril), una duración igual a un 150% del tiempo que duró el subidón desde enero hasta el bajonazo de abril? ¿Acaso intentáis hacernos comulgar con ruedas de molino o qué?

Mira que yo soy descreído con eso del análisis técnico, pero si alguien saca la dichosa gráfica de la burbuja de marras, lo mínimo que se le puede exigir es que se ciña a los tiempos que muestra.

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Sr.elemento dijo:

Ahora dime tú dónde ves esa formación de burbuja según la gráfica que te he puesto. estamos todavía en el incipiente "Take-Off"

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Sr.elemento dijo:

Por cierto, id tomando posiciones:

Chipre = 1.000.000 habitantes ==>260 $/BTC
Eslovenia = 2.000.000 habitantes, 22'5% de jovenlandesa en el sistema bancario ==> xxxx$/BTC

Si son ciertas las palabras de Djiesselbloem de que el modelo de Chipre (chipriotazo) es el que se va a implantar ahora en los rescates... preparaos para el chupinazo.

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