Hot Coins is an absurd concept. The coin cannot be "guilty", the coin is just the storage of a fluctuating value. That number was worth whatever the exchange was at when it was stolen, but immediately afterwards that value changes up and down. If the value increases is that portion "clean"? No. It is estimated that 95% of US $20 bills carry traces of cocaine on them, should those be "hot"? Cocaine is illegal. Saddam Hussein dumped an estimated 4 billion in counterfeit $100 bills into the world economy, should we ban $100 bills?
A far better solution would be to aggressively investigate Linode, and find out if there is any responsibility there, and prosecute accordingly. Imagine the positive buzz generated by accurately finding the guilty parties and then bringing them to justice! And then this little piece of garbage Leo needs to be held accountable. He is at the very least an accomplice to grand larceny, and is bragging about felony level involvement in this crime. Dox his sorry ass wide and far- how about the IRS? Think he has reported his sudden $200,000 in earnings? What about Homeland Security? Moving $200,000 in funds that are being laundered might interest them. This little piece of work needs to be brought to full accountability. I say cry havoc and let loose the dogs of justice on him.
...Except if homeland security, CIA or some other government organisation (even non US) is behind the hack. I know some people will scream "conspiracy" again, but if I was in a secret or not so secret service with a mission to protect the banking system and considered BTC a threat, I'd hire a team of excellent hackers/crackers to figure out a weakness in the system. Literally, with pools/providers/exchanges and metaphorically concerning Bitcoin as a whole.
Whether this was planned or not, there it is - a definite weakness, possibly powerful enough to blow up the community, splitting us up between those who are in favor of tainting coins and checking them, and those who believe this would be the end of Bitcoin for all reason stated in this thread above and other threads.
In any case, it may cause confusion and definetly hurt the bit of trust that was left after last year's incidents.
We need to find a common ground on this and send a VERY clear and unambiguous message to the less tech-savy people out there that coins stolen or not, should never be declined at any exchange. Unless we do that, bitcoin is screwed. If MtGox freezes accounts with whatever percentage of taint - no, let me rephrase, if they freeze them for further investigation it's still acceptable but if they confiscate those coins, MtGox needs to be boycotted. What percentage of taint will make a bitcoin tainted? Who is to decide? MtGox? I'm afraid in any case, particularly because MtGox is the biggest and most important exchange boycotting Gox will become a mess. It's like an
autoimmune reaction. Could someone have planned such a thing?