“… Now there is an element composed of pure information. An asset that only exists in the field of information. A resource that can be transported online at the speed of light. Kept in the brains of its owners and that are exchanged only through communication. An element that changes our relationship with information. “
Knut Svanholm, in Bitcoin: All divided by 21 million.
Around 881,343 TIMECHAIN (01/29/25) The Argentine Government put production, in the sense that it is already in force and active, a “general protocol of action destined for first -intervenings for the identification and kidnapping of potential cryptoactive test elements”.
This regulation establishes mandatory procedures that must be followed by federal police and security forces when interacting with private keys to citizens. In other words, it is a Mandatory Procedure Manual about how security forces must act regarding the confiscation of private keys.
Source: Official Gazette of Argentina.
The manual called “General Protocol of Action”The purpose of establishing the guidelines and procedures to which the members of the Federal Police and Security forces must adhere at the time of identification of the potential presence of cryptoactive cryptoactives at the scene of the search, as well as its subsequent kidnapping. In other words, it indicates in detail the duties and obligations that any national security force must comply with when, during any type of search, potential elements of cryptoactive tests are found.
It is worth mentioning at this point that a search is legal when a judge so provides. See art. 224 and following of the Criminal Code Argentinean.
In summary: the only requirement that requires any Argentine National Security Force to enter an address and then collect all of information related to private keys that arises is the endorsement, more or less formally issued by a competent judge. With this requirement met, the police now must not only (in the sense of positive law) enter the domicile of the rack, but also You must collect all the information they understand that it could be related to cryptoactive.
It goes without saying that, due to normative criminal inflation, today virtually any action can be considered a crime. For example, if a neighbor denounces that a lot of smoke is coming out of his neighbor’s grill, nothing more than modesty prevents a judge from signing a search warrant to investigate the crime typified in art. 55 Law 24,051. And from the moment the pavement occurs the police has to Activate the protocol to kidnap private keys.
It should be remembered at this point that Bitcoin is pure information. And that the information can be ordered and arbitrarily re-ordered in a deterministic way according to the free will and technical capacity of the user. That is, although a private key can be recovered from twelve or twenty -four words, it is also perfectly possible to do it from any other combination and extension of characters that are desired. Issue that is not treated in the norm commented here, but that is technically correct and could become relevant just during the execution of the protocol.
This manual seeks: “The rapid transfer to a wallet controlled by the authorities to allow them to have control over the seized assets and avoid possible movements of criminals to disperse the funds and hinder their recovery” (Sic. Chapter one, 2.3).
This author understands that the manual or protocol tries to give legal certainty in the state administration of private keys. That is, to bring legality in the kidnapping of the thing so that it is legally and publicly in the hands of the administration and, therefore, it is responsible for its return or auction. Typical destinations of things seized by the State. However, due to insurmountable technical issues, it seems that a decent level of security in the management of secrets is very difficult, but impossible to achieve.
Ideal scenario vs. Reality
It’s four in the afternoon of a hot March. Alice is walking through the Financial neighborhood of San Nicolás in the City of Buenos Aires. By turning in a corner, it is approached by a dozen troops with federal police uniforms. They kindly invite her to participate in a search. As the police are super honest, they also explain their irrevocable right not to consent to this act, so she could continue her life freely and without duty to the State.
However, Alice, driven by curiosity and without understanding the irrationality of her action accepts gladly. Then, everyone enters an address that according to what the police tell Alice is the one that arises from the search warrant that tells him that he is valid and that is signed by a competent judge. Alice does not understand any of that because she is not a lawyer or anything like that, but takes the floor and continues to collaborate.
After entering the home, see how they arrest a couple of individuals with nerds and also observe that the police begin to execute The protocol.
Note that they kidnap common elements in every home: cell phones, tablets, papers, pendrives and the like. Alice does not attract attention that similar or identical things she owns at home now are legally. The procedure continues and in a moment they invite her to retire because they tell her that they will transmit the seed phrases to the judge. Alice has no idea what a seed phrase is but it catches the attention that they first invite it to see a procedure and thus guarantee their legality and then during the same they disable it.
But since Alice is a cream collaborator from the state, she retires. In doing so, only Bob, Charlie and Daniel remain in place. Federal Police instructors present at the scene. The three are people of an insurmountable ethical integrity who never commit crimes. That is why, despite the fact that the three have in sight the private key none writes it or photography. Without scoring it they call Judge Ernesto, the competent judge for this search. Following point 4.14 (see image above) of the protocol they begin to transmit the key to Ernesto.
Ernesto is also a judge of an insurmountable integrity that he never commits crimes so he does not allow anyone on his side of the call to listen to the key. After listening to it performs the relevant procedures, which exceed the framework of this article.
When the call is finished, the police again invite Alice. They tell her that he had to retire because in the hypothetical but not impossible a case that she had eidotic memory her work would be committed to become a successful attacker potential. So Alice returns to the place and eventually, at the end of the procedure, signing and endorsing all of the police.
This is how more or less a bitcoin private keys would be resolved In an ideal scenario.
I say goodbye to the reader with a question for him: How do you think a kidnapping of private keys would occur in a more real scenario? That is, a scenario composed of people of flesh and blood that are not unpolluted saints.
Camilo JDL For cryptonotic at 881,510 TIMECHAIN
Discharge of responsibility: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to its author and do not necessarily reflect those of cryptootics. The author’s opinion is informatively and under no circumstances constitutes an investment recommendation or financial advice.
