Re:Alleged Coinomi exploit shows how easy it is to have Bitc...
by andrewla on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @11:42AM
(#19264363)
There is not a separate crime of "theft of money" and "theft of property". Electronic crimes, like the theft of key material, is usually covered by different laws.
In places where there have been cryptocurrency thefts that have been prosecuted, they have been primarily pursued as cases of theft -- the US statutory definitions of theft usually only use the monetary value (the USD equivalent) as the determiner of the severity.
While such a policy of "do not pursue bitcoin theft" would theoretically be possible either as an explicit policy or an informal, I thing it would be unlikely to survive judicial scrutiny; it would be like insisting that car thefts only be investigated and prosecuted for American-made cars.
In places where there have been cryptocurrency thefts that have been prosecuted, they have been primarily pursued as cases of theft -- the US statutory definitions of theft usually only use the monetary value (the USD equivalent) as the determiner of the severity.
While such a policy of "do not pursue bitcoin theft" would theoretically be possible either as an explicit policy or an informal, I thing it would be unlikely to survive judicial scrutiny; it would be like insisting that car thefts only be investigated and prosecuted for American-made cars.