I'll add that the crypto will one day be broken (even brute force will eventually work once CPU/GPU have progressed far enough). And when it is, there is no reason you couldn't just sit back cracking those wallets in secret before funneling the coins your way. A significant weakness of the anonymity of the network means no one really "owns" a wallet in the traditional sense. They are essentially communal.
You're right that sha256 will one day be in jeopardy, but there's no reason why the system can't update itself well before then. If sha256 is broken, all it takes is for people to update their clients and only start accepting sha3, etc.
Previously, breaking a crypto was nice, but not instantly and anonymously profitable as it is with Bitcoin. It will be interesting to see how it plays out when it happens.
I'll add that the crypto will one day be broken (even brute force will eventually work once CPU/GPU have progressed far enough). And when it is, there is no reason you couldn't just sit back cracking those wallets in secret before funneling the coins your way. A significant weakness of the anonymity of the network means no one really "owns" a wallet in the traditional sense. They are essentially communal.