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Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

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Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#2

Post by Hydraulix9899 »

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators).

Your last-mile exchange from bitcoin back to USD on Coinbase, for example, is logged and monitored by Coinbase -- furthermore, the bank is incentivized to file Suspicious Activity Reports whenever they see these large wire transfers to the virtual banks used by the exchanges for withdrawing and depositing fiat. So, even privacy coins are tracked in this way (these necessary fiat exchanges).

You can basically say the same thing about IRS tracking crypto tax evaders.

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#3

Post by klaudius »

Hydraulix9899 wrote: post #2

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators). Your la…

Use Monero

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#4

Post by axiosgunnar »

Hydraulix9899 wrote: post #2

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators). Your la…

But what if he merely sent the Bitcoin from Coinbase to another wallet first - say a brain wallet he knows in his head - and then transfered the Bitcoins to the hitman?

Wouldn't that be enough for him to be able to say "no i just bought some weed sorry, jail me for a month. i dont know why that person then went on to try to kill my wife."?

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#5

Post by me_me_me »

axiosgunnar wrote: post #4
Hydraulix9899 wrote: post #2

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators). Your la…

But what if he merely sent the Bitcoin from Coinbase to another wallet first - say a brain wallet he knows in his head - and then transfered the Bitcoins to the hitman? Wouldn't that be enough for him to be able to say "no i just bought some weed sorry, jail me for a month. i dont know why that person then went on to try to kill my wife."?

Yes you can do it with any money. What's your point?

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#7

Post by the_local_host »

axiosgunnar wrote: post #4
Hydraulix9899 wrote: post #2

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators). Your la…

But what if he merely sent the Bitcoin from Coinbase to another wallet first - say a brain wallet he knows in his head - and then transfered the Bitcoins to the hitman? Wouldn't that be enough for him to be able to say "no i just bought some weed sorry, jail me for a month. i dont know why that person then went on to try to kill my wife."?

I suspect there are few real-world examples where "you could just say X" actually works... but in this case the story is that a random "weed dealer" killed not a random person, but a specific person known to the "weed purchaser"?

Who would believe that story?

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#8

Post by cwkoss »

Hydraulix9899 wrote: post #2

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators). Your la…

Yep. The Bitcoin Blockchain is a permanent historical ledger. As time passes and info about who transacted what becomes public, the cost of identifying a transaction decreases. (Assuming Bitcoin is still around) we should assume that over time, the cost to unmask any given btc txn to asymptotically approach $0.

Even if you escape the statute of limitations, there is a good chance your grandchildren will be able to see what you did with Bitcoin by just looking it up on a public website in half a century.

Re: Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

#9

Post by cwkoss »

the_local_host wrote: post #7
axiosgunnar wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if he merely sent the Bitcoin from Coinbase to another wallet first - say a brain wallet he knows in his head - and then transfered the Bitcoins to the hitman? Wouldn't that be enough for him to be able to say "no i just bought some weed sorry, jail me for a month. i dont know why that person then went on to try to kill my wife."?

I suspect there are few real-world examples where "you could just say X" actually works... but in this case the story is that a random "weed dealer" killed not a random person, but a specific person known to the "weed purchaser"? Who would believe that story?

How does prosecution prove the payment was connected to the hitman and not the weed?

Seems like they'd need to seize the hitman's digital communications, at which point the jig is probably already up.

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