Re:More encryption means less privacy
by sliverstorm on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @01:21PM
(#12256170)
Part of the way the legal system deals with fraud is by recovering money (where possible). With bitcoin, unless the destination wallet can be obtained, that is not possible.
With cash, you seize the cash. Bank accounts can be frozen, Credit card transactions canceled, wire transfers flagged (http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/01/29/464859624/episo...).
Re:More encryption means less privacy
by icebraining on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @01:23PM
(#12256183)
With cash, unless the wallet in which it resides can be obtained, that is not possible. I fail to see the difference.
I agree, the legal system doesn't do well when it comes to recovering cash from entities that can hide it. You can get a legal judgment against a company, but if it's fly-by-night, it winds up being a worthless piece of paper, and can become very difficult to recover.
It's much harder to hide 500,000 dollars in small bills than it is to hide Bitcoin.
Re:More encryption means less privacy
by superuser2 on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @05:04PM
(#12257688)
Law enforcement has well-developed capabilities to surreptitiously follow the movement of people and objects through the physical world and wield whatever force necessary to sieze them where desired.
The law does actually have ways of extracting cash from people even when it can't locate the cash in question. It's harder, and less effective, but overall it works more than it doesn't.
Re:More encryption means less privacy
by icebraining on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @01:52PM
(#12256429)
Yes, but that works the same for Bitcoin.
Looks like they have other ways of handling it with Bitcoin: https://www.usmarshals.gov/assets/2016/bitcoinauction/index....
It could work the same for Bitcoin. It actually works better with Bitcoin as there actually is a complete transaction log.
However, the law has frequently decided it can't treat Bitcoin like it treats cash, which has created problems...
Hiding a wallet is much easier. You can even have several copies of it, so that you can hide it so well that you do not even care if you lose it.
Don't we have an extensive legal system to deal with fraud? The fact that a lot of payment providers elect to deal with fraud themselves probably shows that that legal system isn't working as smoothly as it should; but that's really something that should be fixed in the legal system, not in the payment channel.