
US prosecutors move to cash in on $8.5M in seized Bitcoin - prostoalex
https://www.apnews.com/3f8db32f3762431ea28fbf50b82ff2cd
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pwaai
With the recent series of news on bitcoin, it seems like the media and gov is
increasingly painting a picture of Bitcoin as a thing for selling drugs,
people and terrorism. Bitcoin maximalists will cry victim but it's no use,
everybody is HODLing, nobody is buying pizzas or taxi with it. Why would you
with the ridiculous security, transaction costs and slow speed?

Knowing that anything that was remotely used to aid terrorism in the past has
resulted in the hammer flying down as they did with LibertyReserve.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/net-us-cybercrime-
libertyres...](https://www.reuters.com/article/net-us-cybercrime-
libertyreserve-charges/u-s-accuses-currency-exchange-of-laundering-6-billion-
idUSBRE94R0KQ20130528)

You don't even need to have terrorism, after 9/11, money laundering has only
one purpose in the official's minds.

I think if you are operating a cryptoexchange, blatantly breaking the rules
thinking oceans will protect you is a critical mistake, one which never seems
to deter people from being thugs.

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mrb
« _everybody is HODLing, nobody is buying pizzas or taxi with it._ »

Every single Bitcoin submission, an HN user like you will say this. But it's
not true. Payments in bitcoins are sharply increasing. BitPay alone saw their
payments volume grow by 328% yearly: [https://blog.bitpay.com/bitpay-
growth-2017/](https://blog.bitpay.com/bitpay-growth-2017/)

~~~
EduardoBautista
Payments with bitcoin are too expensive to be practical. Hell, with credit
card perks, credit card companies pay YOU to use their payment method. Crypto
is the other way around.

~~~
gozur88
Credit card companies aren't really paying you to use their cards. You're
still paying the fees; it's just that they're being collected by the merchant.

~~~
prostoalex
Some merchants do offer discounts for going the debit/cash route. It’s usually
in the 3% range and negating the 2% cash back popular credit cards provide,
the 1% is rarely worth it to lose the consumer protection.

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ringaroundthetx
I like how the dirty coins are now magically clean, thanks for washing it for
us, marshalls!

best bitcoin next to the ones that come straight from miners

~~~
speedplane
Not a ridiculous point. I wonder if certain bitcoins could eventually be worth
more than others simply because the chain of custody has gone through an
official source.

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tinus_hn
Bitcoins don’t actually exist as separate entities, all that exists is a
record of who transferred what amount to who.

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joering2
He plead not guilty and they already selling his forfeiture? Shame on them!!

~~~
wmf
If he wins I guess he can get the $8.5M.

~~~
laurencei
What happens if the value of BTC goes up or down though during that time
though? What will he be entitled to?

~~~
bradleyjg
$8.5 million. Note that he isn't contesting the sale.

~~~
RandomInteger4
Hypothetically, assuming he did contest the sale and Bitcoin went up, they
would have to give him back the amount of bitcoin that they sold, since
technically Bitcoin is an asset and not a currency in the eyes of the
government, correct?

~~~
bradleyjg
I don't think so. If he contested it there'd be a hearing on the motion and
either judge would allow the sale to go forward or he wouldn't. If the sale
did go forward, and the defendant won at trial, he would still only get the
$8.5 plus interest, regardless of what bitcoin prices did in the meanwhile.

I'm not sure what the legal standard is for this motion though.

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hjjiehebebe
Some more money for the war on drugs. Perhaps they'll win that war some day.

