Bitcoin: Add Cryptocurrencies to the List of Assets to Search
It may all come crashing down, but if it doesn’t the cryptocurrency market is your newest headache in trying to find hidden assets.
Long written off by many as a joke, cryptocurrencies are still dismissed by many as a bubble waiting to burst. Just the other day, the Wall Street Journal ran this piece arguing that Bitcoin (the largest and original cryptocurrency) is way overvalued.
Launched in 2009, Bitcoin was worth almost nothing for several years. At the end of 2013 it suddenly rose to almost $900, but then fell and never got back to that level until January of this year. Now, Bitcoin is worth $4,600, supposedly driven upward by residents of countries not thrilled by the prospect of devaluation of their home currencies, confiscation/destruction of other property, or both: Venezuela, Korea, and China lead the way, but you can think of other good candidates.
Some true believers in Bitcoin think it should be worth $250,000 to $500,000 in 13 years, based on the idea that by design it can’t be inflated like paper currencies, and assuming cryptocurrencies get to just five to ten percent of the world’s share of payments (and that Bitcoin has about half of that cryptocurrency share).
Most famous as a means for criminals to transact business with little trace, mention of Bitcoin has been enough to get you laughed out of the room in polite company.
But what if $4,000 today could turn into $500,000 in 2030? Would your spouse want to take a chance with $25,000 to have more than $3 million later in life? Especially when it’s hard to trace? If so, read on.
Cryptocurrencies are really nothing more than entries into a big database that record your purchase. The database uses something called blockchain technology, which ensures that the records are decentralized. The record is spread all over the chain and most importantly, once a transaction is confirmed it can’t be changed. Blockchain is for real, and many law firms are investing in it as the future of contracting. You can read more about its world-changing potential in the recent cover story of Fortune Magazine.
How can you tell if someone owns Bitcoin or another crypto? There is no ownership record by name, necessarily. In the U.S. many websites that will sell you bitcoin have to take your name and other identifying information, but they will let you send the bitcoin anywhere you want — no names required. Privacy at other sellers is higher. If you buy bitcoin overseas, the transaction can be completely anonymous.
For asset searches, the first thing to find would be evidence of dollars turned into bitcoin. Have there been bank or Western Union transfers to places named Coinbase (or anyplace with the name Coin in the title), GDAX, CEX.IO? Any cash coming in from such places to pay a few bills?
Are there any records of such currencies inadvertently left around or on the computer you and your spouse may have shared? These currencies are in the end just strings of letters and numbers that look like this: 1F5tAaz5x1HUXrCTLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX. If you see such strings, cryptocurrency could be involved.
There are two ways people most often hold cryptocurrencies. Either on the website where they buy it, or on an electronic wallet (which is really just a mini-computer the size of a thumb drive that securely records their currency id codes). You may find such an electronic wallet, but more likely you will see evidence of computer traffic with one of the virtual wallets on the web.
Keep an eye on Bitcoin. If the optimists are right, there could be millions of dollars of it to get if you can find it. The higher it goes, the greater the chance that the kinds of people who like to buy gold will have cryptocurrency too.
