Tainted coins - Who dictates that a coin is tainted? - page 2.

runeks

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Quote from: fastandfurious on May 13, 2012, 02:18:04 AM

This community should have a very clear answer to this questions, no one serious will invest in this Economy in the long run without a clarification and Bitcoin will just attract small players and hackers.

There is no official policy regarding "tainted" coins. Every single user of bitcoins is entitled to refuse to accept bitcoins as a payment for whatever reason, including the reason that he or she considers the coins you have to be tainted. Someone may refuse to accept your coins, and that is their right to do so.
What is relevant to your trade in bitcoins is what the policy of the exchange you plan to use is. If you plan on using Mt. Gox, ask them what their policy is on tainted coins. Not satisfied with this policy? Choose another exchange.

The concept of tainted coins seems to me to be destined to fail. Take the recent Bitcoinica theft as an example. A number of coins were sent to the "Bitcoin faucet" address. Owned and operated by lead Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen. What now? Should we not accept Gavin's money, and all other addresses that receive money from the faucet?

If an exchange chooses a restrictive policy on tainted coins it simply means I will go exchange my coins elsewhere. I am not a thief, and I will not accept being treated as one. This dynamic will dig the grave for the concept of tainted coins I believe.

CIYAM

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Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer

Quote from: pgajic on May 13, 2012, 03:00:59 AM

Sorry if i've got the wrong idea, does this mean that it is possible to say coin X was involved in illegal transaction Y?
Who says its tainted? how do you tell if its tainted?

Currently I think only Mt. Gox dictates this (any other exchanges also?) presumably after they have been informed by others of one or more specific Bitcoin addresses to be suspicious of.

Quote from: pgajic on May 13, 2012, 03:00:59 AM

If so most of coins could end up tainted, and there only 21 million to go around ever.

Yup - we'd all end up with some "dirty" coins eventually.

pgajic

newbie

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Sorry if i've got the wrong idea, does this mean that it is possible to say coin X was involved in illegal transaction Y?
Who says its tainted? how do you tell if its tainted?

If so most of coins could end up tainted, and there only 21 million to go around ever.

CIYAM

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Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer

Quote from: fastandfurious on May 13, 2012, 02:35:34 AM

And what is the conclusion, do we have a clarification of the way we are handling with this issue?

Good point - I don't think there was any real consensus about the issue before and it also didn't seem to me that the exchanges were very keen to weigh in on the issue.

fastandfurious

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"BTW this issue has been discussed at length on this forum before (with a little searching you will discover a number of threads)."

And what is the conclusion, do we have a clarification of the way we are handling with this issue?

If not, as I have understood it we should have this topic very active until we have a answer to it. Mt.gox and other exchanges should also participate. Living in a grey zone is a joke long term.

CIYAM

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Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer

Quote from: fastandfurious on May 13, 2012, 02:18:04 AM

If someone is giving me fiat money, I know that I can spend that money as easliy as I got it.

Mostly correct but not always 100% true even with cash (i.e. serial number tracking to identify cash stolen in some large robberies).

Quote from: fastandfurious on May 13, 2012, 02:18:04 AM

The same thing should be with Bitcoin, so how are going to handle this issue?

Personally I don't see that "tainted coin tracking" should have anything to do with Bitcoin itself - policing is a job for police (and/or other government authorities) and is very much dependent upon laws that differ a lot between different jurisdictions.

A bitcoin should be fungible otherwise inevitably everyone's wallets will end up with "tainted" coins that they may have difficulty in using. New users have enough to cope with already without them also having to learn that "bitcoins are all equal, however, some bitcoins are not as equal as others". Sad

BTW this issue has been discussed at length on this forum before (with a little searching you will discover a number of threads).

fastandfurious

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This is one of Bitcoins biggest questions right now, what is a tainted coin? It seems that it already are some tainted coins out there that for example Mt.Gox is not allowing to be traded with at their exchange, how does one know if they have some tainted coins in their wallet? And also who dictates if a coin is tainted or not?

This community should have a very clear answer to this questions, no one serious will invest in this Economy in the long run without a clarification and Bitcoin will just attract small players and hackers.

If someone is giving me fiat money, I know that I can spend that money as easliy as I got it. The same thing should be with Bitcoin, so how are we going to handle with this issue?

Topic: Tainted coins - Who dictates that a coin is tainted? - page 2. (Read 3313 times)