Embedded Blockchain Insults

[AZRedhawk44]

https://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX


Ha!

People are sending BitCoins to the old SilkRoad public address, with little verbal barbs embedded in them.  Just tiny fractions worth less than a penny, but it's hilarious.  Links to marines guarding poppy fields in A-stan, CIA involvement in drug traffic, things like that.

The cockles.  They warm.   

[AZRedhawk44]

Looks like Wired magazine may have sent some BC, with a question:

Wired wants to know what the Feds will do with these bitcoins.

I find it intriguing that the BC have "value" in the form of $3.6 million, but aren't honored as currency.  That basically puts them in the category of drugs themselves, when it comes to reporting on the story.  A naughty, illicit, bad thing to have on one's self.  Like "arsenals" of guns and thousands of rounds of ammo. 

How long until BC itself is classified as a controlled substance, or a munition, or something else verboten?  I'd love to see the destruction of 1A by FedGuv, in court, over BitCoin... the defense would be so simple and we'd all know it's a mockery of justice immediately.  I think that might start some rooftop voting, actually.

[AJ Dual]

That's a big Catch-22 for Uncle Sam, unless they're going to try and cash in the Bitcoins for FRN's anonymously through intermediaries. (Hey NSA handler! I volunteer!... For a small percentage, of course...  )

I can't see the fed.gov trying to give the currency "legitimacy" by using it. However, by just sitting on them forever, those coins are out of circulation, and only raise the value of the remaining Bitcoins. 

[lee n. field]

Looks like Wired magazine may have sent some BC, with a question:


I find it intriguing that the BC have "value" in the form of $3.6 million, but aren't honored as currency.  That basically puts them in the category of drugs themselves, when it comes to reporting on the story.  A naughty, illicit, bad thing to have on one's self.  Like "arsenals" of guns and thousands of rounds of ammo. 

How long until BC itself is classified as a controlled substance, or a munition, or something else verboten?  I'd love to see the destruction of 1A by FedGuv, in court, over BitCoin... the defense would be so simple and we'd all know it's a mockery of justice immediately.  I think that might start some rooftop voting, actually.

Oh, they'll use it to fund something illicit.  Or blow it.  It's only worth 3.6E6 FRNs.

[AZRedhawk44]

Oh, they'll use it to fund something illicit.  Or blow it.  It's only worth 3.6E6 FRNs.

Problem is, bitcoins are auditable.

Without knowing a "who" to attach to the coins, it's just watching it go from anonymous wallet to anonymous wallet.

But, when you know a "who" to attach to the wallet ID, you can audit every coin that touches that wallet.

All 25,000BC here will get marked.  Someone will write an app soon to allow BC users to be on the lookout for suspect BitCoins that have ever been touched by a FedGov controller.  Making a transaction, and the BC you are being paid with are part of the SR sting?  Cancel the transaction and blackball the guy you're working with.

I even saw one post (on reddit, I think) talking about the possibility of re-authoring the blockchain and wallet software to deny the validity of the 25,000BC the government now has.  It got shot down for being hypocritical... but it was proposed.

Also interesting, we don't know if the government actually has control over the 25,000BC in question.  They have denied Ulbricht access to it, sure.  But the BC aren't on his computer... they're in the block chain.  And if the block chain doesn't allow FedGuv to have them, then FedGuv can't have them.  To operate those BC, FedGov needs the ability to open Ulbricht's wallet.  This is one of those 4A/lead-pipe-cryptoanalysis conundrums we often talk about here.

Ulbricht still owns those BC.  And there's NOTHING FedGov can do to take them away.

In fact, if Ulbricht has a wallet backup and trusts someone well enough, he can tell his lawyer his password and his lawyer can siphon those BC elsewhere, through a TOR protected wallet client, and FedGuv will never know.

[lee n. field]

Problem is, bitcoins are auditable.

Without knowing a "who" to attach to the coins, it's just watching it go from anonymous wallet to anonymous wallet.

But, when you know a "who" to attach to the wallet ID, you can audit every coin that touches that wallet.

All 25,000BC here will get marked.  Someone will write an app soon to allow BC users to be on the lookout for suspect BitCoins that have ever been touched by a FedGov controller.  Making a transaction, and the BC you are being paid with are part of the SR sting?  Cancel the transaction and blackball the guy you're working with.

I even saw one post (on reddit, I think) talking about the possibility of re-authoring the blockchain and wallet software to deny the validity of the 25,000BC the government now has.  It got shot down for being hypocritical... but it was proposed.

Also interesting, we don't know if the government actually has control over the 25,000BC in question.  They have denied Ulbricht access to it, sure.  But the BC aren't on his computer... they're in the block chain.  And if the block chain doesn't allow FedGuv to have them, then FedGuv can't have them.  To operate those BC, FedGov needs the ability to open Ulbricht's wallet.  This is one of those 4A/lead-pipe-cryptoanalysis conundrums we often talk about here.

Ulbricht still owns those BC.  And there's NOTHING FedGov can do to take them away.

In fact, if Ulbricht has a wallet backup and trusts someone well enough, he can tell his lawyer his password and his lawyer can siphon those BC elsewhere, through a TOR protected wallet client, and FedGuv will never know.

Don't know enough about bitcoins yet.  I will, eventually.  I just found another 10 of my son's, sitting in a couple online accounts.

[brimic]

Ulbricht still owns those BC.  And there's NOTHING FedGov can do to take them away.

In fact, if Ulbricht has a wallet backup and trusts someone well enough, he can tell his lawyer his password and his lawyer can siphon those BC elsewhere, through a TOR protected wallet client, and FedGuv will never know.

I don't quite comprehend bitcoins, but that sounds awesome. Imagine the looks on the faces of feds when they realize that they don't hold the bitcoins in their hands anymore than they can hold water.

[zahc]

Ulbricht still owns those BC.  And there's NOTHING FedGov can do to take them away.

In fact, if Ulbricht has a wallet backup and trusts someone well enough, he can tell his lawyer his password and his lawyer can siphon those BC elsewhere, through a TOR protected wallet client, and FedGuv will never know.

The "FedGuv" will just compel him to reveal his password.

[AZRedhawk44]

The "FedGuv" will just compel him to reveal his password.

Can't do that with TrueCrypt containers...legally at least.  Why would they be able to do that with a different password protected piece of data?

BC ain't money, according to FedGuv.  There's no mechanism to compel taxation with it since it is distributed and bankless.  Aside from the fact that it has zero inherent value and is entirely a fad, it's the perfect manifestation of a currency for a voluntaryist society.  No one can manipulate it or coerce it.

There is NO WAY Ulbricht will yield the access to those accounts.  Fricking insanity to do that.  He's facing charges that might land him 5-10 years, tops.  There isn't even a corpse or a tangible name in the conspiracy to murder charges, so those are bunk.  He sold no drugs.  He created a website and allowed drugs to be sold on it.  It's white-collar stuff.

He's going to yield $3.6 million worth of BC to cut 5-10 years down to 3-5 years?  When those BC will just appreciate as the currency gains momentum and be worth $10 million, or $50 million, when he gets out?  BC was worth like $8 a coin, about 9 months ago.  Now it's like $110.  If Ulricht uses this as indisputable proof that State violence cannot rob you of your property without your consent with BC like they can with FRN's, BC value will go ape-scat silly through the roof.  $1000 per BC is not unreasonable.  Parity with an ounce of gold is not unreasonable.  BC took a big valuation hit when SR was sacked.  Might be a good time to buy up, especially if the case I propose about sanctity of private property even in regards to the State is going to play out.

I really wish I knew if FedGuv already had access to the wallet, rather than just control of Ulbricht.

[dogmush]

The "FedGuv" will just compel him to reveal his password.

How? A contempt charge? He's going down for drug dealing and [probably] conspiracy to commit murder. BFD.

Torture? This is a pretty high profile case. Folks will notice if he can't walk or disappears.

Depending on the statement he wants to make as he goes down in flames it might be fun to have his lawyer publicly challenge the ability of the .gov to seize the bit coins. Sure they say they have them but call them out. If they can't get to them or spend them then they didn't really seize them. Make the .gov look like fools to all the bit coin savvy folks watching.

It might also help spin him as a rebel hacker v .gov rather then a murdering drug dealer. Couldn't hurt.

[AZRedhawk44]

http://jerrybrito.com/2013/10/02/silk-road/

In the seizure court order, there's mention of attempting to obtain the wallets (which are private keys).  Wallets are password protected, though.  You can't just have the wallet file, you also need the password.  Yes, you can have a non-passworded private key to your wallet.  But would you do that with $3.6 million worth of BC?  If I had that much BC, the whole wallet would reside in an unmounted TrueCrypt container that I only opened to do withdrawals to a separate wallet that I controlled, that held actual spending BC.

And, wallets can be backed up.

If something can be backed up, it can be saved to alternate media off-site, and restored to different hardware.

If Ulbricht can get his lawyer or other intermediary to activate a backup of his wallet and shuffle the money, he can remove it from FedGov control.

Sigh.


Looking at this:

https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?address=1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX

The wallet in question here has had a zero balance forever, up until October 2nd, 2013.  It's a new wallet, the one into which FedGov transferred all the BC.

Ulbricht really is a dum bass.  Millions, gone... as well as a gigantic political statement... for lack of caution, encryption, and offline partitioning of his wallets.

I can't wait for the app that comes out to trace these coins that FedGov has, though.  What will they be called?  BitnarC?

[just Warren]

bitcointelpros

[SADShooter]

bitcointelpros

 

[Scout26]

bitcointelpros

 


(I doubt many will get the reference.)


 

[CNYCacher]

Again, I surmise that the 3.6M is actually just the totality of the escrow system which resided on the server. Since the Feds took over physical control of the server, they grabbed it all up.

You can't really operate an escrow system unless the server has the wallet open constantly, storing the key in a configuration file somewhere, unless you expected Ulbright to type in the password at every transaction.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I don't quite comprehend bitcoins, but that sounds awesome. Imagine the looks on the faces of feds when they realize that they don't hold the bitcoins in their hands anymore than they can hold water.

Sounds like disbarment and adjoining cells.
And to play devils advocate if the tracking and blckballing starts rhe feds could give em away and it would have the same effect a flood of counterfeit cash has. Be very disruptive to bitcoin as an effective means of commerce.

And if the dread pirate had the gnads to really jam the gov by siphoning off his stash he woulda had enough gnads to take care of the blackmailer himself. Unless the feds screwed up big they are gonna own him. His only hope at seeing daylight will be in cooperation. And/or squealing. Which could be harmful to his health

Come to think of it hes probably a dead man. Some of the folks who lost out in the seizure are not noted for the spirit of forgiveness. It would be ironic if the folks he contracted with were the ones who killed him. They are doubly motivated

damn phone

[DustinD]

unless you expected Ulbright to type in the password at every transaction.

Maybe setup some sort of macro that you load a string into each time you boot the computer, and that deletes the macro's string from its RAM if the computer goes idle for a while or the "screen saver" kicks in.

Some one should really start a good thread about how to create a proper Silk Road service, but devoted to fighting political suppression. If we ever need such a service we won't have time to create it from scratch later on. We also especially need a great how-to and check list of things to consider when you suddenly find you need anonymity right *now*. Anonymity, sort of like a firearm is one of those things where if you need it and don't have it, you likely won't have time to run out and get it. And if you need it and don't have it, you might never need it again. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

How about a pool on when he gets very cooperative with the gov. My bet is "already"

damn phone

[freakazoid]

And if the dread pirate had the gnads to really jam the gov by siphoning off his stash he woulda had enough gnads to take care of the blackmailer himself.

Apples and oranges. Willingness to give the finger to the government does not make you an international hitman expert.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Cowardice is universal
And quite common.
The hitters might wanna hit dpr now

damn phone