The government didn't seize Bitcoins, they seized USD.
But your general idea cannot work either. Bitcoin is _primarily_ a zero trust system, the vast majority of the system's rules are autonomously validated by all the participating full nodes. Straight up reassigning coin would require changing the Bitcoin software _everywhere_, not just winning in a consensus algorithim.
The Byzantine Generals problem only comes into play when deciding transaction _ordering_, since in our universe ordering can't exist as a simple decentralized function. Moreover, the ordering work is cumulative to make it jamming resistant. The consensus can't undo a little piece of ordering in the past and leave the rest alone, changing any of the past requires rewriting all the future consensus as well.
[Edit: I'm sad you deleted your post. The misleading title making you think they seized USD wasn't interesting, but I think pointing out that your idea to simply retake stolen coin isn't as easy as you thought was substance for an interesting discussion]
But your general idea cannot work either. Bitcoin is _primarily_ a zero trust system, the vast majority of the system's rules are autonomously validated by all the participating full nodes. Straight up reassigning coin would require changing the Bitcoin software _everywhere_, not just winning in a consensus algorithim.
The Byzantine Generals problem only comes into play when deciding transaction _ordering_, since in our universe ordering can't exist as a simple decentralized function. Moreover, the ordering work is cumulative to make it jamming resistant. The consensus can't undo a little piece of ordering in the past and leave the rest alone, changing any of the past requires rewriting all the future consensus as well.
[Edit: I'm sad you deleted your post. The misleading title making you think they seized USD wasn't interesting, but I think pointing out that your idea to simply retake stolen coin isn't as easy as you thought was substance for an interesting discussion]