The Silk Road Taken Down - Bitcoins seized

[reparto]

The Silk Road has been taken down because the owner accidentally used his real name on stackoverflow (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... t-arrested" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; can't find the stackoverflow question but this article has a list of the other stupid things he did)

The big thing is that that around 3.6 million bitcoins have been seized, I am not sure how this will affect the bitcoin price (its probably gone down but it doesn't matter much to me so I haven't checked)

[ayu]

yeah it went down a few dollars, but not much actually.
I was expecting it to drop further, but then again Silk Road is just the tip of the iceberg.

[reparto]

I think the bigger question is: How long till Silk Road 2.0?

I am pretty sure there are litecoin alternatives that sell pretty much the same stuff, although litecoin isnt as mature the fall of silk road may help it along a bit.

[bad_brain]

I am actually sure this will cause a remarkable increase in the BTC rates soon. I mean, what would it be when suddenly 3.6 million BTC would be injected into the market? inflation. now taking out 3.6 million of the flow should make the remaining BTC more valuable...

[ayu]

I am actually sure this will cause a remarkable increase in the BTC rates soon. I mean, what would it be when suddenly 3.6 million BTC would be injected into the market? inflation. now taking out 3.6 million of the flow should make the remaining BTC more valuable...

Fair point

Wonder what will happen to those 3.6M BTC though.

[reparto]

I am actually sure this will cause a remarkable increase in the BTC rates soon. I mean, what would it be when suddenly 3.6 million BTC would be injected into the market? inflation. now taking out 3.6 million of the flow should make the remaining BTC more valuable...

Actually the FBI intend to make millions by selling them off:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill ... n-seizure/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And I made a mistake, they have seized 26k Bitcoins from the users, Ulbricht's bitcoins (570k bitcoins) are still secure but obviously inaccessible, technically the price "should" stay the same. Ulbricht probably only cashed out enough bitcoins to live and a bit extra for comfort, so realistically the actual change is quite small if we consider that 26kBTC would have been cashed out sooner or later.

But... hype due to an FBI sale of seized bitcoins will affect the price and also the inevitable sentencing of Ulbricht will possibly cause deflation unless he figures a way of cashing them out (not that he will have any use for the money)

I think the awesome thing is that this is history taking place right in front of us. If bitcoins can survive the next hundred years than this event will be archived in the blockchain for all to see, hopefully the US government won't have taken over world by then.