Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] The legal risks of auto-updating wallet software; custodial relationships

From: Matt Whitlock <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 12:47:04 -0500

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.