Hacker News Reader

Comment by magicjosh | Hacker News Reader

There's a difference. You can drag someone out of their house without consent, but forcing a transfer requires consent. Does this difference matter?

View on HN

Forcing a transfer does not require consent. They’ll seize the hardware that holds your private key.

If you’re worried about the government forcing you out of your home at gunpoint, what makes you think they can’t seize a private key or force a few keystrokes?

Hardware wallets usually have a password enabled, in addition to other security mechanisms. Like I said, not sure the difference matters, but there is a difference.

But what's the difference of just authority making your NFT URL invalid and moving the item under a different URL? That would be equivalent of forcing you out of your home, they cannot force you to give them keys, but they can change the lock.

This whole "files stored on Google Drive" is growing pains. NFTs must all be hosted on IPFS.

If they really want they can analyze the memory on your desktop or install a keylogger. There’s so many ways to extract a private key barring a deadman switch and a cyanide tooth capsule.

Again, you’re seriously arguing that it’s harder for the government to take your house rather than give up your password?

Houses also have locks and yet presumably the police can and will bypass that security measure in this scenario. The point is that nothing will protect you in the face of overwhelming force.

Obligatory XKCD reference: https://xkcd.com/538/

That probably would not happen in a first world country.

Depends on who you are — Gitmo comes to mind – but at least in the United States you can substitute being beaten by agents of the government with being imprisoned where the other prisoners and possibly agents of the government will beat you until you give up the password.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com