Bitcoin Forum

Well we've seen clearly how Bitcoin can be used for Drugs (Silk Road); Fraud (Bitcoin Savings and Trust); Porn(Porn.com); Gambling(Satoshi Dice); Murder(Ulbricht); Sex (Backpage), it looks like a new use is becoming quite popular: Ransom.  Bitcoin is becoming a great mode for Ransom demands: http://www.coindesk.com/e-tailer-offers-23000-to-catch-ddos-attackers-demanding-bitcoin/.

Meanwhile, back in the conventional markets - BitPay lays off 600 due to low volume at merchants.

The Bitcoin 'use cases' story is starting to stack up.  It might become successful after all.

LOL. People does have a wide imaginations, I mean using bitcoin to purchase stuff such as drugs and porn and now ransom?  As bitcoin starts to be widely known the majority of crimes are also inclining to bitcoin. They find it useful, the advantages of using bitcoin. I don't think if I will take this as a good sign or not. :-\

The anonymity of Bitcoin has allowed the ransom to be collected without the risk of getting it frozen. The most widely use of it in ransom is the cryptolocker malware which encrypts the file, only decrypt when the ransom is paid. I highly doubt bitpay is laying off employees is only due to the lack of demand, I have a feeling that it is due to the fact that they had a massive hack and needed to recover from it.

You are forgetting gambling, another widespread use of bitcoins  :)

Bitcoins would be awesome for a lot of services, but as for now they have clear advantages only related to pseudo-anonimity or money control. They would be  also superior for the porpouse of transfer 10 millions usd from USA to iran, but the market is too little now ☺.

I hope I will be able to buy bread with btc one day, but it need a massive market and products starting being denominated in btc for that.... :)

For years fiat has been used to anonymously purchase drugs, in fraud, to pay for porn, sex and ransom. You can use Bitcoin to pay for anything you can pay for in fiat. That list from the OP is of some of the bad things you can pay for. You can use both fiat and Bitcoin to pay for other good things like a new Dell computer. Should we ban fiat because it's anonymous and can be used to pay for bad things?

its make bitcoin more popular,any violence happen because bitcoin  ;D

Good point.  Added

It wasn't as easy as you think. Purchasing drugs on deep web, receiving ransom(online) would require a bank account or online account tied to an ID. With Bitcoin, it is easier without an ID and it would be harder to trace than fiat.

Name one of those where cash has not been used for the same thing.  ::) ... Bitcoin has to be used for these things, or it would not be defined as a currency.  ;)

What a wonderful world we live in... humans have sex, do drugs.. steal and do anything for money, and we want to blame the currency.  ;D ;D ;D

Let's just accept it, and move on... there is so much good things being done with Bitcoin and it seldom gets mentioned, because it's not news worthy enough.  :o

not a good popularity, it will damage the trust of bitcdoin, and average joe will never use it, they feel like they are givin money to thief

You can't use cash for online purchases, bitcoins take the streets to the net!

And that's good, because it.implies more freedom.

That's kinda sad cuz it affects the image of bitcoin but well, that's the truth and we can't totally stop it. I wouldn't be surprised if one day you can pay bitcoin with abortion or even you can bribe policemen with bitcoins  :-\

And these things have been used with cash many times in the past. Criminals would use dogecoin if they had too.

Well  Any form of money be it in fiat or an online payment including a cryptocurrency, they can all be use in every way IMO. Bitcoin adapting to these kind of stuffs only proves that a huge variety of people are now using bitcoin. :D

for eveything their is a good and bad things ,i mean positive and negative , even fiat had positive and nagative image, and now ranson they are accepting bitcoin as ranson money is nothig new, because now a days crime is becoming like hacking the site and then asking ransom for giving back the site details to owner back for that also ransom is going on. so in that case bitcoin is becoming for their ranson money so that no one can know where it has gone and who is owning it. superb idea for bitcoin for ransom

Not only bitcoin, but also all FIAT, credit card, and even paypal can be used for those things. Many criminals use bitcoin because bitcoin is semi-anonymous, so FBI can't find them. Those things make people see bitcoin as negative thing :-[. Malware ransom is the worst thing for me because it makes bitcoin reputation fall down.

Can one of these murderers be hired for assisted suicide....?

Possibly but it would still be illegal. Travelling to a place where assisted suicide is legal may be a better option.

So who said Bitcoin doesn't have any use cases? :)

Just kidding, of course! OP I don't know are you just trying to spread FUD to bring the price down or you got literally burned by investing over a $1,000 so you are mad as hell at the moment, but posts like this and threads like this are really becoming an old news.

I think you would be better off to start a thread how you can do all of the above bad things with US dollar for example. If you do this, you might get couple of applauses after all!

Probably. You can see a lot of these hired murderers in the dark web. Plus fact is, they accept bitcoins. ;)

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Bitcoin is closely related to illegal activities due to its pseudoanonymous nature. No wonder it is used heavily in these kind of transactions. But I wonder why is fiat not that 'bad' in the eyes of the general public when it was first  and heavily used in illegal transactions than bitcoin?

While money doesn't talk, Bitcoin does, but it has no names. Both are incentives to criminal activities and will pretty much always be.

You can creep to the deep web and see for yourself the various crimes that people are willing to do and as bitcoin as payment. :D

And they're all 9-11 years old who suddenly go offline in the middle of setting up a 'hit' when it's time for bed.

That's true for activities like that carried out by loners or small groups. However for big time criminal and terrorist organizations getting bank accounts was (and might still be) easier than using Bitcoin. There was a bank called the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) that was the most corrupt bank that ever existed. It's closed now, but laundered money for big time criminal and terrorist organizations, and helped Osama bin Laden's network launder money. Bitcoin's not got a big enough market to launder the amount of dirty money that bank laundered.

How many banks of today are up to the same tricks the BCCI got up to?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html

it's more like ... 6?

I think ransom ware has only begun. IT will be a bigger and bigger "industry" as cryptocurrencies become more and more mainstream and more people use it. Of course, one would assume that at the same time antiviruses and in general people's knowledge would get better to avoid getting this kind of scam going on. You might as well ban the internet because the underlying protocol that allows for the "Drugs, Fraud, Porn, Gambling, Murder, Sex and now Ransom" so this is a no-argument against Bitcoin.

The media is mostly used to paint a bad portrait of Bitcoin. You see it everywhere... I even saw it in a series called, Eye Candy Season 1 Episode 8 .... The people pay with Bitcoin on a underground site

called "Babylon" where they kill, assualt and rape people and other people watch. Bitcoin has built up a huge reputation with scandals like Silkroad and the shills jump on that to try and push the knife even

deeper. We just need to change their mind and also break the myth that Bitcoin is anonymous and always used for crime.  >:(

Anonymity is a facilitate people to use bitcoin for "bad things", sadly but the fact is bitcoin just a tools, like other currency(fiat). so people will use it for good thing or bad thing even abuse it for a personal importance.

Cash is easier to do all those with because infinitely more fungible.

Since bitcoin has hidden ability , it can be use with anonymously.
So this is somekind of disadvantage can be using for crime things


cash can be detect since no one want to get detected if they want do something illegal

All this problems existed before bitcoin, drugs, fraud, porn, gambling, murder, sex, ransom .... I think bitcoin is better for online systems (ransom, gambling, porn, ...) but to buy drugs, sex, its easier with cash money.

this is only because bitcoin has not reached global usage, when this will be true its fungibility will rise exponentially

also cash is limited from one country to another, if i have fake euro and i want to use them in usa i must exchange and pay a fee or whatever, not to mention other random hassles if the amount is big

The person could just sign a document or be willing to be filmed to prove they asked for it. If you ask for it, the murderer shouldn't be sent to prison.

That's just what I think.

And it can be easily traced back to you if you buy an illegal service.

Also it will be difficult to buy said service in the USA if you live in Europe or asia.

Ofcourse people will ask bitcoin for this type of stuff now, it is the safest and most convenient way for them, but this was also the case when cash had this status.

People keep pointing out a crypto - crime connection  which is great for 2 reasons

1. If you take it a 1/2 step further you realize FIAT is worse for those types of things.

2. Free promotion.

Same with the "its not backed by anything? argument.

In the end FIAT looks worse and worse.

Nice! lol Its still a publicity though.
Any kind of money can be use as ransome, it just that these guys are knowledgeable enough to use bitcoin. I myself would prefer BTC as its irreversible no matter what. just don't use bitlaunder to encash your ransome money :)

where  fiat?
I want know....please...

Really? Tell that to the billionaire drug dealers that have shipping containers full of cash. lol

This is bad world and using and manipulating with bitcoing is only good avilible option for criminals to do the right things not to get caught. They can use and exploited bit coin for easy transfered, fast payed untracked unmarked money for making lot more criminal actions that murder fraud or ransom...i say this because i am okey with gambling , porn use, sex even drugs. This is not going to be normal if someone do not do something for blocking and somehow dealing with criminals on this topic.

The mentioned criminal activities involves dollar more than Bitcoin.

the problem is there but thorw up some solutions not for me but for all..