Hey guys,
I saw the news about Flexcoin being robbed. But the thought came to me, isn't it really impossible for the thieves to get away with this cleanly, in the same way a thief would if they stole cash from you? The block chain gives us a permanent record of where those stolen bitcoins are going, right? The thieves can take those coins and spread them out across a million other bitcoin addresses, but that doesn't change the fact that we can find out where it all went. If we used say, a Python script or similar to watch the load of bitcoins and trace exactly where they are going. So that still doesn't reveal the identity of the crooks, yes, but I'd argue that it eventually would. As soon as they exchange it somewhere, or buy something with it, they would have to give up their identity in some form to receive their good or service. Otherwise they simply have to sit on it, but that's as good as never spending your 401k. Unless they can find someone who is willing to take the coins in exchange for cash in an offline fashion I guess?
Maybe I'm missing something though. Does this line of thought have any merit?
I saw the news about Flexcoin being robbed. But the thought came to me, isn't it really impossible for the thieves to get away with this cleanly, in the same way a thief would if they stole cash from you? The block chain gives us a permanent record of where those stolen bitcoins are going, right? The thieves can take those coins and spread them out across a million other bitcoin addresses, but that doesn't change the fact that we can find out where it all went. If we used say, a Python script or similar to watch the load of bitcoins and trace exactly where they are going. So that still doesn't reveal the identity of the crooks, yes, but I'd argue that it eventually would. As soon as they exchange it somewhere, or buy something with it, they would have to give up their identity in some form to receive their good or service. Otherwise they simply have to sit on it, but that's as good as never spending your 401k. Unless they can find someone who is willing to take the coins in exchange for cash in an offline fashion I guess?
Maybe I'm missing something though. Does this line of thought have any merit?
Well try tracing and see how long the road leads!
