I'm not sure they really belonged to The Silk Road. Didn't they really belong to the users, who had them on deposit on The Silk Road?
I guess the law would see that as belonging to the business holding them, but I'm not sure that's morally correct.
I guess the law would see that as belonging to the business holding them, but I'm not sure that's morally correct.
And if it's the property of Silk Road, then no matter what their deal was with the users, when it closes shop then the due process generally doesn't involve giving parts of their assets to users or creditors - the due process is to auction off those assets (as they're doing now) and settle those liabilities with US dollars; so again, people can claim that Silk Road owes them bitcoins, and they can get paid an appropriate share of this sale.