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U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

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Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#31

Post by dwan128 »

overthrow wrote: post #20
dwan128 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But many exchanges have been caught doing this already. FTX for example was clearly price fixing by using there own coins to prop up bitcoin.

So you believe that globally, all of the thousands of exchanges in various jurisdictions all over the world are colluding, including Fidelity and every other regulated US exchange? What about bitcoin-only companies that don't do any business in altcoins? How are they managing to prop up the price? It's reasonable to believe the market price is crazy. But it's crazy to believe the market's mere existence is a huge con…

Over these thousands of exchanges relatively little fiat money actually flows. If the real value of BTC over the total market is $x and I’m Coinbase and I have > $x amount of real cash, I now can completely fix the price and the competition just becomes more parties to scam.

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#32

Post by CommitSyn »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #18
str3wer wrote: post #14

[flagged]

> He was never prosecuted for causing harm or bodily injury and no victim was named at trial. didn't he pay for a would-have-been hit to get somebody killed but it was actually an FBI agent (aka he got set up and fell for the trap)? > Ross was not convicted of selling drugs or illegal items himself, but was held responsible for what others sold on the site. isn't that arguably worse? he helped people in a lot of coun…

He was never prosecuted for it. AFAIK they didn't even really bring it up.

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#33

Post by overthrow »

dwan128 wrote: post #31
overthrow wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you believe that globally, all of the thousands of exchanges in various jurisdictions all over the world are colluding, including Fidelity and every other regulated US exchange? What about bitcoin-only companies that don't do any business in altcoins? How are they managing to prop up the price? It's reasonable to believe the market price is crazy. But it's crazy to believe the market's mere existence is a huge con…

Over these thousands of exchanges relatively little fiat money actually flows. If the real value of BTC over the total market is $x and I’m Coinbase and I have > $x amount of real cash, I now can completely fix the price and the competition just becomes more parties to scam.

> Over these thousands of exchanges relatively little fiat money actually flows.

citation needed

So you believe Fidelity and Coinbase have been lying in their corporate disclosures for the past 10 years, along with thousands of other companies all over the world, just so they could throw hundreds of billions of dollars of their own money into a black hole, to prop up a trillion-dollar asset class for 10 years running... why? Just for fun?

Do you also believe the Nasdaq doesn't actually exist?

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#34

Post by kadoban »

lockhouse wrote: post #30
deadletters wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a pinkerman

I think they were referring to the Pinkertons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency) They have a colorful history of at one point being hired guns and were used by companies to violently end labor strikes. Interestingly enough the Pinkerton agency still exists.

> Interestingly enough the Pinkerton agency still exists.

They're still scummy union-busting pieces of shit as well.

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#35

Post by SamPatt »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #18
str3wer wrote: post #14

[flagged]

> He was never prosecuted for causing harm or bodily injury and no victim was named at trial. didn't he pay for a would-have-been hit to get somebody killed but it was actually an FBI agent (aka he got set up and fell for the trap)? > Ross was not convicted of selling drugs or illegal items himself, but was held responsible for what others sold on the site. isn't that arguably worse? he helped people in a lot of coun…

>didn't he pay for a would-have-been hit to get somebody killed but it was actually an FBI agent (aka he got set up and fell for the trap)?

I don't know, did he?

The government dropped those charges, and then when his defense team tried to present evidence defending him from those allegations (note that two federal agents eventually went to jail for their corruption during this case) the judge wouldn't allow them to present their evidence.

Basically, he never got a chance to defend himself from that allegation. Yet it was used at his sentencing to show he deserved life in prison (for non-violent crimes).

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#36

Post by xapata »

CommitSyn wrote: post #32
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He was never prosecuted for causing harm or bodily injury and no victim was named at trial. didn't he pay for a would-have-been hit to get somebody killed but it was actually an FBI agent (aka he got set up and fell for the trap)? > Ross was not convicted of selling drugs or illegal items himself, but was held responsible for what others sold on the site. isn't that arguably worse? he helped people in a lot of coun…

He was never prosecuted for it. AFAIK they didn't even really bring it up.

Isn't that a common theme for certain kinds of criminals? I remember reading that organized crime bosses are often prosecuted for tax fraud rather than the violent crimes they're also (presumed) guilty of.

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#37

Post by xapata »

nimbius wrote: post #19
str3wer wrote: post #14

[flagged]

"Ross was not convicted of selling drugs or illegal items himself, but was held responsible for what others sold on the site." Ultimately the sentence reflects the governments urgent, non negotiable and final position as arbiter of trade in its capitalist economy. Without this stringent check the market would be free to sell everything from bootleg kidneys to child slaves. This sort of libertarian absolutionist malar…

In a weird way, a skim of your comment reads as the opposite of what I think you intended, after I read it twice.

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#38

Post by thephyber »

saghm wrote: post #15
gtop3 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's irresponsible and unnecessary to suggest that the USD/BTC conversion is anything but highly variable. This market is highly fickle, prone to hype, fud, and fomo. There is also still a large international regulatory risk associated with BTC when considered as an asset. I doubly find discussions viewing BTC primarily as an asset class to miss the point of BTC. Maybe the point of BTC has changed in the last…

> I doubly find discussions viewing BTC primarily as an asset class to miss the point of BTC. Maybe the point of BTC has changed in the last 10 years, and I'm behind the curve on this one. If the price of bitcoin goes up, it's good, because it's a value store and/or a good investment! If you think it's for anonymous payments, you're missing the point. If the price of bitcoin goes down, it's not a problem, because it'…

> because it's a method of anonymous payments

Clarification: Bitcoin is not anonymous. It would be better to call it pseudonomous.

The blockchain remembers transactions and transactions on the main chain are public. Once an investigator gets access to a BTC wallet, they can understand where all of the inflows and outflows went. Even without access to the wallet, some of that can be pieced together from public blockchain data (assuming a single wallet is used).

My understanding is that other cryptocurrencies like Monero are far closer to anonymous.

Also worth mentioning that cash is anonymous (to the extent that your counterparties don’t track every bill’s serial number).

BTC’s value prop over cash is that it can be sent across distance/borders faster than cash can travel and ownership can be maintained with as little as knowledge of a few words.

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#39

Post by mike_d »

SamPatt wrote: post #35
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He was never prosecuted for causing harm or bodily injury and no victim was named at trial. didn't he pay for a would-have-been hit to get somebody killed but it was actually an FBI agent (aka he got set up and fell for the trap)? > Ross was not convicted of selling drugs or illegal items himself, but was held responsible for what others sold on the site. isn't that arguably worse? he helped people in a lot of coun…

>didn't he pay for a would-have-been hit to get somebody killed but it was actually an FBI agent (aka he got set up and fell for the trap)? I don't know, did he? The government dropped those charges, and then when his defense team tried to present evidence defending him from those allegations (note that two federal agents eventually went to jail for their corruption during this case) the judge wouldn't allow them to…

> for non-violent crimes

I get that a lot of people like to smoke weed and maybe do mushrooms at Coachella, but not all drugs are the same.

Silkroad and other darknet markets sell everything from date rape drugs to fentanyl. Framing it as facilitating a harmless or victimless crime is disingenuous. Not to mention the ancillary services that often pop up like counterfeit documents, money laundering services, guides and tools for scamming people, and other crap.

Re: U.S. Government Sold $216M of Seized Silk Road Bitcoin This Month

#40

Post by acapybara »

xapata wrote: post #37
nimbius wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Ross was not convicted of selling drugs or illegal items himself, but was held responsible for what others sold on the site." Ultimately the sentence reflects the governments urgent, non negotiable and final position as arbiter of trade in its capitalist economy. Without this stringent check the market would be free to sell everything from bootleg kidneys to child slaves. This sort of libertarian absolutionist malar…

In a weird way, a skim of your comment reads as the opposite of what I think you intended, after I read it twice.

GPT-generated comment.

These aren't supposed to be on hn.

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