Topic: FBI Seizes DPR's personal coins! 144,000 coins! - page 2. (Read 9320 times)
Was Silk Road seriously that bloody profitable? Or should we also suspect some of this BTC is from the Bitfloor (24k), Slush (3k), Bitcoinica (43k), bitomat.pl (17k), et al., thefts?
why did they move them in 324btc chunks ?
Seems they know how to launder BTC
I don't see anything that proves they actually have cracked any encryption. For all we know they just have a wallet.dat file with no key.
They couldn't move the coins without the key. And they obviously did move...Anyways here is the official FBI press release from Friday. Straight from their site:
http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website
The quote above says they recovered a wallet. So maybe it wasn't even encrypted. The point being that they didn't figure out that Ulbricht had an address and then cracked the encryption. Ulbricht may not have even really tried to protect these coins.
I don't see anything that proves they actually have cracked any encryption. For all we know they just have a wallet.dat file with no key.
They couldn't move the coins without the key. And they obviously did move...Anyways here is the official FBI press release from Friday. Straight from their site:
http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website
The quote above says they recovered a wallet. So maybe it wasn't even encrypted. The point being that they didn't figure out that Ulbricht had an address and then cracked the encryption. Ulbricht may not have even really tried to protect these coins.
From the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcement:
https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website
Flash drives?
https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website
Quote
ULBRICHT’s residence was also searched on October 1, 2013, pursuant to a search warrant, and federal law enforcement agents conducting that search found several pieces of computer hardware belonging to ULBRICHT (collectively, along with ULBRICHT’s laptop, the “computer hardware”). Through forensic analysis of the computer hardware, federal law enforcement agents recovered a Bitcoin wallet containing approximately 144,336 Bitcoins.
Flash drives?
Probably. Obviously Ulbricht's security measures weren't very strong. By default I would think any wallets would at least be encrypted with a unique key...that's pretty much "protect your btc 101"
It took ~3 weeks to transfer the coins if they were confiscated on October 1st. Probably not enough to break any encryption even with a weaker password. Means they probably got the password from someplace else he used it. I wonder what else uses that key...
From the U.S. Attorney’s Office announcement:
https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website
Flash drives?
https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website
Quote
ULBRICHT’s residence was also searched on October 1, 2013, pursuant to a search warrant, and federal law enforcement agents conducting that search found several pieces of computer hardware belonging to ULBRICHT (collectively, along with ULBRICHT’s laptop, the “computer hardware”). Through forensic analysis of the computer hardware, federal law enforcement agents recovered a Bitcoin wallet containing approximately 144,336 Bitcoins.
Flash drives?
It's a fail on his part and now that amount could crash the price.
Actually, by having the coins locked up for who knows how long, it increases the exchange rate. When Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it shouldn't have that much of an effect when they're finally liquidated.
Why not much effect?
When "bitcoin goes mainstream" 50M today may be 5B
Percentage on seizure was about 1% of total coins, and should have about the same relative effect to the price if they are abruptly liquidated, regardless what the exchange rate is, (as long as bitcoin's monetary stock is very much smaller than dollar's).
if they liquidate them in a few years, millions more will have been mined by then
It's a fail on his part and now that amount could crash the price.
Actually, by having the coins locked up for who knows how long, it increases the exchange rate. When Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it shouldn't have that much of an effect when they're finally liquidated.
Why not much effect?
When "bitcoin goes mainstream" 50M today may be 5B
Percentage on seizure was about 1% of total coins, and should have about the same relative effect to the price if they are abruptly liquidated, regardless what the exchange rate is, (as long as bitcoin's monetary stock is very much smaller than dollar's).
It's a fail on his part and now that amount could crash the price.
Actually, by having the coins locked up for who knows how long, it increases the exchange rate. When Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it shouldn't have that much of an effect when they're finally liquidated.
Why not much effect?
When "bitcoin goes mainstream" 50M today may be 5B
Percentage on seizure was about 1% of total coins, and should have about the same relative effect to the price if they are abruptly liquidated, regardless what the exchange rate is, (as long as bitcoin's monetary stock is very much smaller than dollar's).
why did they move them in 324btc chunks ?
It's a fail on his part and now that amount could crash the price.
Actually, by having the coins locked up for who knows how long, it increases the exchange rate. When Bitcoin becomes mainstream, it shouldn't have that much of an effect when they're finally liquidated.
Why not much effect?
When "bitcoin goes mainstream" 50M today may be 5B
Well that's certainly a nice take for them. What a profitable venture that was.
Yeah no kidding...170k BTC already in hand from the SR seizure? That's about 1.5% of all BTC in existence from just one court case. Imagine Seizing 1.5% of all USD in circulation lol.
It's more like seizing 1.5% of a very small country's currency.
Well that's certainly a nice take for them. What a profitable venture that was.
Yeah no kidding...170k BTC already in hand from the SR seizure? That's about 1.5% of all BTC in existence from just one court case. Imagine Seizing 1.5% of all USD in circulation lol.
Well that's certainly a nice take for them. What a profitable venture that was.
I don't see anything that proves they actually have cracked any encryption. For all we know they just have a wallet.dat file with no key.
They couldn't move the coins without the key. And they obviously did move...Anyways here is the official FBI press release from Friday. Straight from their site:
http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2013/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-announces-seizure-of-additional-28-million-worth-of-bitcoins-belonging-to-ross-william-ulbricht-alleged-owner-and-operator-of-silk-road-website
I don't see anything that proves they actually have cracked any encryption. For all we know they just have a wallet.dat file with no key.
then why would they move the coins so long after the arrest? i'd say he used a moderately strong wallet password and they cracked it.
I don't see anything that proves they actually have cracked any encryption. For all we know they just have a wallet.dat file with no key.
A the cat's identification led to knightmb? Sounds more like parallel construction to me...
They probably already knew who they were going after but just needed some way of reaching him without letting everyone know they had intel on him from nefarious communication capture techniques.
He might have struck a deal. Gave them access to the wallet in exchange for dropping the murder charges. In recent Forbes article there's no mention of him facing murder chargers anymore.
I doubt about dropping the murder charges if he really murdered someone. And if he does not, does the murder charge mean anything at all ?
He might have struck a deal. Gave them access to the wallet in exchange for dropping the murder charges. In recent Forbes article there's no mention of him facing murder chargers anymore.
Sorry, I was talking about the off-topic of knightmb, and even my own experiences.
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