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Comment by aazaa | Hacker News Reader

I find it extremely amusing that the US government has over the last several years become one of the world's largest traders in bitcoin. It's not quite the path many were predicting back in the early 2010s, but Bitcoin has been full of surprises.

If history is any guide, the bitcoin will be auctioned off sooner rather than later.

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Wait until you learn how many cars, guns, cash, and expensive valuables the feds seize a year. Not to mention businesses, land, and homes.

I just found a multimillion dollar SF condo and land in Liberia, Costa Rica on the US Marshalls website.

Do you have a link? I wonder if that condo is from the owner of silk road.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ulbricht

http://www.drassets.com/#realestate

Can I buy these properties with Bitcoin? Any financing options or has to be paid in full?

Also drugs.

John McAfee has been on a bit of an unfortunate downswing, so it's great to see a big name bringing in institutional support during a crisis like this. ;-)

Unfortunate? That guy has done some bad things.

To be fair, when he still owned the mcaffe it wasnt that bad

It's not the government. It is 3 individuals within that organization sharing a multisig...one of whom has already retired

They could add it to the Fed's balance sheet along with all the agy MBS and tsy holdings they've added since the pandemic... ;)

Not unless they can prove it was ill-gotten. It has to go through a trial

Looks most likely that the government can keep it unless someone files suit to contest the seizure.

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/white-collar-crime/asset-for....

If only that were true. The FBI usually goes with the policy of "might makes right".

Especially for relatively low-value items (like laptops, phones, et c) stuff that the state seizes cannot be cost effectively retrieved, even in the absence of a charge or conviction. You're looking at a minimum of $10k USD in legal fees to begin demanding your stuff back.

The "innocent until proven guilty" policy is mostly a myth in the USA.

> It has to go through a trial

Quite literally. They file suit against the items themselves, and always win.

Hard to win when you can't actually testify :) . CAF is such a joke. It really needs to stop (some success at that in some states). The Founding Fathers would never have allowed it.

u just learned that the us is even a trader of bitcoin at all. you say this not referring to a seizure, right?

Ok HN what the f is happening. Why are people minusing a question? like.. can i just know what is even wrong here?

Poor formatting/spelling/punctuation/readability. "u just learned that the us is even a trader of bitcoin at all" - how do you know what aazaa knew or didn't know prior to commenting?

In general just an incredibly low effort/value comment.

I don't know why you have been down-voted but candidate possibilities include the first sentence being read as snarky (even if it wasn't the intention) and using "u" for "you" in a forum where a more mature* form of expression is the norm.

* I don't intend snark either but I'm not sure how to put it politely...

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