Topic: Silk Road Bitcoin Stash To Be Auctioned! - page 2. (Read 3947 times)

Of the comments I read, most are all anti-government and anti-obama?

You aren't helping the public perception with posts like this.  While less of a crime in public perception, I'm pretty sure they are still thought of as "crimimals" very much so.

I actually think that SR is a positive about the security of BTC. Yes, it is bad that it's associated with criminals. But, lets face it. There are plenty of people out there who are heavily invested in all sorts of shell companies and much of that complicated paperwork (that can eventually be traced down) can be replaced with simple BTC shuffles. And, those people who use all those shell companies are not generally thought of as criminals. If nothing else, BTC could become the "global off-shore" accounting system, especially now that the IRS is throwing out all those claw back regulations.

All I've got to say is take a look at one page of comments on a bitcoin article at any major online news outlet, and you'll see the general public sees it as a "bad thing."  This is what the silk road has done...  no question.

I think it's us and the merchants that are taking it mainstream. The general public can only dismiss it for so long. The media hardly ever mentions BTC's connection to the darknet any more now anyway, and when they do it's only in passing.

The people you call "ignorant idiots" are the people who will take bitcoin mainstream. Dismissing them does not change this.

The perception is changing.  But the reality is we are not done seeing the effect of SR on the price and perception of btc.  No amount of denying it makes it untrue.

Not really. What was the horrible price? It's pretty much already outgrown that 'stigma' anyway, and the only people who think it's a currency for the corrupt and illegal are ignorant idiots anyway.

Probably a dumb question, but since it is in their wallet file... why don't they just send it through an exchange?  What do they think an auction is going to produce?

OTOH, it would be a real crap-fest for them if the community rejected the bitcoins and only bit $1/BTC or some super low amount. (Not like that could happen because the community is too diverse... but it would be interesting)

That's like saying a handgun is good finger exercise.  Silk road played a large role in the beginning of btc but it came at a horrible price.  The perception of bitcoin as the currency of the darknet is still prevalent and it might take years to fully outgrow that stigma.

Even after its demise,now we have to brace for some huge selling pressure in the near future.

I agree with you despite an earlier post of my own.

Saying Silk Road was bad for BTC is sort of like saying that the cocaine trade is bad for the US dollar.

My $.02.

In what way is it? If it wasn't for all the publicity Silk Road got BTC might not be where it is today.

SR is a nasty stain on Bitcoin's past.

LOL!

Missed it first time around I guess!

You have a habit of posting news two days after the rest of the forum has read it.

Just sayin'.

Silk Road Bitcoin Stash To Be Auctioned!

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/01/17/feds-to-sell-28-million-in-seized-bitcoins/

"The U.S. government announced plans to sell a whopping $28 million worth of bitcoins, the volatile digital currency that’s taking the Internet by storm.

Bitcoins are a form of currency, like the U.S. dollar, the British pound or the Indian Rupee. But Bitcoins aren’t tied to any country or even to physical paper or coins at all. Instead, computers “mint” them according to complex algorithms, adding a new coin to a database at a slow but steady rate.

The currency’s exchange rate has seen wide swings, soaring up from about $125 U.S. dollars per bitcoin to over $1,000 apiece in late December. They currently trade for around $800.

And the Feds will soon sell a massive stash.

The huge bitcoin haul -- approximately 29,655 of the digital things -- was formally transferred to the U.S. government several months after it was seized from the server of the black market website Silk Road; the government claimed the digital currency was used to facilitate money laundering, prosecutors announced Thursday.

The action came a day after a Manhattan judge approved the forfeiture of the bitcoins and the website, and three months after San Francisco entrepreneur Ross Ulbricht was arrested on charges he operated an online marketplace for illegal drugs, following a crackdown on the website. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.

In a news release, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said it was the largest forfeiture of bitcoins ever by the government. He called Silk Road "a global cyber business designed to broker criminal transactions." The website is believed to have collected more than $1 billion in revenue from more than 100,000 customers.

"These bitcoins were forfeited not because they are bitcoins, but because they were, as the court found, the proceeds of crimes," Bharara said.

The prosecutor said investigators also seized more than $130 million worth of bitcoins -- an additional 144,336 -- from computer hardware belonging to Ulbricht, though U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken has not yet ruled whether those bitcoins must be forfeited. Ulbricht, 29, has challenged the government's claims to that currency and its insistence that he operated online under the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts.”

Oetken said Wednesday he was ordering the forfeiture of the $28 million of bitcoins and the website because no one had challenged the government's claims to those assets.

Ulbricht has remained imprisoned after a Manhattan magistrate judge cited "powerful evidence" that he sought the killings of individuals he believed would interfere with his business. He is charged separately in federal court in Baltimore in an attempted murder-for-hire scheme."