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$7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

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Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#261
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas station isn't someone. It's an endpoint, as the bar in my story. If the gas station cashier takes from the register to get a bier, you're right. If not, my thesis still holds I think.

What if I pay with 100 Euro bank note and get back "tainted" 50 Euro note and then pay in bar? Bank notes are not just collected and sent back to bank.

You're right but the higher the denomination, the smaller the chance it'll serve as change.

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#262

Are they tryin' to send some sort of subtle signal, given the Coinbase listing today? :)

For sure. Not just the same day, but nearly the exact same time as the IPO. Either sending a signal or hoping for less reporting

Actually, yes. Nice call on the -time- also ...

  re: reporting, if -anything- this will get them more attention, not less? (I'd think ...)

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, look forward to my $20 check that lasts one month.

I'd take that over still not receiving a stimulus check despite needing them more than ever.

Don't worry, the printer is just out of ink. They're coming soon!

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#264
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new breed of users doesnt care at all about such things. Usually the price goes up as it becomes less cypherpunk and more of a regulated surveillance instrument - speculators will argue that it increases legitimacy and encourages institutional investment. It will still be a scarce asset that hedges against inflation

You're missing that for this to work, miners, those who invest into processing bitcoin transactions, would be willingly lowering the value of what they do. Other comments bring issues they'd already face in cost trying to adopt banning more transactions. But if they accepted those costs, bitcoin's reputation of stability and trust would be broken, if 1 BTC = 0.75BTC because .25 was from tainted transactions, nobody w…

but it is already happening:

https://decrypt.co/48025/bitcoin-mining-pool-that-censors-tr...

Big pools need to buy cutting-edge equipment and use huge resources, they have to abide by regulators.

Most users would be unaffected because they just "hodl" and only care about the price going up + encouraging institutional adoption. Bitcoiners don't really care about making transactions.

The lack of privacy built into the protocol makes this inevitable. You're asking miners to willingly help move illegal funds while regulators watch

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hashpower majority is not needed. For the latter, if a single digit percentage of the hashpower decides to enforce the ban, other miners in the network have an economic incentive to join the ban as well. The reasoning is explained here https://juraj.bednar.io/en/blog-en/2020/11/12/how-could-regu... In short, if a miner chooses to include banned transactions in its block, it means that block cannot be built off of b…

Who gets to determine which addresses are "poisoned"? China? The US? I have to imagine the ideologues in the bitcoin community will fight back against that. Also, not being censorable is a big part of bitcoin's value prop so this type of regulation would likely crash the price as well.

If different countries had different ban lists then it would still censor the BTC that are included in enough lists

As BTC continues to grow, the 'bitcoin community' changes in character; it's already fallen far from the cypherpunk anti-censorship / privacy roots

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#266
post #131

Well it was stolen not lost...

Not your keys, not your coins. The keys own the coins - you're ancillary. The keys just found a new home. Sounds legit to me.

Seems about right... Crypto is awesome until it is terrible.

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#267
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I pay with 100 Euro bank note and get back "tainted" 50 Euro note and then pay in bar? Bank notes are not just collected and sent back to bank.

You're right but the higher the denomination, the smaller the chance it'll serve as change.

Doesn’t matter, plausible deniability means a reasonable person might spend it. Without knowing who’s next, you may have circumstantial evidence but that’s not enough to hold up in court.

You don’t punish someone based on chance.

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real solution is to drop bitcoin and use better technology. Walk into WalMart with cash and buy a prepaid gift card. Voilà. And the best part: it works literally everywhere. Both the buying and the using. Unlike flavor-of-the-week crypto. Though, let's be real for a second, the ways to screw up from this point are many and varied. Accidentally use your home IP address to make the purchase? Oops. Did the naughty…

The Walmart gift card will only get you so far. You can't: buy a fancy boat, car, or house. You can't pay for your kids school supplies (or school tuition), or treat your wife to a fancy hair do. The money laundering laws try to stop people dealing in tens of thousands of dollars, who LIVE off of the money.

I think you could buy a prepaid Visa? Or is that not a thing anymore?

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#269
post #8

Here’s an interesting question — if you receive BTC from one of these addresses as payment for something, do you refuse it? You know it’s stolen and you might worry someone else who you might pay in the future would be able to track down that it’s stolen, so do you ask for “clean” BTC that isn’t linked to known theft? I don’t necessarily know the answer here. This is something that you can’t do with paper bills

Isn’t that what “marked bills” are? Isn’t that why kidnappers ask for unmarked money so it can’t be traced back to the theft?

There are many stories of bills being marked in specific ways to to identify their provenance.

Re: $7.5B In Stolen Bitcoin from 2016 Bitfinex Hack has just been moved

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive my vagueness- I wasn't complaining that banks don't launder money - only that the original links didn't support that thesis. You have rectified that. Do you also claim that banks are the biggest thieves?

Biggest source of theft in the US is wage theft by employers.

Wait.. really? I'd love to dive into some of those numbers. I'm not saying you are wrong - otoh, I want to see if I can screen for behaviors that are preparatory.
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