

Ask HN: Why can't the ownership of Bitcoin be tracked? - jkd

Why can't the ownership of Bitcoin be tracked, so that even if it's stolen, nobody other than the owner can use it. If it is getting used, the ownership can be transferred from buyer to seller?
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dalke
Out of curiosity, in such a scheme, who can authorize the transfer? Is it a
court? In which jurisdictions? Bitcoin is meant as a decentralized scheme, and
I can't think of how a "decentralized" and "forced transfer" are compatible,
except if a majority of servers in the Bitcoin network agree on it.

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unimpressive
Can you propose a method of doing this that isn't bitcoin?

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jkd
I don't have an answer. But can it be tracked similar to email. Since it is a
digital currency, there should be a way to digitally finger print it and
tracked.

