Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on March 04, 2014, 02:34:58 AM

Quote from: CompNsci on March 04, 2014, 02:25:56 AM

Anyone who feels their coins have been unfairly locked, because they weren't part of the Mt. Gox wallets, can just provide proof of ownership to the appropriate group to have the addresses removed from the locked list. Clearly this would require good evidence, but that can be arranged and weighed appropriately.

What "appropriate group"? The central bank of Bitcoin? The Central Bitcoin Intelligence Agency?

You have no idea which addresses belong to MtGox. It doesn't strike you as utter contemptible to just start blocking addresses because you think they belong to MtGox? Forget laws, on what ethical or moral authority do you have the right to arrest the wealth on another person?

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There is nothing wrong with the Bitcoin community, as a consensus, saying they want to be just and support law enforcement in such cases. In fact, I would argue it is using available information and the capabilities of new crypto-currencies in a freedom supporting way.

Except by the responses of this very thread you already don't have a consensus and that is with only a tiny number of people knowing about it. What you want is a central all powerful authority to control the wealth of others based on the flimsiest of evidence. Evidence which BTW wouldn't be sufficient in a court of law to freeze assets "Your honor we think these assets might belong to the defandant so we want you to freeze them for an indefinite amount of time just in case. This was thoroughly researched by some people on the internet and stuff.".

Sounds much like the "asset forfeiture" scam that so many states are running these days in regards to (usually alleged) drug smuggling.

If bitcoin is viable, it is BECAUSE things like this can't be done.

I hope Kareles et. al. can or will recover the majority of the losses through legitimate means, or that the sale of their assets is such that most of the clients receive some compensation. However, there is NO scenario in which it would be wise to break bitcoin for the sake of making some people whole who were scammed or defrauded by a sketchy outfit.

The story that they're telling about malleability is simply untrue. Somebody, somewhere has the keys to the "missing" coins. Beyond the flimsy cover story, we really do not know what's going on. However, if the bankruptcy details they have made public are correct, they have close to half the missing assest already, not including customer funds. Which means that the missing coins can be had back at about 50 percent. Given how many sharks circled in at the low prices to try and gather up cheap coins, a lot of people would still make out well on this.

But that is an aside. You don't reissue a security because a brokerage stole some of it, and you don't reissue a currency for that reason either. If they "find" the coins, cool. If they don't, bitcoin is 6 percent more valuable.

While that seems harsh, going the "let's run to big daddy" thing is much harsher. Six percent is very paltry compared to 100 percent.