So in the argument discussed in this topic, OP picking up a paper wallet worth 0.6btc, is this a theft scenario? because if we look at OP's story, he wants to return it to the real owner but he doesn't know how.
And I think it will be difficult to return it to the real owner because many opportunists will pretend that the paper wallet is theirs. Then for crypto enthusiasts, we know that Bitcoin is not fake money, because it can be converted into real money, not just touched physically.
Nah, I'm talking theoretically since I'm talking about the morality of something rather than this specific occasion. It was pretty much summed up that there was no theft, and some users speculated that this could've been a scam attempt, which it might have well been. However, I wanted to reference that this is actually a really difficult situation to be in, and personally I don't know what I would've done. Like I said above, I probably wouldn't have even checked if the wallet had any Bitcoin in it, which could've been a waste of my time trying to find a owner of a wallet that has nothing in it. And I think it will be difficult to return it to the real owner because many opportunists will pretend that the paper wallet is theirs. Then for crypto enthusiasts, we know that Bitcoin is not fake money, because it can be converted into real money, not just touched physically.
It would be difficult to find the real owner, which encourages people to take the Bitcoin for themselves, which again isn't ideal.
First of all, if you did not try to check how much bitcoin it contained in that paper wallet, then what would you have done ?
You have just left the paper wallet on the beach so that any other person can find it and enjoy this free money or would you have destroyed the paper wallet making the bitcoin supply less by 0.06
I think in such a scenerio it is impossible to find the real owner of the bitcoin and it is also not our money, so whoever gets that money he can use it for charity purposes.