Bitcoin Forum

Ok, so in every article or podcast or interview... we have to hear that Bitcoin is the preferred tool for criminals. If that was the truth, we should all be filthy rich by now... right? ....The question is, where

are all this money from money laundering, drugs, prostitution and all the nasty stuff, Bitcoin is being blamed for.... I do not see it, do you? Should we play to our strength then, if Bitcoin is only good for

criminal purposes? ... I mean to say, if we only attract say 10% of the total amount of money spend on drugs alone, we would most probably be millionaires in a month or two.  ::)

" With estimates of $100 billion to $110 billion for heroin, $110 billion to $130 billion for cocaine, $75 billion for cannabis and $60 billion for synthetic drugs, the probable global figure for the total illicit

drug industry would be approximately $360 billion. "

This is a tongue in the cheek poke at all those people, who points fingers at Bitcoin for being the culprit and those who are saying Bitcoin is the primary tool for criminals to do their business online.  ::)

Can you smell the bullshit in their statements? The numbers just do not match up, with what they are saying.  ;)

http://dcebrief.com/digital-currency-for-commerce-or-criminals/

Everyone knows that cash is still the number 1 tool used by criminals to obtain weapons and so on, so of course Bitcoin being a tool for terrorists is very small percentage. The question is: What happens when cash is removed in the next 10 years? Then Bitcoin will be indeed the number one way for criminals to obtain weapons, that is when I think they will try to ban it on full force and we better be ready by then with a very anonymous and robust Bitcoin (this means small blocks, tor support, confidential transactions, schnorr signatures for default coinjoin... in other words we need Core team in charge).

I don't agree that bitcoin is for criminals only.  this is just some bad press that wanting to have millions of views for profit.  Either money or Bitcoins, they have been exploited to do illegal activities because of it's nature.  It is proven that bitcoin transaction isn't really anonymous..   It can be traced.  Though they prefer bitcoin because they don't have to deal with banks in transaferring  money that makes bitcoin more popular in this kind of activity.  

This is funny. Actually, USD/EUR is used for illegal activities every day, you could exchange those fiats to BTC after to avoid seizure, but I don't think criminals would prefer BTC than fiat for payments.

There is no need to keep Bitcoin small (small blocks conviently syncing over tor) because smart criminals going to use the truly anonymous coins. Bitcoin with confidential transactions and coinjoin still cannot compete with truly anonymous coins like Monero for criminal activity, its not possible because of Bitcoin design. By the way I find it funny some Bitcoin small blockers are proven Monero supporters as well, and Monero have dynamical blocksize limit and have no problems to scale up, unlike 1 MB Bitcoin - good work !

So no, Bitcoin is not going to be criminal number one choice after cash use is removed completly, there are better coin alternatives for criminals than Bitcoin so transactions cannot be tracked at all.

People and journalists do not see the difference between these coins and Bitcoin. It will always be tied to Bitcoin in some way. If any Crypto currency is used for criminal actions, Bitcoin will be

mentioned. As a Bitcoin community, we should stand up against this deliberate misinformation and we should put the truth out there. Mt Gox and Silkroad and all these other services are not Bitcoin, it

was just used as a currency. So people must see the difference and they should blame the people behind it, not the technology.

bitcoin like any other currency is being used for illegal stuff but that doesn't make bitcoin the tool for criminals just the same way it doesn't make USD the tool for criminals.
and even if it is being used for drugs,... it is only being used by small time dealers not the big ones. those are using USD as it is so much easier.

Yes.
Watch out for your own ISP.  We need TOR support.

It could potentially be used as a way to safely store cash.

But other than that it makes no sense to use such a heavily watched payment method.

I think this whole statement is to deter people from actively investing into BTC.
How can you say one currency is bad while not labeling others the same way.
I mean honestly at some point every currency has been used by a criminal.

~AvalonRychmon

   They just say so, I'm not a criminal. And I saw some scam attempts here, but that is not dangerous criminal activity like drug and weapons trafficking. I think bitcoin as currency can make some transactions to go unnoticed, normally that attract people from other side of the law.
   I think its in us will we use something for good or bad purposes, anyone who blame currency for human mistakes is ignorant in my opinion. People should know the difference between good and bad.

I do not think so that I know that bitcoin is widely used by the gambling site if you think gambling is a criminal maybe yeah but i dont think that our business along the demand of bitcoin is still there is.

Those kinds of statements are only used as an excuse to seek for higher bad forms of regulations, and to scare people off from investing and spreading the use of bitcoin.
Any form of money can be used for illicit things, crypto or fiat form, it doesnt make a difference, and just as so, it can be used for legitimate intentions.
I think the number one reason for such a reaction from them is due to the fact that they cant control bitcoin network in a way they can get funds from bank accounts.

I have once attempted to quantify the criminal market depth of Bitcoin using the largest marketplace at the time as a point of reference, it came down to a zero with a decimal point in comparison to the actual currency favoured by criminals, USD which actually does have a sizeable chunk of black market in it, just the scamming industry is equivalent to the fifth largest country in size of economy, it mostly resides in USD.

Yes it takes root among rhetorics, yes they have no basis whatsoever for their hypothesis (when have you ever seen one in news? all they do is argue in rhetorics so save us the braincells). First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Declaring Bitcoin the currency of criminals is no more than a petty reason to justify an attack so we're certainly moving in the right direction in that regard.

I think bitcoin is not for criminals bitcoin made only to use as money online that we can use it on the internet..
Bitcoin is very useful because its very fast to transfer your money in far places.

People and individuals from time immemorial have been entitled to their opinion on what they deem fit or not. From my own point of view I think all these flying here and there is a means to call dog a bad name in other to hang it which boils down to the fact of inability of various governments to control the flow of bitcoin. However, we cant still rule out the possibility of people using this as a means of social vices but still cannot be compared to the use of cash in funding various vices all over the world... my 2 cents...

Yeah right there  is no wrong about bitcoin and we can not say that bitcoin is for criminals because almost i know the bitcoin for the first time in faucets .. and yeah bitcoin is well know in gambling casinos online..

Bitcoin being used by criminals will always be a talking point for those who are anti-bitcoin no matter what. They will always have documented cases and examples where bitcoin was used for criminal activity that they can refer to and use as ammo.

If we want to un-demonize bitcoin, we have to focus on all the good things about bitcoin and sell that to the mainstream public.

Because it actually is..Just an hour ago I was reading about the ransomware deals,companis have paid $20000+ in bitcoins when their files were encrypted by hackers.If they'd ask money in bank accounts,tracking them would have been way easier.Sad,but true.

That's just negative side effects of bitcoin.Not like before bitcoin it didn't exist.Bitcoin made it a little less suspicious.Don't let the negative news take over control of your brains how evil bitcoin is.Technology is always used for two purposes,viz Greater Good/Destruction.

And add oil to the fire? We don't need TOR support IMO. TOR is mainly linked to deep web lurkers, drugs, weapons and child pornography traders.
I know this is mostly misconception too but that is what general public thinks. In democratic society we need to value that.

And bitcoin haven't been created to be totally anonymous. Satoshi knew that it is not fully anonymous and said that many times.
We already have some altcoins with  better privacy options if you ware concerned about this aspect - you can always use Monero or something.

I hear you.  I am pro-choice on TOR.  If you don't mind your ISP knowing that you own Bitcoins and are affiliated with a certain site, that is understandable.  The issue is much more than that.  They have a permanent record of every search you have ever conducted on the internet.  In some locations it is risky to allow them to have that information.  Financial, political, employment, marital, child custody, social.  The company, as well as individual employees, and ex-employees.

I have to agree, the Bitcoin public ledger is the first transparent currency ledger which ever existed, the integrity and every transaction can be viewed and tracked by everyone.

Now compare it with fiat ledgers, only central banks have full access to it to check the transactions and integrity of the ledger. Because of the nature of people, everything that is not under transparent public control should be considered corrupted and exploited by those in power when no one is watching.

I thought the journalists would sheer Bitcoin for its transparency and complain about closed and untransparent fiat ledgers belonging to the past. I think they are from old school giving too much trust to authorites and not having much imagination what stealing and corruption really happens in every closed system deciding/mantaining public funds which cannot be publictly controlled by everyone - its easy to steal when no one is watching, possible when only few control you, but impossible if everyone can control you anytime.

This is insane soo crypto world is just drug traffic? Soo im a seller or a buyer as i get my bitcoins, invest them as i buy a portion while in a while, soo this make me a drug dealer, based on those statements. The drug dealers, use fiat bitcoin isnt for them, even with such potencial to be used by dark business, but i doubt you can buy heroin on streets with bitcoin or other drug.

it's that side of the argument of "you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide"

That's true, the main goal. bitcoin is made become assist payment of the main payment like using a fiat currency. it's will made the human is more easy to making in the digital world. well, we know the digital world is very similarly for a lot of people is having a connection.

That is very self righteous and hypocritical of them. What of the banks? We in this forum are all aware that they are the biggest criminals of all. They keep the people poor by issuing their inflationary devalued "currency" and control us by keeping all of it in their vaults. Beware because what you have been taught and living in is a lie.

No need to worry what they said, it is true that some people using bitcoin for bad purpose like money laundry or maybe buying some illegal stuff, but there is also honest people that earn living using bitcoin, there is also bunch of people who is grateful because bitcoin has help them avoid poverty and improve their economic condition
So i think its not balance when media only speak the bad side of bitcoin but they never mention the great side of bitcoin

No bro According to me Bitcoin is not only For the Criminals it is also For the General Public. I also Agree that it is Used For Illegal Activities But It is Also Used For Some Good Deeds Like Charities Accepting Bitcoin and People are Donating Bitcoins in Charities....

Nothing in the world can come close to what kind of bad things are being done and financed with fiat, and still the media keeps pointing at Bitcoin as being a tool for criminals.

Criminals asking for $1,000,000 in fiat ransom, and the media doesn't seem to spend much attention on it, but as soon as some nerds ask for $10,000 worth of Bitcoin as ransom, the media jumps all over Bitcoin with all its negativity being thrown at Bitcoin. It's sad.

We cannot blame those who said or titled bitcoins ad money for criminals. In bitcoin history it was vastly used in the darknet or darkweeb. It was used as a currency in the exchange for drugs and other nefarious activities.

It was only later that bitcoin was out of the dark web and used by normal people. But being once used in the darknet doesn't mean that bitcoin is for criminals. It just proved that bitcoin has value and like fiat currency it depends on the user how he managed his bitcoins.

Like most forms of technology, fraudsters and criminals found ways to exploit bitcoin for nefarious uses, may be it can be used before, but now we can see more users using bitcoin only for good, it is more profitable to its users.

Yes  you are right. This is just a bad press release of those people who want to earn a lot by having million of views. There are a lot of people who are using bitcoins. Child, adult , women and men, lesbian or gay. It is all because there is nothing wrong in using it. But I also cannot guarantee that bitcoins are not used for illegal activities or no criminals use bitcoins since bitcoins are for everybody.

I'm not sure we would necessarily be millionaires, I doubt criminals would want to hold on to the Bitcoins they receive as payment and if they dumped it for dollars every time it is possible that it would have a negative impact on the price. And if they happened to be a powerful cartel, able to control the price they would probably still not allow it to skyrocket. Cartels wouldn't try to make money speculating, they would merely be using Bitcoin as a means to move money, a stable value would be more desirable for a number of reasons.

bitcoin in the right hand will be good, bitcoin in the wrong hand will be bad, depend which hand keep bitcoin. and yes, bitcoin can be one of many access to money laundry, and other criminals. but i believe that people used bitcoin not for only to make criminals, they used bitcoin for good purpose and this is a good way. like knife, it has 2 face which we can use.

Any new up and coming technology is always first accused of being a criminal platform or some other kind of shady dealings . The internet was no different when it came out and eve now it still gets bad press, Any country that would try and stop the growth of technology would be looked down on though.And as others have said its all kidology since much more guns, drugs and all kinds of illegal warez are bought anonymously using usd each year than bitcoin has in its entire lifetime.

We don't have to believe all the bullshit those articles and media keep on saying about link between bitcoin and criminal activity. Not only bitcoin even paper cash, gold, silver, online banking, other payment processors like liberty reserve, perfect money etc are also may be used by criminals. But it is quite true bitcoin being completely anonymous than other payment method has become reliable method to send/receive money globally for both legal as well as illegal activity.

Bitcoin is Currency  like any other currency, it depends on the person  , As we all know any currency money needs to be used for good things only , Always we need to  use money for good things like  for food ,stay and helping others, it is not required to believe any news ,as a human we should know how to use it.

Oh the media again. Personally I am totally pro TOR browser and their markets there no matter what it contains and no matter that all human garbage is gathered there. I need them to stay there as in TOR there are a lot of bitcoin transactions going on which is support for the bitcoin. If you see the hidden wiki you will see a lot of information about bitcoin there and the way is being promoted. This is very good for bitcoin.
But of course bitcoin can be used also by criminals because of ease of use and being pseudo anonymous which can be converted to fully anonymous with a few tips and tricks. We need TOR if we want for bitcoin to keep going forward. That is a truth we must all accept.

Everybody can use bitcoins criminals, normals and saints.
Always a matter of what you do with it. And so is it with almost anything.
Fiat, hammers, trucks or tooth brushes.
The problem is never the thing, but the man behind the thing.

Bitcoin or no bitcoin cash is still the first thing used by any criminal in this world,  so i don't think bitcoin can be an exception

most criminals use cash not btc. however if criminals want to make international transfers btc is better than cash or banks.

Really ? How do you *laundry  the money ? lol?

How ? If they're earning their living using bitcoin I'm sure they're on the wrong path.You can't really pay for your daily chores with bitcoins right ?

How ? Stop making shit up.Bitcoin is just another currency,it doesn't eradicate anything.Yes,I heard YoShit idiots can afford food for twice a day with their signature earnings.

Of course criminals can use bitcoin and hide their unlawful activities, this is not something you and I can prevent.
It's like when you own a gun and you never use it unless to defend your self but still ending up killing someone.
You see any one stops using buying or firstly producing guns? I hardly doubt it.

If thatq was true then majority of people on.this forum would bew criminals. And we all know that isn't true. Butq because of anonimity and the fact that Bitcoin transactions are hard to track, Bitcoin is very convenient for criminal activities and that puts the bad light on it.

It's not a secret that some criminals are using Bitcoin for their bussiness but these articles that blame Bitcoin for their actions are nothing more than  the typiacal media bs that exaggerates and lies about everything in order to get a few more clicks.
For people like us who know what's going on it's not a big deal we even find it funny sometimes,but it may prevent someone who does not know much about cryptos,this is where we must take action and let our relatives and friends know the truth.

During the early days most users of bitcoin used it for illegal purposes. For this reason people say bitcoin is for criminals. Now scenario has changed, people have understood the potential of bitcoin and started giving preference as an additional earning as well a better investment.

Yeah,that`s right.The world drug industry is 360 billion and bitcoin market capitalization is around 10 billion.

The whole idea that criminals use bitcoin is a big lie.Criminals use cash.

Such as a knife , he has two surfaces that can be used .
so , It depends on the person holding the bitcoin bro . if bitcoin right hand would be nice but if bitcoin in the wrong hands would be worse then than it all depends on the person holding the bitcoin . It is true , bitcoin could be one of the many access money goes to the laundry or criminals etc . But back to the person who holds the bitcoin and I believe that the people using bitcoin is not just for makes it a crime , they use bitcoin with good intention and this is the best way .

YEah you are defenitely right because cash can be easily in transactions unlike bitcoin that  needs to be converted before we can use them and there are only few criminals who knows bitcoin and I don't think some of the criminals will pay time and effort just to study bitcoins so that they can use it in doing their illegal activities.  Bitcoin is for everybody and we should keep it in mind.

Well man to answer your questions bitcoin aint criminal money. It's just that some criminals use this currency to buy weapons, drugs and many more at the deepweb. I think that many of the criminals use cash not bitcoin only a small percent of them use bitcoin to buy weapons its just that the media make bitcoin look that way to those who don't use it since the only thing they can see is the bad uses of criminals to bitcoin.

ANY currency in this world can be used for criminal activity. There's absoluetly no difference - the Bitcoin being anonymous and secure doesn't mean all criminals are using Bitcoin. There are criminals doing this for sure - we can't prevent it. People are buying weapons and drugs with cash too.. it's just the criminal's prefference.

This topics annoys me, I don`t mean OP, I mean stories that bitcoin is for criminals, and news about it, why bitcoin is for criminals? And what all this criminals did before bitcoins? Maybe someone wish to say that before bitcoin criminals didn't exist? Lets be clear about one thing, there will be always good and bad people. That is a fact! Bad people have bad intentions and they will use everything they can to achieve they goals, no matter if its bitcoin or dollar, or other people..
Bitcoin have one purpose and that is to make things easier for people. We can earn on internet without any limitations where we are, as long as we have internet connection. So bitcoin is for people of this earth, not for criminals.

for many years from the invention of bitcoin the media has been running this propaganda against bitcoin to ruin its good image in the minds of the users so desperately to try and prevent its growth. but so far the only thing they could achieve is to slow it down. bitcoin is still growing strongly and moving forward.

well just curious they doing it for the sake of what, if the media were have no connection with any financial thing or government,maybe they just need a clickbait news so they'll get so many visitor beside destroying bitcoin

Bitcoin does have desirable features for it to be used as a tool for criminals to buy illegal things online. However, such transactions definitely occupy only a small portion of the total Bitcoin transaction volume. Actually, there are various other methods to transfer money that can potentially be better than Bitcoin for making illegal transactions. Money laundering became harder with governments locking down on exchanges to require them to verify their customer's identity.

this statement is unreasonable and have no evidence behind it,you're saying most of criminals,did you calculate all of those criminals uptill now? i guess no,so can't just generalize like that,every currency ever being used by criminals that's the main thing

Nobody can know what is gonna be in the future. Maybe all the bitcoin system will fall already next few years or bitcoin will grow into next world currency. Now nobody can reply on that.
I do not think bitcoin is for criminals. Never even heard that that terrorists are yousing bitcoin in their businesses or something like that.

any money or currency in this world can be use by criminals because money is evil but in deep web they bitcoin as a money to make a evil thing like just that some criminals use this currency to buy weapons buy some illegals drug (cocaine,shabu) It's a secret that some criminals are using Bitcoin for their bussiness to make them anonymous  8)

Any kind of money can be used in illegal activities and bitcoin is another form of money so obviously it can also be used in illegal activities. and the thing that bitcoin is for criminals annoys me cause it must be depend on the user

yeah right, I think the criminal could use the money in any form up to them. And certainly I think bitcoin is not money for criminals, as an example I use bitcoin for trading and buying needs of the school. so a criminal or not it was not his money but it depends on the person. thanks

It's what sells news and gets readers.  That's the problem with 24/7 news, you're expected to churn out content all the time.

Man buys keyboard for bitcoin doesn't attract readers.

I think it is two reasons and it mostly depends on what news site you are talking about.
I believe all these news sites are either
1) posting things that only LOOK HOT so they can attract the most attention (aka click-bait) so they get the most clicks and can earn the most profit because of their CPM ads.
2) they may be some agenda behind what they are doing, like spreading some FUD about bitcoin to pump ethereum which happens a lot these days. or some of them are linked to banks and government.

i believe some people has blame bitcoin for criminals actions because bitcoin have good feature who liked by the criminals too such as anonymity but in my country i didn't see any bad guys using bitcoin for their criminal acts and i don't understand why they only blame bitcoin will using by illegal activities because long time ago before bitcoin was born the criminals has already using another currency for their activities

I just saw on the news again another article on ISIS using Bitcoins to buy weapons, yet no one is saying the obvious: Cash is the number one used tool to get weapons, not to mention art and oil most of the time delivered by western countries.

This is my point exactly... those terrorist use the internet to spread their propaganda and nobody is blaming the internet, but it's still one of their tools. Bitcoin has been under the spotlight long enough,

and we must take a stand against this or we will go down in history as the technology preferred by criminals. This being true or not, do not mind here... because many people are being deceived and

most of them are starting to believe it. Go onto every forum and news site and challenge these idiots, and you will see a difference... these people do this {spreading wrong information} without being

challenged... and we need to go against this trend and debunk this nonsense.  >:(

Yeah right this is i think also the problem here in my country terrorist we dont know wy they are still have a weapon and how they are get those weapon.
Because of internet anytime they can transfer money or use it to by illegal weapon online...

Actually they are misunderstanding it. If a knife is useful for cutting fruits then it is also used by criminals to threaten people so according to them ‘knife is for criminals’ is it right? Of course not.

Yes, bitcoin is anonymous, global, user friendly and most importantly free from third party control so let’s be honest, it could be good for criminals but we should really find a solution instead of destroying it.  I am assuming the number of criminals using bitcoin is too small right now and the worst thing is we can’t trace them. We should come up with better solution for it otherwise things can go out of control.

bitcoin goal made not for the criminal, but to make transactions on the Internet becomes faster, and better. I think if you compare between bitcoin transaction with another tool, then you might choose bitcoin as a means of transactions on the Internet, because bitcoin is an excellent means of transaction, although many people who use it for illegal transactions

W should not have to blame bitcoin for crimes around us, bitcoin is a currency and criminals use any currency which they find convenient for their use, by the way in my country only those people use bitcoin who are educated and those educated people do not like crimes, while those who love crimes are uneducated and do not know about bitcoin and its technology.

Criminals are using bitcoin for doing transaction because bitcoin anonymity, that way officers will be hard to track them. Those actions made bitcoin has bad reputation.
If this keeps continue, I'm afraid people will avoid bitcoin and make bitcoin lost it's popularity.
Even that so, I believe, there more good users than the bad ones.

Criminals now is making a progress now. They can use technology to do crimes and i guess the bitcoin is their perfect choice to do such a crime. We all know bitcoin has a anonimity feature so they  can use that as a tool to be not exposed. They can buy goods and other stuff with ease you this. Im not a criminal but i prefer to use bitcoin coz it.is the fastest way to tranfer and easy to accept by other countries.

Nope. There are altcoins way easier to keep business private with. A criminal would be out of their mind to use bitcoin. It's surprisingly easy to track.

There are altcoins with more stable value, stronger cryptography, faster blocks, and fully anonymous out there that are free for the taking, like Monero.

Thats what the people are always doing. When you do something good they dont notic it but only one single mistake and all your good efforts will be buried 10 feet below the ground. This applies to bitcoin also, the usefulness of bitcoin was stained by the nefarious activities of some and then that single stain will be the focus of attention and will gain more attention.

Well yes it can be for criminals due to its anonymity but now i don't think so since there's a lot of things now that keeps bitcoin away from those kind of people. But it's not only for criminals for all people whether they're good or bad.

Maybe there are another parties in their background to supply their weapons and funds, because in some cases in my country the terrorist is always charming a man to getting a funds for their live or rob.

I think its not true, we only heard the news from rumor that bitcoin is used for buying weapons, drugs or any illegal stuff, but they dont really have the data or the real number and not all bitcoin is use for bad purpose there is decent people try to make a living using bitcoin in honest way by selling stuff or service online

I guess they do not have any data about it because the transaction was done illegally. bitcoin is not made for a criminal, but I guess the sophistication of this technology makes it a perfect tool for the transaction criminals. I think bitcoin has long been used as a means of transaction as it was in the deep web.

Bitcoin isnt omly for criminals that isnt true anc it will never be.Most butcoin criminals are admin of scam online every kind of investemnts ponzi scheme sites.

yeah, people are keen on hearing negative news about stuff and bitcoin is not any kind of exception unfortunately, we just need to get through all this hate right now

The news sites only show the bad news about bitcoin. And they didn't explain than more than 90% of criminals don't use bitcoins, the % of drugs sold for bitcoin is small, most users pay with dollars or its national fiat money.

Yeah not all details were explain in the article. bitcoin is a currency just like fiat money and everyone can use it wether its for good or bad purposes. they just publish the bad side that some people might misunderstand.

thats true and for me it seems to be really sad to be honest, i think that the news should show positive things either because right now there is way too much negativity on it

Bitcoin is the preferred ransom method for all the online hijackers of corporate data I think. Also criminals with IT background will opt for Bitcoins rather than use a more traditional ransom payment method like dollars in a suitcase. Drug lords and brothel owners most likely prefer traditional payments in cash right now but they could wise up about the advantages of Bitcoin and start to use it in their operations.

I think the majority of the Bitcoiners are used to these kind of articles that are written to make Bitcoin look bad.

The only thing that does concern me a bit, is that the average Joe takes this kind of news very seriously as they believe nearly everything they see and hear in the news.

I some times even think that the larger news/media sites are being paid by the government in order to discourage Bitcoin usage on a massive scale.

I agree that media are attracted to bitcoin bad press because it gives them alot of views.  but i don't think government are paying for this to make this stuff happen.  Government have more important issue to attend to and give focus rather than destroying something that they themselves can have benefits.

Cash is the most anonymous way to buy illegal goods. Bitcoin is the most anonymous way to buy it over the internet. I find it stupid buying illegal goods over the internet, giving them your private information. What if you buy something illegal on the internet and its really a trap made by the government? If you buy weapons or other items made to do harm, you deserve to be locked up and kept away from society. Drug users are another story. If the drug user is buying drugs for themselves and are only doing harm to themselves, why make it illegal and arrest it? It makes zero sense.

Well here if you buy drugs and they know that you are pusher you will be killed by anonymous killers that are planning to kill all users and pushers also drug lord here.. so its impossible even you are anonymous to buy those drugs.

Bitcoin is for BTC users :)
It means that anyone can use Bitcoin since it's Internet based, anonymous, decentralized etc.
So, can we say that Bitcoin is good because good people can use Bitcoin, or bad, if bad people can use Bitcoin?
Of course not.
If something will be used in a good or bad way depends on the motivation of user, not money itself.
Criminals also use real money, don't they?
I agree that sometimes mainstream media can make such rumors but we know it's not true.

Come on!  Is the original poster really trying to say that bitcoin doesn't really attract the criminal element?  I am pretty sure bitcoin attracts society's criminal elements.  All it takes is just a quick perusal of the content contained on this very forum to realize that there is a lot of immorality demonstrated within the community....That cannot be denied.  In fact, there are many more fraudulent schemes within the community then has ever been reported by the major media networks.

If we see the recent hack through ransomware then we can see that hackers used to receive the payments from the victims through bitcoin which makes a bad marketing for bitcoin, they use bitcoin because they want to stay anonymous and don't want to get chargeback like paypal.

Not only that but they can easily mix the coins after receiving them to not leave traces behind. Bad marketing is something bitcoin has lived with during its life stage so far so it doesn't worries me. Ransomware is getting pretty random nowadays so I would advise to keep more in focus the security of our systems. A ransomware still cannot do any harm to some user who have the same wallet in different places and the seed well saved in different places like USB-s. They can just reinstall Windows and install for example electrum and restore from the seed. Only newbies fall for ransomware nowadays. I guess OP is referring to the black markets as criminals use them but we cannot do anything about it yet.

According to my views the drug users are totally dependent on their local currency for buying drugs, maybe there will be someone who will use bitcoin for that in their local deals, but on digital means I don't think that they will be able to sell drugs as it is banned all around the world and will not find its place on internet.

On one side it is good to have a privacy when spending your money but at the other side this is not good to be used from hackers, I wouldn;t say that only newbies are victim of ransomware but also those intermediate. A hardware wallet can be very useful in this case avoiding to be encrypted by these viruses.

Hello, ever heard about the hidden internet ? What about Silk Road drug marketplace ?  Its up an running now on version 3.0 and you just need 0.13 btc to pay the fee to become a vendor there to sell of kind of stuff including a very large selection of different drugs. FBI have put down Silk Road and Silk Road 2.0 but the version 3.0 is going smoothly. I cannot go more into details of how they sell the drug there, but they definitely do it even by digital means like you say. Just search on google for Silk Road and you will see that you are wrong in this point.

i dont think that bitcoin is specially make for criminals. i think good and bad elements are present in every society. and so they are getting benefit from bitcoin.

If a criminal uses bitcoin, they're incredibly dumb. Their transactions will be totally public, and for all we know governments are monitoring the blockchain. Why not use XMR or the like?

Right.Bitcoin is a currency, it doesn't have will of its own.It depends on its owner how he uses it.Like fiat,bitcoin can also be used for bad things as well as good things.
Bitcoin has smaller user base compared to regular currency.Once bitcoin become mainstream, we will not hear media blaming bitcoin

This is the dark side of Bitcoin , I read many articles talking about the role of Bitcoin in some crimes , I also read some reports about how the Bitcoin contributes in transfer the money from the European and American countries to the terrorist groups in the middle east , but as the others said , Bitcoin is not the only currency which criminals and terrorist use , there is also the Dollar .

Everyone can use next to everything to get something that is illegal as long as there is enough of a demand for the item. It's not like any of this has changed throughout history, and this is just one example of something unconventional being used to buy some illicit things.

Even if Bitcoin was to go mainstream, though, there would still more than likely be a lot of backlash from the media and the government, and they would still try their hardest to control it in whatever way possible. I personally think that we'll still hear the media blaming Bitcoin for a lot of things.

Bitcoin is for anyone not just for criminals. Bitcoin was not created to use it as a tool for illegal doings. It is created as an innovation in the cyberworld as a currency. Maybe others use it at illegal things because of its anonymous transaction but it only depends on how you are going to use it. Is it for good or bad? People always finds a way on how to use a certain thing for good and bad.

Actually criminals have never been interested in the bitcoin technology by itself, but in alternative ways to move their money, no matter if it is worth of bitcoin, dollars, euros, gold, etc.

But it is well known that the dominant system will do everything possible to discredit the bitcoin.

They choose the best tools available, and there is no doubt that Bitcoin is amongst the best.  8)

If I do illegal transactions and I need anonymity and quickness and stuff, of course I will use bitcoin.
You would not find any better.

It just applies for sometimes, I don't think so someone is wanna creating illegal transaction will always need anonymity and quickness because for f2f is best than making online transaction.

LOL, bitcoin is capped at 13.73B preev rate and they claim 100+B? Now that's just funny. Besides, we might as well call valve and microsoft guilty by association/money laundering now right?

If prefer, of course criminals will prefer btc. But for purpose, btc purpose is not for criminal. Its for everyone, why they blame btc for that illegal thing. Fiat also use in illegal then why didnt bame fiat as well. Its for everyone and can be use both by criminals and not.

actually the criminals prefer USD a lot more than they prefer using bitcoin. because they are not tech savy at all and like any other average joe have no idea how to use bitcoin so they don't and they continue sticking with fiat.

about the technology of bitcoin can just, for example, can make anonymously for themselves, it's will become a different value for bitcoin in their eyes. the technology has become one of some important reason for them is wanna using a bitcoin.

This.  Totally.

But OP, what do you mean "where is all the money" from these illegal activities?  How would you know what's being used for what?  You know damn well bitcoin is used on dark markets and by hackers.  If you can argue against that, I'm all ears.  The whole Silk Road thing?  That was real, and it was a lot of bitcoin there.  The bitcoin transactions are totally dwarfed by fiat cash ones, but they're still significant.  And real.

I think the advancement of technology is not the reason the criminals using bitcoin. But I think they consider bitcoin is a transaction that can not be tracked and secure. But I think it's wrong, bitcoin can still be tracked if you make it traceable :) in other words if there is human error, and the authorities could take advantage of it.

you don't know that. and actually the criminals are still using fiat for everything they do. for example the recent news about kickass torrent owner, he was using fiat and bank account to receive the money from their advertisers and they only had a bitcoin address for donations from users that is all the bitcoin usage they got.

Actualy yeah I do not know for sure, the above is only one of my opinion.
Yeah I also know that not all criminals using bitcoin, even criminal not only using bitcoin but they also use fiat, as you say :)

Every thing has a positive and a negative side. So as bitcoin. I completely agree that bitcoin is being used by many drug dealers but there are lot of general people who also use bitcoin. and they use it for investment only. They don't buy drugs using bitcoin.

So don't think that due to some criminals, bitcoin will become the money for criminals. They are just a small percentage of total bitcoin users.

I kinda agree/disagree with you, as bitcoin has grown a lot lately and became stronger currency than USD and EU, what makes us think BTC is for criminals is because its between people (P2P) not governed by governments , so all your transaction you do are pretty much anonymous and its hard to track you down which makes a preferable currency for criminals , in other hand there is a lot good websites you can make BTC from it and invest it and use it online , there are a lot of stores online nowadays that accept BTC payment.

Yup, and the internet is for criminals. Every new technoligcal advance is usually used by criminals to circumvent the judicial system, the media is pretty sad at reporting facts and spin things to feed the emotions of their readers. Technology is not necessarily bad, what we do with it can be.

The thing is that, with Bitcoin, there is some sort of novelty to it for the media that are reporting on it. Some of the things that criminals do with Bitcoin are just so technically difficult (or it just seems so to these reporters), that it just makes for an interesting story.

I've also seen some positive stories about Bitcoin, but the negative ones are the ones that get more attention.

Why bitcoins is used in illegal activities is simple. It is because bitcoin is a currency and has a value. Like any other currency especially fiat currency it may be used to anything we like, to use it normally and legally or to use it in illegal activities. Bitcoin is like that also, since bitcoin has a value the user has a choice on how he is going to use his bitcoins.

Not for the criminal activities, but for huge volume of transactions people started using it as banks were demanding for high transaction fee as well taxation issues.

I agree that bitcoin is  for everyone.  It is not solely created for illegal stuff, in fact the purpose of Bitcoin is to stop the illegal things the current monetary system is exploiting.  But sadly, seems bad people are far more faster in adopting and exploiting things reason why bitcoin had lots of bad press.  Am sure this is like a disease that is hard to cure.  Like money main problem, being used for illegal activities.

It is stated in the OP, drug industry alone is estimated approximately $360 billion per year. You may check the Bitcoin blockchain, and you gonna see yearly Bitcoin transactions estimated value. And drug industry is only small part of the crimial activity, plus Bitcoin is obviously used for non criminal activites as well.

This means Bitcoin can be used only for small percentage of yearly criminal activity - numbers prove it, no need to go to the traditional news server chat discussions and argue with the clueless hordes as the OP suggests - I have done that in the past and its like pissing against the wind.

but if you are avoiding tax or trying not to pay tax this is also an illegal activity, because states run on taxes and if you are not paying your legal tax that is not good for you for the state and for other people, but i will like to add that we are not paying tax on bitcoin because most of the states have still not policy about bitcoin or to impose tax on bitcoin may be the reason that still they have not legalize it.

The paper does stand behind good history that there are a lot of criminal organizations which use Bitcoin for criminal activity, however now that the governments are forming task forces to track down the use of Bitcoin for illegal purposes, there will be less use of it.  Cash is always king when it comes to criminals, no paper trial.  Again, this is my opinion.