Topic: Law Enforcement Attending Bitcoin Meetups Undercover? (Read 6341 times)

Hmmm.   Wait a minute.   Phin does not mine.   Does not buy and sell bitcoin.   Does not trade bitcoin stocks.  Yet he is on these boards for years and posts a lot.    Phin, are you a narc and trying to cover it up with this "pizza" business?

Ah, that's right. I forgot we get lumped in with the Ron Paul people too... so we're all potential terrorists, then? Cool.

This is an intriguing thought.
Now, if "they" only think that far in advance.. Fair trade!

Ente

I highly doubt they are interested in a group of people meeting up to discuss and trade bitcoins.

The enemy has many spies in his service: birds, beasts, devs.

Bitcoin is a shady industry, I would hope that they are paying attention, or else they wouldn't be doing their jobs

dear Us government agents,
Please read the Constitution of the United States and stop oppressing your neighbors.
your friend,
illegible poet


so is this too much to ask?

Where is phin when ya need him?

Hopefully they learn about Bitcoin at the meetups and buy some.    It would seem a smart investment for anyone and everyone to hold a few and it would make those hard earned dollars go a bit farther. 

I would think most Bitcoin users are just highly intelligent geeky types that are law abiding citizens so maybe their time would be well spent somewhere else?

There were law enfocement folks at our Ron Paul meetups too. Hell, Minnesota designated all Ron Paul supporters as potential terrorists.

Yes, the NRA is a powerful lobby.
It still doesnt change the fact that what was true 300 years ago does apply today.

The 3rd amendment is one of the least controversial of the Constitution and is rarely litigated. As of 2009, it had never been the primary basis of a Supreme Court decision.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Exactlly and most of them are hundreds or even thousands of years old from the crazy book.
I know you wont like this, but the interpretation of the 3rd amendment is one of them.

I've got nothing against doing so.  That's a completely different thing than proposing it as a solution to the problem of theft and fraud in Bitcoinland, or using it as an example of how the problem is diminished.  That is fucking idiotic on it's face both to anyone with an ounce of sense both within and without the community.  That is why I found it embarrassing.

It reminds me of the unfortunately all to common instances of people who propose that there is no need for a social safety net because churches or some such will come along and help people out who are in need.  I don't think even very many of the people who propose it actually believe it.  They just use it as an excuse to justify other political motivations.  I'd actually have more respect for such people if they were honest and just said "Fuck old sick people...let them die in the street.  I've got mine and I wanna keep it."

The average person commits 3 felonies a day without actually victimizing anyone. Just a matter of time before one of the numerous laws/corrupt state makes exhaling CO2 without a gross pollution permit "illegal".

First of all: http://youtu.be/mjQZNkiY7ds

Second: I feel sorry for you. Something must have gone terribly wrong in your life for feeling embarrassed when someone proposes to help each other out.

Third: As far as I am concerned Amir is a fucking hero, and he is the main reason I trust bitcoin the way I do. This must be one of the most genuine guys involved in this community, yet people like you give him shit because you don't like his look, or his ideology, or his attitude. It's despicable.

(I'm not aware of any remarks concerning taking hits out on anyone though, that would be something I absolutely do not condone.)

That would just be stupidly insane!

I don't think it's something to worry about. Especially if your not doing anything illegal. They would haven't reason to target you.

You would think the 'authorities' have better things to work on...

I don't expect that 'ex post facto' principles will be tossed out the window readily.  There would be so much collateral damage that it would be a poor strategy decision in most scenerios.  Bitcoin is clearly to most not illegal now, and although there is a much higher percentage of blatantly criminal activity in the ecosystem, it is not dominant enough that a majority of those effected by a cross-the-board crack-down would be guilty.  And the userbase is growing daily.  Many people would have a friend or relative effected if some sort of totalitarian abuse happened across the board and out of the blue.

I think it is almost a certainty clear to all by now that there are individual 'dossiers' kept on every citizen of the US (and probably of the world), and that a variety of algorithms constantly sift through the every increasing collection of data.  It is very probable that individuals are tagged with all sorts of flags, and that different flags are used to select different types of analytic regimes.  I would be completely surprised if an effort to identify persons with an interest in Bitcoin are not underway and do not produce certain kinds of flags.  If there comes a point when an attempt to crack down on Bitcoin is chosen as a policy, I would not be surprised at all to see those with a history of involvement with Bitcoin be readily identified.  Whether it would result in a the old-school 'knock on the door' is less clear to me.

What are the feds going to do. Find satoshi? lol

beauty about bitcoin is that there is no figure head to point fingers to. Hard to brain-wash the public.

Are you serious? An all out attack on bitcoin would be a stupid and pointless thing for them to do.  Consider this. Bitcoin allows some privacy but not too much.  That is probably the best scenario for law enforcement purposes in the USA.

The point is that it's possible to catch people like DPR, but still private enough for most people to use most of the time.  A "hard" crypto currency that used full link encryption and message mixes as part of the basic protocol would probably replace it and that would be a full on disaster from their point of view.

Bitcoin is law friendly enough to regulate and tax and they'll only lose that quality if they press an attack.