

BitCoin: Why I am staying far away - chx
http://chxrambling.tumblr.com/post/68754262161/bitcoin-why-i-am-staying-very-very-far-away

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Aqueous
Oh my god, stop being ridiculous. Parallel construction is _not_ fabricating
evidence. It is constructing a case that uses only evidence obtained through
criminal warrants so that no classified information is leaked in the process
of prosecuting the case, even if the main tip came from classified sources.
This is not the same thing as fabricating evidence. It is obtaining legitimate
evidence through other, less sensitive means.

Second, Shamir's paper has nothing to do with legal evidence that can be used
in a court room. The burden of proof in a courtroom is still very high. If
anything Shamir helped future defendants by casting reasonable doubt on any
linkage derived from an analysis of the blockchain.

~~~
chx
So your average judge or jury wouldn't be fooled if faced by something like
Shamir's paper? I find your faith in the judical system amusing :)

~~~
Aqueous
If the defense is worth his or her salt he could have a witness who talks
about Shamir's paper and how even thorough analyses of the BlockChain have
been inconclusive and error-prone, thus casting doubt on whatever the state's
witness says.

The judicial system is far from perfect but in the great majority of cases it
manages to reach the correct conclusion about the violation of the law.

------
mmaunder
The key fact here is that Ron and Shamir's paper got nuked by an amateur on
Reddit within minutes of it's publication. Turns out the public ledger makes
it tough to fabricate anything - even when you're sponsored by Citi
Foundation, the charity arm of Citi Group, one of the world's largest banks,
as was the case with Ron and Shamir.

I'd rather buy BTC than USD because it seems easier to prove my innocence if I
have nothing to hide.

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baddox
That's not a very persuasive argument. If the government is willing to
fabricate evidence, what use is avoiding the Bitcoin network? If they want to
take you down, it's not like they're going to say "crap, he's never used
Bitcoin, so we can't touch him."

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venantius
I generally am pro a little bit of wariness, but I feel like this article is
devoid of any real meat and is basically just fear-mongering.

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epaga
Shamir's paper was a very cautiously formulated guess at a connection he
thought he had made. It was anything but a legal argument that would hold any
water in court.

This blog post is pure FUD nonsense. How it ended up on the HN front page is a
mystery to me. Flagged.

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Terk
Since it's so trivial for authorities to fabricate evidence, using a system
with a public ledger is actually preferred if you're afraid you might become a
victim of evidence tampering. It's so much harder to plant unquestionable
evidence in a public ledger.

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stormbrew
Because the currency with an ill-defined largely private ledger (serial
numbers on bills and transaction records from banks) is so much less likely to
be used to create a link between you and organized crime.

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tinco
Don't upvote this. It's 3 alinea's, 2 sentences each and it's pure nonsense.
As if there aren't any public ledgers of your actions available to DA's now.

