I like the irony that now if Bitcoin pumpers drive the price up they essentially giving the FBI money. 
Exactly. Good point.
Topic: Sudden new largest bitcoin address as of 10/25 (Read 12551 times)
Exactly. Good point.
I like the irony that now if Bitcoin pumpers drive the price up they essentially giving the FBI money.
That reddit piece makes interesting reading:
http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkroadUNcensored/comments/1p0ogt/
With that as hindsight it will be worth keeping an eye on this.
http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkroadUNcensored/comments/1p0ogt/
With that as hindsight it will be worth keeping an eye on this.
I like a good conspiracy story as much as the next person but this one is a little wide of reality.
How hard can it be to find some evidence to back a story that's been all over the headlines? So far in that thread no one has come up with any evidence that the FBI had any involvement in either this or the SR shutdown.
I don't know if this is sufficient evidence but it's all I could do with Google. Here's the FBI website:
http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/
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 know the two links are to the same source but the rest of the news articles and Wikipedia pages pointed to the same places so I figured it was a good start.
I can't confirm the story wasn't planted or that the website hasn't been hacked though so you'll have to take my word for it that I'm not involved.
Lol. The thread had indeed been moved to off-topic. Just speculatin' 
Now I can't find the little grey "Moved..." hyperlink anywhere in General. Some mod really went out of their way to hide that thread without the obvious deletion... Doo-dee-doo-duu-doo-dee-doo-duu... 
STFU, moron...
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--316855
I guess I was too much of a moron to look through 3 days of history for a link that was there earlier today. My bad.
That reddit piece makes interesting reading:
http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkroadUNcensored/comments/1p0ogt/
With that as hindsight it will be worth keeping an eye on this.
http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkroadUNcensored/comments/1p0ogt/
With that as hindsight it will be worth keeping an eye on this.
I like a good conspiracy story as much as the next person but this one is a little wide of reality.
This is now the top story at forbes.com.
It was also pointed out by Mike Caldwell in the Press section that "FBI" encodes as "324" on a telephone pad. Does that not seem like too much fanfare for the FBI?
It was also pointed out by Mike Caldwell in the Press section that "FBI" encodes as "324" on a telephone pad. Does that not seem like too much fanfare for the FBI?
I can't imagine someone at the FBI doing the transfers slowly in 324 units. It would be madness and the supervising officer would surely wonder why it's taking so long.
Also, why would the FBI want to tag their transfers?
Lol. The thread had indeed been moved to off-topic. Just speculatin'
Now I can't find the little grey "Moved..." hyperlink anywhere in General. Some mod really went out of their way to hide that thread without the obvious deletion... Doo-dee-doo-duu-doo-dee-doo-duu... STFU, moron...
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--316855
Cool stuff. Readers of this might be interested in how the bitcoins are distributed in general, and what would happen if 200k was sold.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/25/fbi-says-its-seized-20-million-in-bitcoins-from-ross-ulbricht-alleged-owner-of-silk-road/
Looks like it's the FBI's address
Looks like it's the FBI's address
Is this source reliable? It looks pretty childish and unprofessional to send with multiple 324XBT transaction, just to show they are FBI.
The Dutch police seized 56 Bitcoins this Monday from some hackers who had phished bank account details and had converted the money they stole into Bitcoin. The police immediately sold the Bitcoins and transferred the received euro's to their own account.
I read some news reports claiming that, while most of the reports that came out at the same time stated they confiscated the bitcoins which could be converted in to 7700 euro. I think the media that reported the bitcoins had been sold misunderstood, it seems highly unlikely to me. First of all, you dont liquidate seized assets before you get a conviction. Imagine they would not be convicted for whatever reason (procedural error or whatever) and released a year from here, and bitcoin meanwhile surged to $1000. Bit of a problem.
Secondly, there is no obvious way for the police to liquidate these bitcoins so quickly. Are we to believe they already had a verified account at mtgox or btc-e ?
The Dutch police seized 56 Bitcoins this Monday from some hackers who had phished bank account details and had converted the money they stole into Bitcoin. The police immediately sold the Bitcoins and transferred the received euro's to their own account.
So the police teach the thieves a lesson by stealing their stolen money
Too risky to buy now, we won't know how they would use the seized coins.
Of course we do, inefficiently just like any other funds they receive.
so predictable
Too risky to buy now, we won't know how they would use the seized coins.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/25/fbi-says-its-seized-20-million-in-bitcoins-from-ross-ulbricht-alleged-owner-of-silk-road/
Looks like it's the FBI's address
Now we know what's up. 144k BTC for the FBI. Looks like it's the FBI's address
All your BTC are belong to US.
IF they put all their coins up for sale right now, what would the price drop to?
They could put $3million worth on bitstamp and the price would be $0.01/btc.
They could put $17million worth on mtgox and the price would be $0.01/btc.
So they would completely crash bitcoin.
?Thats bullshit.
A 300k sell is needed to take the price below $0.50 on Gox.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/25/fbi-says-its-seized-20-million-in-bitcoins-from-ross-ulbricht-alleged-owner-of-silk-road/
Looks like it's the FBI's address
Now we know what's up. 144k BTC for the FBI. Looks like it's the FBI's address
All your BTC are belong to US.
IF they put all their coins up for sale right now, what would the price drop to?
They could put $3million worth on bitstamp and the price would be $0.01/btc.
They could put $17million worth on mtgox and the price would be $0.01/btc.
So they would completely crash bitcoin.
So what happens if the Feds sell the Bitcoins to J.P. Morgan and they used them for manipulating the Bitcoin markets just like they manipulate the gold and silver markets.
Could this spell the end of Bitcoin?
Could this spell the end of Bitcoin?
Just the end of the beginning.
I don't usually write in speculation forum, but here's what I have to say.
Guess: DPR will face a difficult trial. Most likely, it will take at least 12 months to get a verdict, assuming he's not gonna plea guilty.
Fact: FBI HAS some +170k coins . Valued at about 30 mil USD, they cannot sell them on eBay/MtGox/Bitcoinica. They can keep them (they can invoke some reasons for that) or auction them AFTER the trial. The problem is, while BTC rises in value, the US Govt gets a fuckin' ton of BTC (money is not important). But power it is.
Legally, I see no reason why they can't file for civil forfeiture in parallel to the criminal case. In which case, they don't need to wait to auction them off. Unless of course, Ulbricht can prove an innocent owner defense.
they will auction these as they do gold and silver that is seized.
They can't manipulate the market very much with so few coins, and what little they could do would just enrich traders at the FBI's expense.
Even if the price goes up 100x by the time they sell the coins, and they sell for $2 billion, it will still be about the same effect on the market. They're probably eager to liquidate them ASAP lest they lose out on their millions, but even if the FBI people are Bitcoin bulls they still will only have a very small percentage of the market cap, whether they sell it for 20 million or 20 billion. Their stash cannot grow in value without the market growing by about the same degree. (The error is ceteris paribus assumptions, or "near-field thinking.")
Even if the price goes up 100x by the time they sell the coins, and they sell for $2 billion, it will still be about the same effect on the market. They're probably eager to liquidate them ASAP lest they lose out on their millions, but even if the FBI people are Bitcoin bulls they still will only have a very small percentage of the market cap, whether they sell it for 20 million or 20 billion. Their stash cannot grow in value without the market growing by about the same degree. (The error is ceteris paribus assumptions, or "near-field thinking.")
Why bother? Isn't the fact that the all mighty FBI had to follow bitcoin protocol rules and transfer the coins to their own wallet statement enough?
So what happens if the Feds sell the Bitcoins to J.P. Morgan and they used them for manipulating the Bitcoin markets just like they manipulate the gold and silver markets.
Could this spell the end of Bitcoin?
Could this spell the end of Bitcoin?
Just the end of the beginning.
I don't usually write in speculation forum, but here's what I have to say.
Guess: DPR will face a difficult trial. Most likely, it will take at least 12 months to get a verdict, assuming he's not gonna plea guilty.
Fact: FBI HAS some +170k coins . Valued at about 30 mil USD, they cannot sell them on eBay/MtGox/Bitcoinica. They can keep them (they can invoke some reasons for that) or auction them AFTER the trial. The problem is, while BTC rises in value, the US Govt gets a fuckin' ton of BTC (money is not important). But power it is.
Legally, I see no reason why they can't file for civil forfeiture in parallel to the criminal case. In which case, they don't need to wait to auction them off. Unless of course, Ulbricht can prove an innocent owner defense.
Not sure I follow you. Previous poster wants to "show them" with his misguided plan. I'm simply pointing out bitcoin already "showed them" so to speak. That is assuming they didn't brute force the private key. If they did it would seem silly to bother seizing something of no value. Unless you think bitcoin has value even if private keys can be brute forced.
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