I stopped responding because the argument that there are no property rights in bitcoin whatsoever is completely ridiculous and not even worthy of my time.  There are property rights in WoW gold (subject to your contract with Blizzard), why should this be any different?  

If a bitcoin scam makes it to court, no judge in their right mind is going to say, "Oh, sorry, you're screwed out of your $10k investment because there are no property rights in bitcoin."  They're going to attach property rights, and award fair market value, regardless of whether any fiat currency changed hands between the victim and the scammer.  James Madison said that property is "that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual," (quoting William Blackstone) and that "it embraces every thing to which a man may attach a value and have a right . . . ."

If you can't grasp that concept, this may help:

If I steal 10,000 in euros from you and you sue to recover it, the judgment you're awarded is not the intrinsic value of the paper and ink that it was printed on.  It is the value of the cash in the marketplace.  The same thing applies if someone hacks into your bank account, where most of the money only exists as accounting entries.  Money is an intangible asset with property rights.  Bitcoin is an intangible asset with property rights.  What exactly is so farfetched about this idea???  We have always had property rights in mediums of exchange.  It's basic commerce.

Sunnankar:

I don't know any better way to articulate it than this:  you're an idiot.  The only real "goose chase" I've been on at all was looking into the topic you suggested in the first place.  I've talked to a lot of professors and practicing attorneys in the last week or so, and they all agree that the attachment of property rights to bitcoin is so obvious that it is barely even a legitimate question.  So thanks for absolutely nothing.

I'm also wondering what qualifications you have that make you feel like you know so much, because after talking with extremely competent attorneys and professors, I see that everything you've said in this thread is laughably wrong.  It was a huge waste of time to even respond to you.  Do you even practice law or have any legal training whatsoever?  Even if you do, I would be shocked to learn you did anything more complex than ambulance chasing or divorces.

If you guys still don't agree, that's fine, you can just wait for the first court case involving bitcoin.  I know that doesn't add much to my argument now, but it'll make it that much better when that opinion comes out and I can pull this thread up again.