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From: Peter Todd <pete@petertodd.org>
To: Matt Whitlock <bip@mattwhitlock.name>
Cc: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] The legal risks of auto-updating wallet software; custodial relationships
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 12:49:45 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20150120174944.GC29353@muck> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <30930479.sqHpaOe3cY@crushinator>

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On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 12:47:04PM -0500, Matt Whitlock wrote:
> On Tuesday, 20 January 2015, at 6:44 pm, Tamas Blummer wrote:
> > Knowing the private key and owning the linked coins is not necessarily the same in front of a court.
> > 
> > At least in german law there is a difference between ‘Eigentum' means ownership and ‘Besitz’ means ability to deal with it.
> > Being able to deal with an asset does not make you the owner.
> 
> So what we're telling the newbies in /r/bitcoin is plain wrong. Bitcoins *do* have an owner independent from the parties who have access to the private keys that control their disposition. That's pretty difficult to reconcile from a technological perspective.

The law concerns itself with what should be done, not what can be done.

Bitcoin the technology doesn't have a concept of "ownership" - that's a
legal notion, not a mathematical one.

-- 
'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org
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  reply	other threads:[~2015-01-20 17:49 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2015-01-20 15:46 [Bitcoin-development] The legal risks of auto-updating wallet software; custodial relationships Peter Todd
     [not found] ` <CAHpxFbEoDLMGKB7arHbgB+4kx8BwgcX7nBUZz6yP9k4LjZeu1A@mail.gmail.com>
2015-01-20 17:15   ` Peter Todd
2015-01-20 17:23 ` Matt Whitlock
2015-01-20 17:40   ` Peter Todd
2015-01-20 17:44     ` Matt Whitlock
2015-01-20 17:44   ` Tamas Blummer
2015-01-20 17:47     ` Matt Whitlock
2015-01-20 17:49       ` Peter Todd [this message]
2015-01-20 17:56       ` Tamas Blummer
2015-01-20 17:47 ` Justus Ranvier
2015-01-20 18:48   ` Tamas Blummer
2015-01-20 19:31     ` Justus Ranvier
2015-01-20 21:33     ` odinn
2015-01-20 21:49 ` Roy Badami

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