What is Civil Asset Forfeiture?
Civil forfeiture in the United States, also called civil asset forfeiture or civil judicial forfeiture[1] or occasionally civil seizure, is a controversial legal process in which law enforcement officers take assets from persons suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing.
Yes you read that right, they can take your assets on suspicion even if you haven't been convicted or charged with anything. This puts your cryptocurrency stash at risk of being seized because a cop thinks you look suspicious. This could empower the sort of cops that got in trouble stealing coins from exchanges, the bad cops. This bill is extremely flawed and the cryptocommunity should make noise about this before it's implemented. Specifically the Civil Asset Forfeiture portion is the most concerning.
Other points in the bill:
- Travelers must declare cryptocurrency at the border.
- Any currency in an amount greater than $10,000 must be declared.
- Increased penalties for bulk cash smuggling.
Maybe the intention of this bill is good but the practical aspects need work. Also Civil Asset Forfeiture introduces some extreme risks based on previous history of it's abuse.
References
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/6hbhnp/americans_heads_up_congress_is_trying_to_pass_a/
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1241/text#toc-idea0e9489fc8f46379f95bb56c8bbbda5
- http://www.bitcoininsider.org/article/1842/prepare-sb1241s-pit-bull-assault-bitcoin-freedom
- http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.8079
The government are all a pack of thieves, robbers, and murderers.
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Yes, this means that government can take your money for no other reason than you hawing more than 10$k with you when you travel, even if that money is in the form of any cryptocurrency, on any of your devices, what a great time to be alive and be"free."
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You called that upon yourself by voting them in.
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Or simply by even voting.
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You have two choices the deep state offers. And both are paid by banksters..... End the Fed..........
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Brilliant!
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Thanks for sharing. I made a (lesser quality) post about the exact same thing, but it's important for people to be aware of this. They can only pass this if we don't speak out.
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This whole thing sounds insane.
Would simply having $10,000+ on an exchange or online vault would require a declaration (and possible confiscation)? I mean even if you don't access your accounts overseas, you COULD access your accounts overseas.
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I would even be okay with declaring all my accounts if they didn't have Civil Asset Forfeiture mixed into it. That one law allows police to take your money for unknown suspicions. Knowing how this can play out, it's extremely bad.
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This is the exact reason that power creep is possible. People are too easy going about government invading their privacy. I didn't get the impression, reading your posts, that you'd give in so easily to such abuse of authority.
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I hope this bill never gets passed...crypto supporters should unite and sign a petition to oppose this bill.
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honestly? there is no democracy! this is NWO end game moves here. They don't care if you protest.
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Protesting is giving them legitimacy. Just ignore them, keep your accounts secret, and for god's sake stop giving them your vote. They have no way to know what crypto you own if you take the right precautions to blur your trail.
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Civil Asset Forfeiture is clearly theft pure and simple.
Taxation is extortion.
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"Travelers must declare cryptocurrency at the border."
That is one of the stupidest things I've heard this week.
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You can always say ...Yes i have concurrency but I did not brought it with me to the US - Iv'e left my bitcoins back in Amsterdam together with my marijuana ..where all this is legal
lol
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Yes, all governments and also the US EU Venezuela Etc,. would love to band all cryptocurrencies and to continue stilling and robbing the people using their fiat currency.
BUT
TIMES HAS CHANGED
I bet you, in the 90's the post offices would love to band the E-mails and say/decide that they are illegal - because they were losing a lot of business
THE BITCOIN IS UNSTOPPABLE!!!!
In order to stop the bitcoin - governments would have to or switch off the electricity or turn off the Internet.
=> as long as there is Internet - there will be bitcoins and people trading bitcoins - legal or not legal it does not mater
Even the Chinese Government wanted to stop it but the people would still buy crypto currencies and they came to a conclusion that instead of fighting a war that you cannot win -they better regulate the cryptocurrencies - and they did / do.
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Seems like a mild attempt at scaring less knowledgeable folks away from the crypto market as far as the civil asset forfeiture is concerned. A federal agency would have to assert some sort of connection between your assets and a criminal enterprise. Still, not the direction our national policy needs to go in. Thanks for your post!
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It's trivial to connect almost anyone to almost any crime.
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you never actually hold cryptocurrency. It is retained on the blockchain so there is nothing to declare.
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As inmentioned in my blog regulation will happen because we r living in a command and control world human beings have always been like that
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What is Civil Asset Forfeiture regulating? Our ability to keep our money?
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Hard to fight this law due to money laundering and counter terrorism ..reasons or atleast that would be the argument .. There is a philosophical reason to it as well.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@sanees/block-chain-technologies-limitations-and-steem-product-suggestion
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Don't you think there is a way to improve this law rather than fight it?
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I guess so
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Although disconcerting, I don't see how this even holds weight. In order to confiscate a digital asset they would need your private keys. If you don't travel with your cold wallet, how can they take your digital cash? Technically if your phone or computer is turn off when you cross the border you don't have access to your crypto. I need more details before I start to worry.
They can take my computer and/or phone but if its off they can't access since I won't give up my password. Your hard drives should always be encrypted in case they make a copy.
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This is why we need term limits. These individuals are so out of touch with the real world.
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Term limits won't change anything so long as elections only allow you to pick the vetted candidates who vow to uphold the current system.
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Your right but term limits are a part of it.
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Wow, feels so backwards from what some other countries are doing, like Australia: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@coinnews/digital-currencies-will-be-treated-as-real-money-in-australia-after-july-1-2017
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Hi @dana-edwards, declaring crypto currency at the border sounds funny to me, where is crypto's border? If they want to regulate it they will have to regulate you putting FIAT into crypto and when converting crypto to FIAT.
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Shhh! Don't give them any ideas!
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Gov should stay away from crypto.
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When will it ever end?
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Civil Asset Forfeiture is extremely controversial and a dangerous policy.
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US laws strange indeed.
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makes me feel sick - big brother could bring this whole thing tumbling down
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Horrible. Nice post!
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@dana-edwards how would they be able to control that as our crypto is not linked to any portfolio it exists on the net or does the our e wallet companies share that information with the government ?
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The losers want to be winners, with some cheating involved.
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Just fill out the form. This thing was bound to happen.
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Wow, this is bullshit, just like drug related asset forfeiture.
Evidence can be planted by corrupt agents...it would not surprise me that they would attempt to do the same online. For example, plant child porn on your devices and then accuse you of distribution of CP, then confiscate your accounts and take your crypto.
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The whole point is that they don't even need to plant fake evidence anymore. They just need to have some suspicions about you.
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well that only affects usa not rest of the world we are ok
I mine it because its now the most profitable way. You do not need work just invest and live off the daily income simple. Here is a discount to get you started 3% 5ZEQWb you check it out here genesis mining
http://bit.ly/2sY44Vg
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nah this bill is crazyness, Govt power keep increasing and increasing and increasing.
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Just like the Fed balance sheet...
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nah won't stop it from passing, and you are kidding yourself if this wasn't always the end game.. they put it on the economist a bunch of years ago on the cover. jeesh.
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The intention of this bill is no less than pure evil incarnate:
This means they can confiscate your #Steemit #Bitcoin or whatever
simpy by suspecting
Suspicion kills people, inexorably, without proof and without mercy.
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If this bill passes it will cause a fleeing of cyptocurrency out of the USA and out of those exchanges that operate within the USA. Cyptocurrency is international and other nations will use cryptocurrency as an alternative to the US dollar as cryptocurrency do a better job of holdng its value against the dollar. The only one who will get hurt by this bill are U.S. citizens but the rest of the world will cruise along just fine.
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Maybe that is the intent of the law?
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Who knows?! Bitcoins and other cryptos are threats to the central banking system which is led by the U.S. central banking system. So that would be one of the reasons why they would introduce such a bill. The next step will be to use the U.N. But with Trump in power, my guess is that he will not allow such a bill to pass. There are still a lot so swamp rats in D.C.
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this place gets worse by the day
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It's darkest before the dawn.
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They will fight cryptocurrency to the grave
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But can they find their own asses with both hands?
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I don't understand this though. What do they mean "declare cryptocurrency at the border"? It's information. How can you have information on you? You mean that if your seed words are encoded on a USB that is on your person then you have to say so, but if the words are on a computer at your house you don't? Who cares where those words are? What if they are only in your head? Is that considered "on you"?
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