I'm talking about the money kind of bitcoin.
Some situations where the bitcoin status of being a private property or not could arise:
> A mistakenly sends bitcoins to B, and A finds out who B is.
> A mistakenly shows his private keys to B (by just saying it), and A finds out who B is.
> B executes a replay attack on A.
> B, by an practical impossible luck, creates a private key that had founds that belonged to A already.
> B sends money to A (and A sends "something" or some information to B). Then, we don't know why, everyone decides to change their Bitcoin rules and the result is that A can't get to spend his money in the new version.
I started an article (
here) trying to defend the idea that bitcoin is not private property, therefore all of the examples above couldn't be classified as theft or robbery (of private property).
What do you think?
I think your question wholly depends on how our respective laws define theft and robbery. Nonetheless, as per our State law, I think Bitcoin is a private property because private property, as defined under our code is "all things which are or may be the object of appropriation". As you may have noticed, our law did not distinguish as to what property shall fall as a private property. Thus, Bitcoin is a private property for all intents and purposes. This being the case, if someone steals Bitcoin from you, the former may be held criminally liable either for theft or robbery.