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What happens when bitcoins are stolen? Can they be use again without being traced?
What happens when bitcoins are stolen? Can they be use again without being traced?
From what I've been told, yes....they can be used when stolen; it's kinda the whole untraceable, distributed nature of it all.
This is wrong. Every single transaction is saved, by everyone. It's the core of how the protocol works.
That doesn't mean there aren't ways to obscure who controls the wallets, but it's not untraceable, and 'distributed' has nothing to do with privacy.
Which begs the question, how can one determine the veracity of the security claims of website operators? Bitcoins are a convertible currency but are not regulated, insured or guaranteed by any authority. I guess even modern fiat currencies had their teething problems with theft and counterfeiting, so this is not too surprising.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From what I've been told, yes....they can be used when stolen; it's kinda the whole untraceable, distributed nature of it all.
But they are traceable. There is a public record of every wallet address the bitcoin has touched. If those who it was stolen from reveal their wallet addresses, it should be possible to track down the coins and find out who the thief was.
Do bit coins have identity and hence be flagged as stolen somewhere ?.
> flagged as stolen
That would imply some sort of centralized authority to decide exactly what 'stolen' means. Even if a third-party service kept track, it'd be meaningless in short order, as mixers exist...
Coinlenders is a sister site to Inputs that share the same wallets. Coinlenders funds are being re-distributed to Inputs wallets. I obviously made a good decision to leave Coinlenders when I did as Coinlenders users are going to get perhaps 40% of their invested amounts back.
What really should happen is the owner (Tradefortress on BitcoinTalk) Should use his own massive stash of Bitcoins to compensate all his users.