This case goes to show that Bitcoin is traceable by the authorities when they want to track you. Investors should not trade Bitcoin thinking that 100% they will never be tracked by tax authorities.
There’s that funny and sad story about the guy who developed the security code system for Bitcoin and got paid in coins. He’s forgotten his security code number and can’t access 120 million dollars worth of coin. He set up a maximum of ten attempts before you’re permanently locked out, and he’s currently guessed eight times.
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It’s almost 100% verifiable according to the original account owner at the time of the hack… That’s the beauty of blockchain. Every transaction is publically recorded and each wallet is listed.
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I don’t see how it could be tracked if you wash it through a coin mixer. Maybe these people didn’t
My understanding is that these people are not the original hackers. The original hackers were savvy enough to avoid being identified. It’s pretty easy to make a paper wallet to send the coins to. It’s not like wallets have your name attached to them. It’s only easy to track the movement of the BTC itself not who is in control of the wallet. The Feds are trying to limit this by requiring exchanges to KYC. But there are ways around this for those that care. The original amount of hacked coins isn’t in the feds possession so likely some coins are in other hands or have been washed through XMR mixers. This hack had thousands of wallets.
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If they didn’t do the hacking, it appears they directed, as the feds seized 94k of 120k coins taken.
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It’s impressive detective work and law enforcement .
Just watched this. The author wants to look at the problems of NFTs but also covers Bitcoin, Ethereum, and DAOs. He’s definitely not a fan but most of the rebuttals I’ve seen to his remarks are that he’s right but it’ll get better.
It’s long (almost 2 and a half hours), so be prepared. The video has definitely taken off. It was posted a couple of weeks ago and has almost 5 million hits.
Another good critique:
I’m a big believer in Bill Joy’s Law of Startups, “success is inversely proportional to the amount of money you have”. For $2.5M we got Nvidia to working silicon that was revolutionary in two different respects. Right now, there is way too much money. If a system is to be decentralized, it has to have a low barrier to entry. If it has a low barrier to entry, competition will ensure it has low margins. Low margin businesses don’t attract venture capital. VCs are pouring money into cryptocurrency and “web3” companies. This money is not going to build systems with low barriers to entry and thus low margins. Thus the systems that will result from this flood of money will not be decentralized, no matter what the sales pitch says.
Edit: Oh, and also:
The real story is that the whales — “large institutional trading firms,” … want (or need) to realise the face value of their bitcoins, and they can’t, because there just aren’t enough actual dollars in the market. This is the same reason miners are keeping a “stockpile” of unsaleable bitcoins, as I’ve noted previously.
So the whales are going to Goldman Sachs to ask for a loan backed by their unsaleable bitcoins, even though the collateral can’t possibly cover for the value of the loan even if Bitcoin doesn’t crash.
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Greens and Lefties in the EU don’t like it it seems:
crypto fuck. Putin has already hacked into the fucking morons around the world. Crypto cultist maniacs piss me off. Know a wanked out guy runs around taiwan talking about crypto and how I need to buy it or I’ll be poor.
I always figured that while bitcoin is traceable by tax authorities, they probably don’t have the manpower to chase a few thousand in unreported gains by some kid. But some of those guys that sold their bitcoin for multimillions are probably eventually going to get a visit from the tax authorities with compound interest added.
Maybe, but it’s always easier for authorities to send a letter to the little people saying you owe thousands of dollars in back-taxes. Do they have the money to “fight” it? They’ll just pay after receiving the letter.
The richie rich’s of the world have the lawyers to fight the letter.
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Yup. The little guy can’t afford tax court lawyers. The tax office pretty much can’t get info on the heavy hitters as they hide the loot well. But I see kids that made off with a few mil on Reddit all the time and brag that they just didn’t report it. Those guys the tax office will look up I’m sure.
when you’re taxed on crypto gains last year, but the crypto is worthless today. Gov’s like fu, pay up. You didn’t cash out isn’t my concern
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You think that’s bad. Oregon (D) senator wants to tax people on UNREALIZED gains. How about getting taxed last year on bitcoin at 60,000 and now it’s at 30,000. Yes, he wants to do something like that. Fuq-wit.
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Nonono that’s just for the rich! You know, homeowners.
The whole point is not letting the government know you own it or use it lol.
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called it 
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