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Comment by drzaiusapelord | Hacker News Reader

Bitcoin seems to make everyone crazy. I guess if you're prone to theft and dishonesty, it must be tough to look at a folder on some confiscated PC with files worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and not take them. Seems like everyday police corruption, like how drug dealers busted with thousands of dollars suddenly have a evidence locker inventory with zero cash.

I'm glad the system is working, at least to the point of catching these guys. You can't stop human nature, but at least you can punish the guilty.

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I think it's a look into what he world looks like without social norms. The folks stealing bitcoins probably would never take $200 out of grandma's purse when she wasn't looking. Society has acculturated people to understand that's bad. But butcoin is novel, and doesn't have social norms surrounding it. It doesn't feel the same as taking money out of a purse.

I would argue that many of the recently publicized actions of the government in general provide a look into what the world looks like without social norms.

The folks stealing bitcoins probably would never take $200 out of grandma's purse...

You're probably right, and that would be great if agents primarily came into contact with grandmas and their purses. However, these individuals were employed to investigate successful criminal enterprises. It is very doubtful that this is the first time they've had an opportunity to steal from the wealthy target of a criminal investigation.

I think your theory might be a tad overly optimistic with regards to the character of these officers.

I think the amount of infrastructure they set up to execute the crime indicates complete understanding of the law. That is very different from committing a crime because one's adherence to social norms makes them think it isn't a "real crime".

As the guy above said, I don't think it's particularly novel about Bitcoin, rather that the temptation of something that has a large amount of value will always make a few give in. These guys may not have stolen from a grandma, but would feel less inhibited stealing from what they ostensibly view as criminal's money.

Looks like we have indeed found a third way to make money off Bitcoin.

The first two, both widely used so far, are

(a) operating a Bitcoin exchange and running away with customers' Bitcoins and

(b) hacking a Bitcoin exchange and running away with customers' Bitcoins.

Corruption is always a way to make money - it's a time honored tradition. What I'm afraid we're seeing here is that if the corrupt individuals aren't sufficiently capable, they get caught.

What is going on that isn't being caught (or just as bad, being caught but not being punished because "important people" would be inconvenienced)?

(c) investigating bitcoin related crimes for a federal agency and selling access to your investigation back to the target

It's not bitcoin, greed is rampant - pocketing cash is a lot easier than pocketing bitcoin. Bitcoin has traceability, and you would assume the average LEO wouldn't have a wealth of knowledge to steal and launder it without getting caught.

Cash on the other hand, they can take out of the brown paper bag, shove in their jacket and it's essentially theirs.

Bitcoins make everything so tempting.

Or maybe I should say, bitcoins make stealing so tempting -- at a personal level.

Maybe it's the mixing of these DIY technologies with money -- all these scams feel within reach -- just about anybody can easily steal money, where as in the non-digital world, stealing too hard...

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