You have to know that about the crypto auction of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia

In a very conservative setting in a meeting room in the public prosecutor’s office in Cologne that was apparently rather too small, various representatives of the NRW judiciary presented their new concept for the legally secure exploitation of confiscated cryptocurrencies for the first time today. Following this presentation, a total of 15 Bitcoin auctions were started every ten minutes, each with a duration of two days.

Justice Minister Peter Biesenbach (CDU) was delighted by the great media interest in his house’s first Bitcoin auction and tried, before the auction, to give a historical outline of the origins of Bitcoin, which, however, was too rudimentary to provide meaningful information. In addition, Biesenbach did not prove to be particularly well informed. He claimed that Bitcoin started at one US dollar and had already risen to $ 60,000. T3n readers know the correct values.

In addition, Biesenbach claimed that trading is essentially mapped via stock exchanges, which is only true for the area of ​​small investors. Larger deals are more likely to be carried out via OTC trading. The so-called over-the-counter transactions, i.e. off-exchange trading, are summarized under OTC trading. Here, a transaction is carried out directly between two market participants – without an exchange being involved as a middleman.

Biesenbach answers the question of why the country is auctioning and not trading by referring to the relevant criminal procedure laws, above all the penal code. The defines a fully transparent auction procedure as a prerequisite for lawful exploitation. This is intended to rule out possible insider trading and otherwise remove any potential flaws from the proceedings.

At least subordinate – that is, if an auction is not possible for reasons that can be substantiated – can also be used privately. That should usually mean trading on an exchange at the current prices.

According to Biesenbach, the necessary transparency and compliance with criminal laws were the reasons why the state of North Rhine-Westphalia agreed justiz-auktion.de has launched its own platform. From Monday, 215 Bitcoin will initially be auctioned via this platform. Another 250 Bitcoin will later be used by hand.

Chief Public Prosecutor Markus Hartmann from the Central and Contact Office Cybercrime (ZAC NRW) added Biesenbach’s remarks to consider the practical processes. In his opinion, the biggest problem with the exploitation of bitcoins would be to find them at all. Police expertise is required here. Small data carriers in an unusual place would be sufficient to store considerable amounts of money on them. After all, it would happen – albeit not as a rule – that the accused voluntarily disclosed their holdings in order to mitigate the expected sentence.

The auctions started on Monday were mainly about confiscated Bitcoins from drug trafficking on the Darknet, i.e. drug mail order. The ZAC NRW is responsible for recycling nationwide. All public prosecution offices can submit their relevant proceedings to the ZAC.

Land relies on paper wallets – pen and paper

Public prosecutor Andreas Brück, who according to Biesenbach is the absolute crypto expert of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, explained the concrete handling of the auctions and for this purpose presented the various options for storing bitcoins in or on a wallet.

From the various technical possibilities, the ZAC opted for the so-called paper wallet. Private and public keys are “saved” on a sheet of paper. In this way, the coins cannot be attacked digitally and are easy for the public prosecutor to sign and store.

Public Prosecutor Brück wants to ensure the security of the coins to be auctioned by ensuring that only a very limited number of employees within his company have access to the department that creates and seals the wallets.

The central office has now created 15 paper wallets with Bitcoins in denominations of 0.1 to 10 Bitcoin. The starting bids are between 80 and 95 percent of the current daily rate. The more bitcoins in a row, the higher the starting bid that Brück set on Monday based on the daily BTC rate.

Senior Public Prosecutor Hartmann assumes that the auctions will be successful. For the future, he would like to regularly conduct Bitcoin auctions. Announcements about auction starts should be made via the Ministry Twitter account take place. There will be no reluctance to wait for prices to rise, for example. The auction will take place when the state of the procedure has been reached which allows an auction.

On the auction platform of the country – as everywhere – it is necessary to identify yourself before bidding. So dubious bids and so-called fun offerers are to be kept away. The proceeds from the auctions flow into the general state budget, earmarking is neither intended nor permitted.