Bitcoin becoming a standard part of lawsuit discovery requests | Hacker News Reader

Bitcoin becoming a standard part of lawsuit discovery requests

js.gg

46 pointsjsdotgg22 comments

> Now even lawyers, who are traditionally pretty technologically un-savvy, are recognizing that bitcoin is a potential method for storing (and hiding) assets.

Lawyers deal with unfamiliar and new things for a living. I'd bet that among the small group of people really trying to figure out how Bitcoin fits into the big picture, a big percentage of them are lawyers (SEC regulators, DOJ attorneys, etc).

You may be correct, but the type of lawyers drafting discovery requests to collect on a judgment aren't going to be in that parenthetical group. They probably just heard somewhere that Bitcoin=money and threw it in. You ask for anything and everything in discovery, just to see what sticks.

A bitcoin article hit my Am Law Daily feed months ago: http://www.americanlawyer.com/PubArticleALD.jsp?id=120261442.... Also the ABA Journal: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/some_basic_rules_.... Finally, it's been mentioned several times on Above the Law this year: http://abovethelaw.com/tag/bitcoin. I think these are pretty mainstream sources such that a lawyer would have at least run across the term.

There have been a series of articles in American Banker this year too. Even staid, conservative industries watch their horizons for things that may affect them.

Mainstream for the type of lawyers who go to court to collect on judgments? ABA maybe, ATL not so much.

Oh wait, discovery after the judgment. Not a separate execution. Yeah, that could be a BigLaw thing.

Keep in mind, lawyers also have technical consultants they use whenever computers are involved - and computers are ALWAYS involved.

I would also point out that lawyers use a lot of boilerplate, and it's pretty low cost to insert a paragraph into all of your boilerplate covering low-probability events.

So you insert a paragraph covering bitcoin, your current clients feel happy to have such a good lawyer, and maybe sometime it will actually come in handy.

Unrelated to the topic, but it's always fun to see another 2 letter .gg owner around :)

It's pretty rare! :)

Feds confiscates bit coins. Bit coin supply is reduced. Price of bit coins goes up. Simple economics. Thanks feds.

Has anyone figured out a good way to invest pre-tax 401k money into bit coin? My portfolio is doing alright but I'd like to boost it up a little without resorting to gimmicks like high beta stocks or equity options.

Is this satire?

Poe's Law strikes again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

The constant flow of bitcoin articles on HN is starting to attract the delusional pumpers.

Yes.

Yes, but I'm not sure the author knows.

If I worked for the feds how would I go about confiscating someone's bitcoins?

"Give us your Bitcoin or goto Jail"?

There's nothing new under the sun. People have tried to hide assets from courts in the past. Sometimes they succeed - while sitting in jail under a contempt citation.

Malware. Or frame them for something.

Take all their hardware, storage media and notes (including online data storage services); interrogate the person; find out what accounts (and 3rd party sites) were involved from various sources including that interrogation, analysis of stored data, and internet wiretaps/logs to obtain the neccessary credentials, and transfer those bitcoins to a separate wallet that the feds control.

If some bitcoins are stored at some 3rd party providers such as Mt Gox, subpoena them to freeze all such assets and transfer them to feds.

The Feds eventually send it back to themselves and convert the BitCoins into dollars once they have all the information they need in evidence. So they don't permanently leave the supply.

The BitCoins they were able to seize, that is.

Though this is not a serious request, isn't there a Bitcoin ETF in the works?

jerkface 22 minutes ago | link [dead]
Yes, the Winklevoss twins are (supposedly) putting one together.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/11/12/winklev...
Edit: Jeebus, hellbanned already, and in only 3 comments. Guess one of my prior comments may have struck a nerve?

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Your previous comment was rather inflammatory.

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