One great thing about bit coin is that all the metadata is available to everyone. You would be hard pressed to make a fancy chart like this with fiat currency.
just a minor nitpick, but bitcoin is also fiat currency.
Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
11–20 of 47 posts
Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#12Interesting. What's $40MM in bitcoin? I ask because most of these articles are trying to shock you with the exchange value rather than the BTC value.
How is it any different from "one ton of gold" versus "$40 million in gold"? Surely the latter provides more useful information to the general public?
"Useful" for somebody, sure. I don't think that fact has any use for the pubic.
Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#13One great thing about bit coin is that all the metadata is available to everyone. You would be hard pressed to make a fancy chart like this with fiat currency.
just a minor nitpick, but bitcoin is also fiat currency.
By that, do you mean that bitcoin does not have any intrinsic value?
Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
The overwhelming majority of Bitcoin users are concerned with the exchange value, so it makes sense to give that rather than the "native" value.
So you're saying it's not a currency, but a speculative play?
For most buyers of bitcoin currently, yes. In the future that might change.
Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#15One great thing about bit coin is that all the metadata is available to everyone. You would be hard pressed to make a fancy chart like this with fiat currency.
just a minor nitpick, but bitcoin is also fiat currency.
I think a government needs to back the currency before it becomes a fiat currency.
Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#16One great thing about bit coin is that all the metadata is available to everyone. You would be hard pressed to make a fancy chart like this with fiat currency.
just a minor nitpick, but bitcoin is also fiat currency.
> just a minor nitpick, but bitcoin is also fiat currency.
Bitcoin is not "fiat currency" by the most common definition(currency whose value is supported by the mandate -- or "fiat" -- of a government for its use in certain domains, but which is neither a directly-useful commodity on its own nor backed by a promise of exchange for a commodity.)
Bitcoin is "fiat currency" by another broader definition ("currency that is neither a generally-useful commodity on its own nor backed by a promise of exchange for a commodity"), which has historically largely been equivalent to the more common definition, because prior to Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies, no one was using unbacked currency that weren't supported by government fiat.
Its probably better to use a different term for the broader definition, since there is no fiat necessarily involved, there are meaningful differences between unbacked currencies supported by government fiat and those that aren't, and there are now meaningful examples of unbacked currencies without the support of a government fiat.
Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#17So the '324 is FBI on phone handset' comment, is this the FBI transferring $40M from Silk Road wallets to some other wallet? Or is it something else? Also one wonders what is done with the 'evidence' after the case. I could imagine the FBI simply deleting the wallets but does anyone know their actual policy?
> I could imagine the FBI simply deleting the wallets but does anyone know their actual policy? Pretty sure whatever their policy is, it isn't "throw away $150million of seized assets"
Except that it's not $150 million of seized assets, it's a bunch of electronic money that could or would at one point potentially sell for approximately $150 million if there were enough buyers for the offered digital product.
What does the FBI or other agencies do with intercepted drug money and criminal possessions? Drugs get destroyed, that much I know, but not sure about the other stuff.
Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#18So the '324 is FBI on phone handset' comment, is this the FBI transferring $40M from Silk Road wallets to some other wallet? Or is it something else? Also one wonders what is done with the 'evidence' after the case. I could imagine the FBI simply deleting the wallets but does anyone know their actual policy?
Is't this relaties to sheep market?
Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#19Re: Anatomy of a $40M+ Bitcoin heist
#20So the '324 is FBI on phone handset' comment, is this the FBI transferring $40M from Silk Road wallets to some other wallet? Or is it something else? Also one wonders what is done with the 'evidence' after the case. I could imagine the FBI simply deleting the wallets but does anyone know their actual policy?
> I could imagine the FBI simply deleting the wallets but does anyone know their actual policy?
In the US, law enforcement gets to keep a portion of whatever they seize. You can bet your ass they will not destroy millions worth of assets -- entire departments will get bonuses for years for this.
Law requires them to liquidate the assets through auctions, they cannot simply sell them at an exchange, or set a price for them and sell them at that price. There are plenty of companies that specialize in organizing such events.