Topic: Can virtual wallets be confiscated by courts? - page 3. (Read 826 times)
The government can not prohibit and confiscate our wallets. We have a private key and they can not do anything about us. In the crypto market, the government does not have the capacity to apply the law here. This is a decentralized market and they can not do anything else. do not worry.
If Bitcoin is legal in a certain country then yes it can be confiscated by the court specially if it was involved in illegal activities like money laundering. If you are the wallet owner then the court will command you to give the private keys specially if the transactions are involving huge amounts. So lets just use Bitcoin in to good use but not in illegal transactions.
and in the end we will not be able to use the wallet again because it has been exposed and also if it only depends on the transaction history, it is likely that it will later be rejected because of less concrete evidence. The polemic about money laundering is indeed troublesome, because someone could buy / sell bitcoin to us on the pretext of investing but in fact, they make us become involved in this problem
I am just curious and have been googling on whether the law has rules about virtual wallets. Maybe I am just not really familiar with the technical terms so I do not understand well. Or I just didn't use the correct search terms.
To give an example, if you have debts or have to pay for alimony or something of the like, are virtual wallets included in your assets to be seized or something?
According to the summary of this article: https://www.acamstoday.org/real-considerations-for-law-enforcement-in-seizing-virtual-currency/
"The bottom line for law enforcement is that they cannot seize virtual currency if they do not recognize it and do not know where to look. Even if evidence of virtual currency is found, unless law enforcement is equipped with the knowledge and the tools to take secure possession of it, then it will not happen and criminals will keep their ill-gotten gains."
So does that mean that the law will not touch your virtual wallet in case of debt, for example?
To give an example, if you have debts or have to pay for alimony or something of the like, are virtual wallets included in your assets to be seized or something?
According to the summary of this article: https://www.acamstoday.org/real-considerations-for-law-enforcement-in-seizing-virtual-currency/
"The bottom line for law enforcement is that they cannot seize virtual currency if they do not recognize it and do not know where to look. Even if evidence of virtual currency is found, unless law enforcement is equipped with the knowledge and the tools to take secure possession of it, then it will not happen and criminals will keep their ill-gotten gains."
So does that mean that the law will not touch your virtual wallet in case of debt, for example?
Two very important assumptions here.
Firstly, they would have to not recognise bitcoin as an asset at all, and secondly, they would have to not know where to look. And I think that both of them these criterion can't be fulfilled in most countries. Most countries do recognise bitcoin as some form of asset, and they do have quite extensive virtual currency teams by now I assume.
So I definitely wouldn't see bitcoin as some form of currency that is used by criminals as a safe haven (even though the media tries to get you to think this way), because all the same legal repercussions will apply if you conduct fraudulent activities with bitcoin, or if you go bankrupt etc. More likely than not, your wallet will get seized as a result of your wrongdoings if the extent is that high. I'm not sure why you're under the impression that bitcoin can't be touched, legally.
At the moment, while you can create anonymously wallets and transfer to other users of the network, you should not worry about blocking funds on the wallet. But when the adoption of cryptocurrencies and legalization begins, then most likely we all will have to go through the KYC procedure and all the wallets and the amount of funds they will be known to law enforcement agencies and it is possible that you can be held accountable for illegal actions, but still block your wallet no one can.
Technically, no one will be able to block your wallet even by court decision, but this only applies to decentralized coins, because Ripple can block any wallet in the system and freeze any funds on the wallet, especially since there have already been similar cases. With Bitcoin, nothing like this can happen due to its structure.
it cant be if you can imagine how they be able to know it and since this kind of assets doesnt define on the book of law ( i dont know if what law we should follow ) but here in my country it is not indicated that kind of assets and even it was indicated it is still hard because there was no data bases for that and the identity of holder is not indicated also so it is hard for it to be confiscated that is why government does not want this kind of industry yet because they dont have control.
for now, in my country, of course It can't, because the government through Bappebti is still planning bitcoin to enter the trading market, not as a currency. therefore it is difficult for the court to confiscate our wallet, because there is no legal clarity
it cant be if you can imagine how they be able to know it and since this kind of assets doesnt define on the book of law ( i dont know if what law we should follow ) but here in my country it is not indicated that kind of assets and even it was indicated it is still hard because there was no data bases for that and the identity of holder is not indicated also so it is hard for it to be confiscated that is why government does not want this kind of industry yet because they dont have control.
I’m not a legal advisor but in my opinion I think this law is not crafted yet or will not be crafted. It will also depend on what jurisdictions, some countries may apply some may not. Just like the bank secrecy law that protect its clients from unnecessary inquiries but some can be voided by law. But for criminal cases I think it is necessary to confiscate such assets mostly if it involves in drugs and corruption without excuses and with solid evidence.
Virtual wallet for virtual currency does not hold true identity of a specific holder as the fact that virtual currency is a decentralized form but I think if has act against the law then it can be confiscated granting that they already have reliable evedince of that person who owned the wallet. 
I’m not a legal advisor but in my opinion I think this law is not crafted yet or will not be crafted. It will also depend on what jurisdictions, some countries may apply some may not. Just like the bank secrecy law that protect its clients from unnecessary inquiries but some can be voided by law. But for criminal cases I think it is necessary to confiscate such assets mostly if it involves in drugs and corruption without excuses and with solid evidence.
"The bottom line for law enforcement is that they cannot seize virtual currency if they do not recognize it and do not know where to look. Even if evidence of virtual currency is found, unless law enforcement is equipped with the knowledge and the tools to take secure possession of it, then it will not happen and criminals will keep their ill-gotten gains."
So does that mean that the law will not touch your virtual wallet in case of debt, for example?
So does that mean that the law will not touch your virtual wallet in case of debt, for example?
it means they can't seize cryptocurrency if they can't recognize it when searching your devices, or if they can't break your wallet passphrase. if you encrypt wallet files or private keys effectively, they won't be able to access them.
if the government can seize your wallet, they gladly will. consider the case of silk road creator, ross ulbricht. or the other cases where the USMS auctioned off coins. supposedly, the bulgarian government is sitting on 213,000+ seized bitcoins.
Ok, just to clarify for those who were wondering why I was asking this. It's just plain old curiosity and a healthy argument with a friend that lead me to this question.
Thanks, everyone.
"The bottom line for law enforcement is that they cannot seize virtual currency if they do not recognize it and do not know where to look. Even if evidence of virtual currency is found, unless law enforcement is equipped with the knowledge and the tools to take secure possession of it, then it will not happen and criminals will keep their ill-gotten gains."
So does that mean that the law will not touch your virtual wallet in case of debt, for example?
So does that mean that the law will not touch your virtual wallet in case of debt, for example?
it means they can't seize cryptocurrency if they can't recognize it when searching your devices, or if they can't break your wallet passphrase. if you encrypt wallet files or private keys effectively, they won't be able to access them.
if the government can seize your wallet, they gladly will. consider the case of silk road creator, ross ulbricht. or the other cases where the USMS auctioned off coins. supposedly, the bulgarian government is sitting on 213,000+ seized bitcoins.
Can't confiscate anything without a private key or a .dat that isn't encrypted 
Of course. As long as virtual currencies are accepted as private property, I don't see why they can't do that in case someone is in debt and assets are needed to repay the debt. It all differs country to country, because some countries may well have recognition for cryptocurrencies as property and can thus chase it down when it comes to legal issues, and others don't.
The article is suggesting that law enforcement doesn't know where to look, which is probably wrong in the majority of countries now given that bitcoin's been around for a decade.
Otherwise, all the U.S. bitcoin seizures, confiscations, and auctions would not have happened.
The article is suggesting that law enforcement doesn't know where to look, which is probably wrong in the majority of countries now given that bitcoin's been around for a decade.
Otherwise, all the U.S. bitcoin seizures, confiscations, and auctions would not have happened.
This is what happened with Ross Ulbricht, right? The FBI seized more than 200K coins from his wallet and later they auctioned all those coins. So my guess is that it is possible for the courts to confiscate the coins.
Who auctioned the coins? The FBI? That is unethical, is it not? He probably worked on those coins but someone just auctioned it off when they took it away from him? Do you think there should be a way we can store coins in a virtual wallet that the court cannot confiscate?
This is what happened with Ross Ulbricht, right? The FBI seized more than 200K coins from his wallet and later they auctioned all those coins. So my guess is that it is possible for the courts to confiscate the coins.
I think that app depends by your fiscal history.
In other words the court should dispose to block your crypto wallet if he knows you have one. And this happens if you deviare it...
In other words the court should dispose to block your crypto wallet if he knows you have one. And this happens if you deviare it...
I am just curious and have been googling on whether the law has rules about virtual wallets. Maybe I am just not really familiar with the technical terms so I do not understand well. Or I just didn't use the correct search terms.
To give an example, if you have debts or have to pay for alimony or something of the like, are virtual wallets included in your assets to be seized or something?
According to the summary of this article: https://www.acamstoday.org/real-considerations-for-law-enforcement-in-seizing-virtual-currency/
"The bottom line for law enforcement is that they cannot seize virtual currency if they do not recognize it and do not know where to look. Even if evidence of virtual currency is found, unless law enforcement is equipped with the knowledge and the tools to take secure possession of it, then it will not happen and criminals will keep their ill-gotten gains."
So does that mean that the law will not touch your virtual wallet in case of debt, for example?
To give an example, if you have debts or have to pay for alimony or something of the like, are virtual wallets included in your assets to be seized or something?
According to the summary of this article: https://www.acamstoday.org/real-considerations-for-law-enforcement-in-seizing-virtual-currency/
"The bottom line for law enforcement is that they cannot seize virtual currency if they do not recognize it and do not know where to look. Even if evidence of virtual currency is found, unless law enforcement is equipped with the knowledge and the tools to take secure possession of it, then it will not happen and criminals will keep their ill-gotten gains."
So does that mean that the law will not touch your virtual wallet in case of debt, for example?
I think they can if they force the person who owns it to give it to them while asking support from a tech person.
Well, that happens when you have accounts in banks, government can close them, they can also stuck transactions like receive money on your name via western union, moneygram and etc but that also highly depends where you live. Outside us, I highly doubt government will close your pp, skrill and etc accounts, they simply won't be able to do that because these companies are out of your local governments control. No one can touch your own crypto wallets, that's why some people save money in crypto for bad days.
Yes, especially if a country's laws are designed to do such in the event of misuse of funds or hints of fraudulent activities, or whatever reason they see fit. It's not surprising anymore if courts would order law enforcers to seize assets and digital wallets should the jury end up declaring that something has been breached in a country's law. In the end though, as long as something is unconstitutional, they have the 'right' to take these wallets forcibly, lol.
No virtual cryptocurrency wallet provider or cryptocurrency exchange platform would risk losing their business for having people with illegal funds in their accounts.The exchange/wallet admins will give your virtual wallet to the government without any hesitation.That's why we need decentralized crypto exchange platforms and offline cold storage.
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