The FBI's Giant Bitcoin Wallet 177
SonicSpike writes with a story about the huge amount of bitcoins owned by the FBI. "In September, the FBI shut down the Silk Road online drug marketplace, and it started seizing bitcoins belonging to the Dread Pirate Roberts — the operator of the illicit online marketplace, who they say is an American man named Ross Ulbricht. The seizure sparked an ongoing public discussion about the future of Bitcoin, the world's most popular digital currency, but it had an unforeseen side-effect: It made the FBI the holder of the world's biggest Bitcoin wallet. The FBI now controls more than 144,000 bitcoins that reside at a bitcoin address that consolidates much of the seized Silk Road bitcoins. Those 144,000 bitcoins are worth close to $100 million at Tuesday's exchange rates. Another address, containing Silk Road funds seized earlier by the FBI, contains nearly 30,000 bitcoins ($20 million)."
Bitcoin post = win (Score:5, Funny)
Let me try a random headline generator with the word Bitcoin substituted in, see how many land on Slashdot
Could binge bitoin mining burgle the middle class?
Will the bitcoin steal the identity of the conservative party?
Is the nanny state destroying the bitcoin?
Could dumbing-down bitcoin tax england?
Is cancer stealing the bitcoins of your children?
Soon to be rebranded (Score:2, Funny)
Federal Bitcoin Industries.
Re:Ugh... (Score:4, Funny)
Cue the paranoid right wing "Obama wants to take your Bitcoins" brigade.
Nonsense! Obama said quite clearly: "If you like your Bitcoin, you can keep it."
I suspect that the FBI will use these Bitcoins in undercover operations, to lure out criminals who will only accept Bitcoins.
Re:Can it be invalidated? (Score:5, Funny)
Irish pounds were actually "Punts" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_pound] - named to rhyme with the irish word for "banker".