
An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters - chollida1
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/finney-swat/
======
pyre
> police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful
> people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of
> the Silk Road Market

Um, the "operator(s) of Silk Road Market" allegedly attempted to hire a
contract killer. I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of peaceful, if true.

~~~
pilgrim689
It's innocent until proven guilty isn't it?

~~~
ianferrel
Yes. But what does that have to do with investigation? Can't really fail to
investigate until proven guilty.

~~~
danielweber
Right. The trial is not where "we find out what happens." It's where the
state, having already decided you suck and need to spend some time in jail,
needs to prove it to a jury of your peers beyond a reasonable doubt in a
formal setting where only legally obtained evidence can be used.

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donpdonp
A formerly respected tech publication has been making life hell for hackernews
readers by resorting to sensationalist link-bait headlines.

~~~
jmuguy
This article also seems to just abruptly end. Been seeing that more frequently
lately with stuff posted online. Not sure if its just lazy or poor writing but
no closing paragraph makes for a poor reading experience.

~~~
dragontamer
Thanks. Something felt off about the article and now that you mention it...
the lack of a conclusion is quite off-putting.

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nullc
Pretty sad that all hacker news can find to talk about here is debate about
the legalities of drug trade and the ethics of the people involved in them
that was inspired by a somewhat trollish one-liner quote in the article, with
little to no relation with the actual subject of the article.

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asocial

        The “police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade     
        like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market,” Ver says, “while evil hackers were busy terrorizing 
        quadriplegic Hal Finney and his family.”
    

"voluntary trade" makes it sound like said trade wasn't actually illegal (in
other words, like something the police are actually _supposed_ to stop,
peaceful or otherwise.)

This is meant to suggest that the police were harassing innocent people while
completely ignoring the actual crimes described, of course playing up the
typical Bitcoin narrative of the violent, thuggish and incompetent police
state.

Left completely unmentioned, is the fact that Bitcoin is designed, and
intended, to make it infeasible to track users and enforce laws against
transactors. It's an explicitly anarcho-capitalist system. Extortion rackets
around Bitcoin are not a bug, they're a feature.

~~~
Retric
Somehow I think you missed the whole "Every transaction is public" part of
Bitcoin.

Cash is difficult but not impossible to track, Bitcoin is ridiculously easy to
track by comparison.

~~~
ivraatiems
Except that Bitcoin can be laundered quite effectively, and often is. [1] In
fact, there are services that do so. [2]

[1] [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/72/how-is-it-
poss...](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/72/how-is-it-possible-to-
launder-bitcoins)

[2] [https://bitlaunder.com/](https://bitlaunder.com/)

~~~
Retric
Try and launder a 1Billion to 10 Billion dollor transaction with bitcoin and
that's going to fall flat.

PS: For comparison you can fedex ~170,000$ worth of gold in a vary
inconspicious 15 LB box. Shipping ~60,000 lb of gold (1Billion$) is much
easier to track and more risky.

~~~
samatman
There is no possible way to make gold inconspicuous. The density simply
prohibits it: gold reflects easy-to-send parts of the EM spectrum that most
anything else will pass.

~~~
Retric
Your assuming there is a test in place to detect gold in FedEx packages.
That's not acutally a hard thing to test and I would be interested in the
results.

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maccam912
Hey early adopters: you have no doubt heard how easy it is to de-anonymize
bitcoin transactions. If someone demands 1000 btc to stop them from "swatting"
your house, why not let the police know, send a very small amount to the
address they no doubt want the money sent to, and let police take it form
there?

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keithpeter
_" Ver, who was himself sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for illegally
shipping explosive across state lines, believes that Savaged is not only the
same person who swatted Hal Finney, but also the person who gained access to
Satoshi Nakamoto’s email account earlier this year."_ \--quote from OA...

Why does anyone ship explosives across state lines (or anywhere) unless they
run a demolition company? Just wondering (I'm in the UK).

~~~
ChuckMcM
In the US typically its fireworks rather than bomb making material.

~~~
aminok
It was actually large firecrackers, used by farmers to scare of pests, that he
sold.

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jgalt212
Hal Finney is sort of a bitcoin Walter White. Someone please make a cable
series on this.

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nvk
Link bait.

------
drzaiusapelord
The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and
people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie
libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we
are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-
ordered-6-assa...](http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-
ordered-6-assassinations-and-owned-20-million-in-bitcoins-feds-claim-2013-11)

I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argument that heroin and
meth should be legal is asinine. I'm not the police state. I'm common sense. I
don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering others
to destroy their lives, which very often leads to more crime as addicts will
steal or even kill for their next fix.

disagree downvotes dont change the truth: Ulbricht ordered kills casually.
Physically addictive drugs cause social harm. All the libertarian claptrap in
the world doesnt change reality, sorry Rand Paul supporters!

~~~
discardorama
> I don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering
> others to destroy their lives

You do know that Paul Erdös, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th
century (if not ever) was a meth addict, right?

I'm not saying "meth is good"; but that blanket generalizations are bad.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _Paul Erdös_ [sic] _...was a meth addict_

Do you have a reputable source for this? Wikipedia and a quick "Paul Erdos
meth" Google were both fruitless for me.

~~~
lsc
You will have a better luck with "Erdos amphetamines" or something like that.

Still, uh, using amphetamines or amphetamine analogs in controlled dosages
from pharmaceutical sources is a pretty normal thing to do, a pretty normal
thing that doesn't seem to cause a whole lot of problems for most people. We
give it to children to make them sit still, and many adults take it, too.

There are some analogs, like Methylphenidate, which are said to be less
addictive, but many people prefer, and use Adderall, which isn't, and both are
deemed to be safe enough to give to children in small doses. We even give
straight up Dextroamphetamine to some people (though it's rather less common)

I mean, dosage is super important, of course, and so is purity, but yeah, lots
of people take small amounts of amphetamines without problems.

Edit: As someone else pointed out, methamphetamines are similar in effect to,
but generally more dangerous than amphetamines, and the latter, I believe, is
what Erdos, and most everyday users under medical supervision use.

