Sorry if this was discussed, but in USA if you buy stolen property and you are caught with it you have to return it to the original owner at your loss.
Now, lets say someone did steal the Mt Gox. Bitcoins, and then you bought some of them unknowingly.
If they could trace back through the blockchain that those bitcoins were indeed stolen Mt. Gox. coins, wouldn't they be able to take them back from you?
I doubt that this would happen. The Bitcoins would not have the same address. They are not the same Bitcoins.
Maybe Bitcoins obtained straight from a stolen source are one thing, but Bitcoins that have transferred MANY times with differing amounts over a year? What basis would that be? They do not do that with cash or currency.
sure they do,
the OP is correct if you are able to track, trace, or connect the dots then you are obligated to return the money.
Jewish organizations are collecting gold, money, and many other valuable things that they were able to convince a judge, and or jury that was stolen from their people during their stay at auschwitz concentration camps.
the blockchain provides a perfect vehicle for that connecting of the dots.
Now let's look at it in a bit of a different way, if I sold my car to you and you gave me counterfeit money which I took to the bank, who subsequently confiscated said fakes funds. Do you think you are off the hook for my money? Of course not, regardless of the law, but in this case the law is on my side. You would also need to do some 'spaning to the coppers.
The very definition of money laundering is taking ill gotten gains and introducing it into legal commerce. So if you purchased a btc for $40 when the going rate was $80 or $800 there is likely a good reason for it. The block chain might not be able to tell us the market rate for the coin at that time but you can put together perfect valuations for what the coin was worth at the time of the transfer simply be average all of the coins sold in that block or perhaps the chain of blocks for that hour surrounding that transaction.
being uncooperative only serves to distance yourself from the good of the community, as the community matures it will tend to remember the bad guy with perfect recall
Armis, in your example here, unfortunately how it really works is that YOU would be in JAIL, even though you TRULY would be the innocent party.....trust me on this one, I deal with this everyday of my life and know for a fact that you would be dealing with it first, long before the bad guy would have to.