[PretzelPirate]

Bitcoin says that whoever has the private key controls the funds. In this case, whoever was in custody before the FBI took the funds was seriously negligent in protecting their private key (which is not that hard to do).

[grey-area]

Governments can simply take the private keys if they wish along with your computer. Come up with smart ways to avoid that (but I'll memorise the private key!) and they'll just lock you up instead.

In the case of coins moving through exchanges, they can simply take the coins instead by threatening the exchange.

In many other cases they can also catch you when you try to use the money by converting it into a currency that people actually use to transact like USD.

[oblio]

https://xkcd.com/538/

[ezekg]

Pretty much what I'm assuming happened.

[jerf]

That it is "easy" to protect private keys is the theory, yes. If it turns out not to be an accurate reflection of reality, that's going to affect the value proposition of BitCoin.

Do not mistake theory with reality.