U.S. Government Seizes Another $28 Million in Bitcoins

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By: Raymond Hackney A couple weeks ago I wrote about how the U.S. government could impact the Bitcoin market with the 174,000 Bitcoins they have in their possession. The Verge is out tonight with an article that the government just seized another $28 million in Bitcoins from Silk Road. From the article : Today, federal [More]

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[Tikkun]

Never really gave bitcoin much thought before. Except for how it seems to drive the sale of TREMENDOUS computing power. That's a cool side effect.

But this sorta validates boitcoin, huh? You can't seize an "asset" that doesn't exist or isn't somehow valid.

 

[Deleted member 5660]

This story caused a minor panic and price drop. Many people overreacted and thought the government would dump all the coins at once. Of course the government has a duty to get the most value of the sale of assets and another article was posted that described the process of any potential sale (of course they have to wait until the legal proceedings and claims are over before they can sell the assets). I am up over $25/coin on the purchase I made a few hours ago as people realize this won't really affect the price any time soon, if at all.

Also, Bitcoin is creating "hashing power" which is doing a cryptographic hash using SHA256. They are using specialized chips, Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). The chips are designed to do one problem, and one problem only. Once the electricity exceeds the mining revenue they are essentially useless and cannot even be used to read your e-mail.

 

[duceman]

Apparently the gov is in possession of another $100M or so of his bitcoins.

I'm wondering if they were all in one place, did they hack him or did he turn them over to the Gov under threat

 

[Focus]

Focus says Bitcoins are a sinking ship, you were warned.

 

[Deleted member 5660]

The Silk Road is an ongoing criminal case. There are 2 different murder-for-hire cases and some of the information is in the indictments but not all because it has not gone to trial yet. Those are all online. That Bitcoin forum is a little more exciting then this one since a member is in federal prison accused of running silk road and ordering hits. the forum is also cited in an SEC case about some guy who ran a Ponzi there.

Bitcoin is a revolutionary technology similar to importance to TCP/IP and it is not going anywhere. It is good that people go around making comments like "sinking ship" because I swoop in and buy when the price dips and then sell when the hype gets overblown. Thanks.