Does the FBI already has ‘SilkRoad’ founder’s 600,000 bitcoins? Not yet.

Few days back, Ross Ulbricht, the alleged founder of “SilkRoad,” the underground market of dealing drugs and other services tagged “illegal” was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to reports, about 26,000 bit coins of Ulbricht has been seized by the FBI. Whats interesting in this part,  in the criminal complaint against the SilkRoad founder, his commissions ranged 600,000 or $80 million dollars.

So, does the authorities already has Ulbricht’s 600,000 bitcoins? Not yet, explained TechDirt. The reported 26,000 bitcoins seized are not of him but are of “SilkRoad” users. The report also added Ulbricht’s bitcoin wallet is separated and is encrypted. For now, there is no way the FBI can have those those 600k bitcoins adding there is 5th Amendment violation (no one can force to give up your encryption.)

“Ulbricht’s actual wallet is separate from that, and was apparently encrypted, so it would appear that the FBI does not have them, nor does it have any way of getting at them just yet. And given that some courts have argued you can’t be forced to give up your encryption, as it’s a 5th Amendment violation, those Bitcoins could remain hidden,” part of TechDirt’s report reads.

Currently, users are trying to send their sentiments of what happened as they are allowed to send small amounts of bitcoin with messages publicly seen in FBI’s bitcoin wallet.

One user wrote: “Why do we put people who are on drugs in jail? They’re sick, they’re not criminals. Sick people don’t get healed in prison. You see? It makes no sense.” Another said, “The only way to have a drug-free world is to have a people-free world. And even then, the animals will get stoned.”

Source : TechDirt.com