The company, which presumably has more employees than this one dude, never considered the fact that he was the only person who held the keys? C’mon. I’m smart enough to have given a friend my 1Password emergency recovery kit and, I tell you now, that ain’t worth $200m.
I don't think the company had that many employees. From the legal filing:
Most of the business of the Companies was being conducted by Gerry wherever he and his computer was located. This was most often at our house
Can you easily buy a new identity and passport though?
I guess with $200 million untraceable money you can afford to buy an identity of a dead Indian.
I would think since every transaction is recorded on the blockchain, and he is the only one with the keys, any activity involving those BTC would raise a red flag.
Edit - This is a conspiracy theory but it doesn’t mean it’s totally crazy - there is a good chance this “dead” CEO is still alive. Very shortly before his death he got his affairs in order and flew to India. Then it’s reported he died along with a death certificate from India. Now they can’t find $200mil in crypto and are not reporting the cold storage addresses. Would not surprise me if there has been massive fraud…
Indian here. Its very easy to get a death certificate. Local newspapers do funny stings where they have got birth certificates and death certificates made of international personalities. Most funny was those of Zarqawi and Bin Laden.
would you accept payouts from a person(in the US) who only agreed to pay you in Zimbabwean dollars? that's the argument you're making...sure the currency has value but are you prepared to stomach the risk that dealing with it entails?
Well not to buy a pizza, probably not. But if I wanted to buy drugs, then, yeah probably. Also 90% of the population is in the developing world where it might actually be the case that BTC is more trusted than their local currency. I think it’s myopic to consider the value of crypto against the 1st world’s banking system with respect to ‘standard’ transactions. The value lies in either: ‘non-standard’ transactions (b…
Nearly 3B of the developing world population is in India and China. I'm Indian and BTC is virtually banned here. Not that it has much utility - our payment systems are very robust and essentially free. UPI, a mobile-first payment protocol, beats anything crypto can throw up.
i don’t like talking about this in public due to the safety risk, but it’s also very easy in the united stages. you just need paper pen, white out and a fax machine. most death certificates are easily available online. perhaps i restored some of your faith in humanity. Deading someone isn’t more common
Most jurisdictions (US and otherwise) have moved to Electronic Death Registration Systems. There was a fun Defcon talk about "killing" people with them a few years ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FdHq3WfJgs
And apparently a big problem if someone fat fingers your SSN and kills you by accident. Most systems aren’t design to unkill you to correct the mistake.
I guess with $200 million untraceable money you can afford to buy an identity of a dead Indian.
I would think since every transaction is recorded on the blockchain, and he is the only one with the keys, any activity involving those BTC would raise a red flag.
But suppose that some time from now someone moves all that BTC into a different cryptocurrency, potentially via automated services like shapeshift.
No, there is no legal difference. A small typo in a crypto contract does not entitle the beneficiary to the funds. Your access to restitution through the courts is exactly the same.
No, there is no legal difference. A small typo in a crypto contract does not entitle the beneficiary to the funds. Your access to restitution through the courts is exactly the same.
A small typo in a crypto contract would not entitle the beneficiary to the funds...but a typo in a legal contract would, if sufficient other evidence of the true intent of the contract is available. That was the whole point of the comment you were replying to. Legal real-world contracts are simply better for the scenario described.
Are you trying to be dramatic just for the sake of it? Because finding a public toilet (aka sulabh shauchalaya) is not difficult AT ALL. Source: I've lived in 7 cities in India all my life.
That's the joke: it's super easy to fake a death certificate in India.
In a country of over a billion people, I imagine that finding a public toilet is not that easy.
Well not to buy a pizza, probably not. But if I wanted to buy drugs, then, yeah probably. Also 90% of the population is in the developing world where it might actually be the case that BTC is more trusted than their local currency. I think it’s myopic to consider the value of crypto against the 1st world’s banking system with respect to ‘standard’ transactions. The value lies in either: ‘non-standard’ transactions (b…
Nearly 3B of the developing world population is in India and China. I'm Indian and BTC is virtually banned here. Not that it has much utility - our payment systems are very robust and essentially free. UPI, a mobile-first payment protocol, beats anything crypto can throw up.
Two very different beasts. When you use the mobile payment system all your traces and data are being exposed, even much more than using cash. While people who need anonymity, or at least want to be hard to track, be it for buying drugs or escaping the unstable local currencies, definitely have a valid use case for crypto. Lumping everything under the term "scam" is shallow.