1. In very different locations. Running around the world is going to be quite expensive.
2. Using different security measures. If they find one friend for his mistakes in maintaining privacy or security, same trick isn't going to work with some others.
3. Friends will also lock their stash in X-of-Y transactions with some other people, so finding them won't immediately increase potential gain.
I'd say the cost of running after individuals grows quadratically while the potential revenue only linearly.
4. Not all your funds will be locked with the same 9 people. 10% will be, while other 10% will be locked with some other group. To get 100% of the stash you'd effectively have to kidnap and torture maybe 20 different persons in different countries all over the world.
5. People learn. Once 2 or 3 folks are captured this way, all the rest will reshuffle their funds elsewhere and use better security measures. So you'd have to catch all at once, otherwise money will always leak right through your fingers.
Bitcoin is really, really a leapfrog technology with security incomparable with anything you had before. Previously known 2/3-factor schemes (including Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme - SSSS) always required a single non-compromised machine to bring all secrets together. Bitcoin n-of-m transaction can be securely signed by N potentially compromised machines provided they are not all owned by the same operator.
1. In very different locations. Running around the world is going to be quite expensive.
2. Using different security measures. If they find one friend for his mistakes in maintaining privacy or security, same trick isn't going to work with some others.
3. Friends will also lock their stash in X-of-Y transactions with some other people, so finding them won't immediately increase potential gain.
I'd say the cost of running after individuals grows quadratically while the potential revenue only linearly.
4. Not all your funds will be locked with the same 9 people. 10% will be, while other 10% will be locked with some other group. To get 100% of the stash you'd effectively have to kidnap and torture maybe 20 different persons in different countries all over the world.
5. People learn. Once 2 or 3 folks are captured this way, all the rest will reshuffle their funds elsewhere and use better security measures. So you'd have to catch all at once, otherwise money will always leak right through your fingers.
Bitcoin is really, really a leapfrog technology with security incomparable with anything you had before. Previously known 2/3-factor schemes (including Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme - SSSS) always required a single non-compromised machine to bring all secrets together. Bitcoin n-of-m transaction can be securely signed by N potentially compromised machines provided they are not all owned by the same operator.
See also global economical implications of the Bitcoin security: http://blog.oleganza.com/post/67872772342/bitcoin-and-gold