311–320 of 424 posts
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Brilliant precendent you're trying to set here Einstein.
What's with the hostile response and name calling? If you don't agree with me you can write a constructive response.
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Not really. Seized properties often sell for less than half of the market value... doesn't mean the property is worth half now... it means the government can't be bothered to take on the responsibility of selling the property at full retail -- ie. they just want to get rid of the assets and move on.
Actually is does mean that it's worth what it sells for. The nature of seized goods increases the risk premium demanded from a buyer resulting in a lower price. Sources of risk: 1) Goods aren't as they seem. Drug dealers may not have treated the goods as well as average owner. 2) Risk of violence. I wouldn't want to buy some drug dealer's prized yacht... wouldn't sleep well. 3) Illiquid good. If it's hard to resale t…
Individual sales mean nothing to overall valuations unless the saleable item is truly unique. Bitcoins aren't.
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If the coins were seized on Silk Road servers they didn't belong to anyone at the time but the Silk Road. We can argue the merits of returning the coins to the last previously associated wallets; but I don't think the U.S. Gov has any intention of returning drug money to drug buyers the same way they wouldn't give gun money back to arms buyers.
A very stretched example follows, be warned: An online shop selling clothing also happens to sell firearms illegally. Its assets are seized. What about money from pending orders for the clothing? It seems to me it's obvious in this case. Couldn't SR users start a class action lawsuit against gov for seizing their assets stored on SR servers? This is assuming not everything sold there was illegal (this might be wrong)…
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It's not a great look for the BitCoin market if you can buy in bulk at 75%.
Look at the restrictions, though. Potential bidders must have $200,000 USD Deposit sent to the U.S. Marshalls from a U.S. bank account by 9am June 16th (~2 business days from now). That disqualifies a good 99.9999% of the world from being eligible to bid.
There are people who know exactly how to buy seized goods from the government. They make money doing so. If you think they are making Too Much Money, then you can raise money from your friends and start competing with them.
It's very similar to buying distressed houses. You can make a killing there, or end up bankrupt. The market figures out the risk premiums on its own.
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What's with the hostile response and name calling? If you don't agree with me you can write a constructive response.
I can see how you would take it as hostile but it was not meant to be. However, trying to set a precedent on "Let's agree that this money should vanish because we all don't like where it currently is" turns into "I'm a core developer and my wife just left me so I'm just going to ruin her" in relatively few steps. What you are suggesting would be a centralized backdoor in a decentralized protocol.
This is very shocking. So the government makes it illegal to sell narcotics, regardless, some individuals take a risk and deal drugs to be able to sustain themselves or finance a lifestyle of their choice. Now the government start prosecuting someone, seize their assets (Which were turned over through illicit methods) and release this dodgy money back to the market. What's more disturbing about this whole scenario is…
Bitcoins aren't what made Silk Road illegal.
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I think this is the best publicity imaginable. I can't see any reason why the price wouldn't go through the roof over the next month, but bitcoin prices are tough to predict.
Can you explain why?
(2) Having the US government treat bitcoin as an auctionable asset undercuts naysayers who say bitcoins are "tulips".
(3) We have a precedent with the original seizure leading to a bitcoin rally.
(4) The US government is now acting as a sort of "bitcoin exchange". This auction will give new actors a way to enter the bitcoin market without certain legal uncertainties.
https://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5G... https://blockchain.info/address/1FfmbHfnpaZjKFvyi1okTjJJusN4...
Whoa, almost the whole balance from that first address was just moved to here https://blockchain.info/address/1Ez69SnzzmePmZX3WpEzMKTrcBF2...
Insane. The USMS with this announcement massively devalued it. It would have been far better to quietly sell these BTC evenly spread across the major exchanges at market prices.
If you have a plan to get 98% of the value of these Bitcoins and think that someone else will only get 70%, then dig through your couch cushions to raise 15 million bucks and outbid the other guy.
These are totally normal market mechanisms.
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I think this is the best publicity imaginable. I can't see any reason why the price wouldn't go through the roof over the next month, but bitcoin prices are tough to predict.
Can you explain why?