Bitcoin Forum

Could bitcoin prevent crime?

I believe Bitcoin transactions via online wallets could prevent crime. People are going to use Bitcoin for legal and illegal transactions, however criminal transactions are susceptible to crime as cash is used for the transaction...which encourages theft. If bitcoin were used for these shady transactions, perhaps with escrow, there would be no opportunity to steal currency - couldn't this prevent crime? (Aside from the original criminal transaction of course!)

Bitcoin can't prevent crime, the way BTC is design, it is faceless transactions and this is the concern of people in government that it is likely to be used by terrorist. Even with escrow, Escrow is just to guarantee trust.

Bitcoin will not prevent crime, but it can be used to trace the criminals and this will lead to their capture and hopefully imprisonment. The Blockchain is a excellent tool to follow money. Yes, there are ways for these criminals to make it more difficult for authorities to follow the money, but with enough paper work this can be done.

Interpol can use Bitcoin as a forensic tool, to audit all financial transactions that were done with Bitcoin. ^smile^

Sorry, let me rephrase - not prevent crime exactly, but prevent violence during criminal transactions.

In a criminal transaction Escrow would be the safest option because if the escrow jets with the money he'll have two criminals after him, not just one!

Bitcoin won't prevent crime, because it has been developed to make transactions faster with less transaction fee and increased security features. At the same it doesn't reveal the identity of the sender and receiver. At its initial stages countries opposed much, the reason is that its been used more for illegal needs.

It would be better to close this thread and open another, the title of the thread will likely stick in their head and you won't get the desired responds to your question

Usage bitcoin is very dependent on users, so it is used for both legal and illegal activities it was all very dependent on its users. I think despite using escrow in bitcoin transactions can still be criminal purposes, because escrow I think only the third person in the transaction and will not ask for any such transaction. I think it is very difficult to prevent the bitcoin transaction to be used in criminal or illegal. Only bitcoin users who can prevent to use illegal transactions.

Crimes is the thing of the hearts and the only way crimes can be prevented is through reorientation of human mind. Bitcoin can only help in face to face transactions crimes, Bitcoin transactions is faceless but the decentralization nature allowed criminal minds people to transfer bitcoin from one wallet to another criminal person to use it and purchased ammunition and used against law abiding human beings.

This question should not be asked by a veteran member like you. We all know that hackers and illegal individuals have already used Bitcoin before us for years so that Bitcoin certainly encourage shady activities and illegal products. Therefore, Bitcoin can never prevent crime, it only make cyber criminal stronger

If I have to do a crime and want to sell something illegal, I won't use escrow, I'd rather sell it directly to the person who wants to buy than to put it in the hands of escrow. Paying it directly, I'll give you the contraband but before I release the keys, send me the amount, you still have time to check the items while I am waiting for the confirmation. Usually, like what we see in movies, criminals when they have transactions with other criminal, they do it themselves without any third party.

Not at all, even though using bitcoin does not give you 100% privacy there is still some (legal) ways to hide your identity.

For example there are some bitcoin mixers that mix your coins and there are very small chances that someone can know that it was you.

But on the other hand the governments are trying to identify every bitcoin users on exchanges, businesses etc so it's problematic.

it's the opposite due to the decentralized nature and thus more hard to control, it's strengthen the crime activity

but i guess future algorithm that can search very fast for some type of address that might be relatded to criminal can make this better

I dont think so, crime cannot be stopped by a currency lol.  Violence is a standard form of human nature that is basically what humans are. There many illegal activities happening in dark nets and the currency they are using there is bitcoin.

The most hideous crime is that, goverments control our finances. Bitcoin succesfully prevents this crime   ;)

Bitcoin cant really prevent crime instead it would be used to create a crime specially on money laundering and shady illegal transactions online. Bitcoin could only prevent taxation but not illegal transactions since it being designed that way and we cant change that and people do really love to use it in any way as they want.

Bitcoin might prevent this kind of violence but it will never prevent crimes, actually in my opinion the anonymity somehow encourages the other kind of crimes like money laundering and other underground activities that depend on Bitcoin's anonymous transaction.

No it won't... The escrow that you will be hiring might be the one that will screw you both in the transaction...  :D Kidding... Anyway Escrows could really prevent two parties from taking advantage, but why would you still need another party to do that, isn't it that the two could inspect their products before agreeing to their terms and before paying?...  :D

i think bitcoin can prevent crime.
if not? why do people use bitcoin.
bitcoin can prevent crime because when we use bitcoin we can make money.
so, bitcoin can prevent crime. this is my opinion.

Bitcoin through the blockchain technology can prevent criminals by monitoring suspicious transfers of huge sums of money or Bitcoins (monies used for criminal activities) from one trade point to the other but it cannot expressly deal with their illegal business as that's the sole responsibility of the country's in which they perpetuate their crimes.

No, if anything governments of the world are worried about the opposite that bitcoin facilitates crime by giving you a currency that cannot be confiscated and that has no policy like know your costumer so you can open a wallet anywhere there is a computer.

bitcoin is not batman who can solve crimes the purpose why bitcoin is created is not for that thats why we have police/investigator to look crimes for us , we use bitcoin for currency (even if they call it commodity) online maybe if you use bitcoin for paying some people who can be hired privately then bitcoin will just help you with that.

I don't see anyway that Bitcoin could prevent crime. There is no stopping the illegal deeds that the people in this world wish to do. I think that Bitcoin has made it easier for criminals to work. Now they have a currency that can only see the addresses of the people participating in the trade. This makes it pretty much impossible for the police to track them down. Not many criminals want to deal with escrow so that doesn't really help. Bitcoin was created for the users to be anonymous, I guess it is good in some situations and bad in others.

Maybe you could stop posting for your signature campaign and actually post something constructive.

i think bitcoin can not prevent crime, it is about the user want to do with their bitcoin, they to use for legal or illegal and we don't know what activity do when transaction is created. escrow is like a bridge between two people which want to make transaction and the escrow agents will be holder of the fund when buyer wants to buy the product. but at last, escrow agents don't know what purpose behind the transaction, the agents is only hold the fund.

Bitcoin cannot prevent crime. Like fiat currency it cannot stop crime. As a currency they just play their function as a currency and nothing more. If we talk about addresses a person can make multiple addresses and it is hard to detect who are the users and what transaction is done by the users. If the government can control all miners including all wallets generated then its easy to prevent crime.

Should be "How bitcoin prevents crime?" Here in crypto it's like those victims that lack knowledge will never get justice from scammers. No matter how clear you tracked their transactions still it is unreversable.

It cant prevent crime but it helps us trace the criminal who stole the money with btcoin

I think it is not possible with bitcoin transaction to prevent crime because many people are keep transferring there to different address. Those who are not using bitcoin wisely will keep on changing their address how can we identify those people.

Yes it will be a big help to prevent crime like robbery of money unlike fiat money if you hold it in your hands and put in on your pocket, there maybe a situation that you will be robbed or pick pocketed by those theives. Unlike bitcoin in your online wallet you won't be a crime victim if you use every btc transaction online because its secured  through wallet admin unless you are being hacked. But possibilities is less than 10% to happen, few crimes like this will happen so digital currency has more advantages.

Besides your point I have another point which say that bitcoin is preventing crimes. That is in some societies there are extreme unemployment in those societies the youngsters often start crimes to get the money in any way. While with the coming of bitcoin now the youngsters will not serach for jobs but they will start their online works and after earning some money they will start their own business.

No matter if Bitcoin was here or not, the crimes cannot be prevented this way. Do you really think Bitcoin's end would stop crimes? No, before Bitcoin there were crimes too and the criminals could transfer money through many different ways. Bitcoin is great for anonymity. I don't care if criminals are using it - as far as I am using it legally, I don't care.

No it will not goes a way like that. The way bitcoin transaction is performed and execute, it's more convenient and appropriate to use in illegal transactions. If doesn't then we should not seeing reports about bitcoin having used in illegal activities or simply as all government in the world will accept bitcoin 100% without any doubts.

One thing that some of countries aren't hugging the bitcoin system is because it's really more prone in money fraud acitivities. Even being regulated and centralized somehow couldn't be an assurance that no fraud will happen in bitcoin. Look at fiat now being a centralized one, still lots of usage in terms of illegal activities.

Bitcoin could prevent crime in terms of making transactions because it is very safe, every address is not able to hack as long as you use the available security features, Google Authenticator is the best.  We know that some users engage in illegal activities so meaning to say it is already a crime.

Your words "as long as you use the available security features" means an address is still able to be hacked and taking over its control from you and it's contradictory with your statement which said "every address is not able to hack" though, even if you have the finest security, the chance of getting hacked is still there even it's lower than having poor security.
Everything in this world has a hole, and nothing in this world is impossible, I say that if some hackers know how to access your wallet or just gaining access to it, your wallet and all of your address will be taken easily.

Well i don't think so, by using bitcoin then its mean we don't need to use carry cash around, in this case maybe we can decrease the chances becoming the target of criminality, but it won't prevent any crime and in fact now there are more case of ransomware because of bitcoin

i dont think that it prevent crime i dont understand that how a person can use it for black money or illegal money but i think it is much more safest than bank accounts and bait currency.....!!!!!

Bitcoin cannot prevent crime.Even if you use an escrow, he would only give assurance of transaction and he doesnot know what the two parties are going to do with that bitcoins.There is always a criticism that bitcoins are used for illegal activities and parties indulging in such activities would never use an escrow.They two would have good co ordination between them.Bitcoin has nothing to do with preventing crime.

Yeah thats funny. Bitcoin is not a batman or superman to change the world. Its just a currency. Has anyone ever told that US dollar or EURO can prevent crime? Rather crime happens because of money and it will contiune to happen for bitcoin as well.

Yes bitcoin can prevent crime from the way I see it, bitcoin provides a way to earn some decent income legitimately for quite a number of people even on this forum alone is enough compared to other forums as well. we have had coders and IT experts coming here to earn something in which case they would have engaged in something else if this is not provided for them which there is possibility that it might be illegal. So, whether we like it or not, that counts and it means less people engaging in criminal activities.

Escrow is a very nice system, enabling people to trust each other and do business irrelevant to it being criminal or not. However, escrow is not tied specifically to bitcoin, because it is just about the third party in a deal, Payment Services Directive is an example. And taking into consideration the pseudonymousity of bitcoin it would rather help crime than prevent it. Violence is prevented but crime isn't.

LOL. your reason is too general, That means all things in the world can stop crimes because it is just a matter on how they use it.  In my opinion bitcoin can do both prevent and reason to made a crime. Bitcoin is money no matter what angle we see it. And money is common reason for crimes, Then it will prevent a crime once it is used on good things just like helping poor people so that they will not do bad things just for money

The best example of this i can give is in relation to terrorism. A great concept of this on a local level is that people get involved with crime due to the lack of choices. So say George wants to open a business and support his family, but due to bureaucracy and corruption in the local government - this happens a lot in some parts of Africa, also Afghanistan and many other locations - he is unable to open the business rapidly. It can take up to 3 months in some parts of the world! So we introduce bitcoin. Now the guy can automatically earn money without needing a bank, permission or paper work. So the next step is the business itself. With more and more services coming around, people will be able to bypass normal standards and open a business purely on the blockchain jurisdiction. Meaning they do not need to turn to crime or other means out of desperation to support their families.

This is a very basic example but it does portray the message correctly. A lot of crime comes from the lack of choice one has to support oneself leading them to make desperate moves to bypass their circumstances.

See bitcoin is a virtual currency so you can't really prevent crimes using bitcoins instead the use of bitcoin may increase the criminal activities as using bitcoins for transactions may be totally alien to some people.
This implies the lesser the people know about it the more difficult will be for them to understand it's working ie it may take so.e time for them to get comfortable with it while that time might be enough to fool that using it for transactions may also lead to zero tax payment which is officially a crime.so we can't say that it will prevent crimes.

Can you tell us how bitcoin will help to trace the theif who stole bitcoins. I feel bitcoin is anonymous and it is extreme difficult to trace through bitcoins.Your stolen bank money or credit card can be traced but No for bitcoins.

New technology but same old problems. I don't think bitcoin can prevent crime. Criminals are often, if not always, more advanced, and already in the next step before the others. They always find new ways, new technologies to commit theirs crimes, somztimes they have a lot of imagination. The anonimity of bitcoin is a misconception as well but it didn't stopped the european commission in their anti taxs evasion journey.. And nowaday gangster prefer to use crypto like monero

The crime will be significantly reduced, if people stop carrying physical cash and credit cards in their wallet. They can make the payments using the Bitcoin wallet in their mobile phones. Even if someone steals the mobile phone, it will be of no use. The wallet will be protected by 2-factor authentication and by the time the thief manages to crack it, the coins will be transferred somewhere safely.

I am pretty confident when people decide to do a criminal activity they don't use escrow. The same is, when people use fiat money almost all of the times they use only cash and no web banking and debit/credit cards and so on. Moreover, the way I see it bitcoin is only a P2P payment system without the need of third trust entities. No police, no god no more no less.

Only this way it can prevent crime.

However, I'm sure that bitcoin would be used more for illegal activities (such as gambling and ponzi schemes) than good activities.

yes due to decentralization, it wouldnt prevent crime. since it will be so hard to control the in and out of bitcoins. its hard to control all the transaction and due to this, bitcoin can be a MEDIUM or TOOL to do crime or any illegal activities.  since identities are hidden, so it will be a great way for criminals (or people who have criminal minds) to do an illegal acts. and sadly, this is the biggest DISADVANTAGE of bitcoin and decentralization.

no it can't, more users here in bitcoin is do scamming other users also some corporation do that already by starting investment site which has promising interest to lure more users to invest. Thats the only thing i know to have crime in bitcoin.

I have read an article in some countries, due to bank cards thieves and pickpockets are go starving and started to switch over their "job". If it is really happening then bitcoin also will bring revolution just due to cash-less transactions.

But I am very much sure, bitcoin payments will eliminate corruptions and bribes if governments start using it.

Yeah, scammers are criminal, they don't belong here. We should be aware and not be tempted on investments  where their primary purpose is to get our own money. Just invest on those most trusted company like having a good reviews/feedback and testimonials.

How can Bitcoin prevent crime, first of all we all don't really know who the other user is and so don't our hi tech agencies. Terrorists could well be using it and they would not even be leaving a paper trail behind. If you are indicating that instead of cash, if money is paid in Bitcoin crime is not crime or can it be prevented, how op. Won't the user of Bitcoin immediately convert it to Fiat money? There's absolutely no way of stopping crime from using Bitcoin, though if we all come to know we any such shady activities, we can report it but doubt it will help much.

Are you aware of the amount of bitcoin related scams attacking? It is unbelievable. Most bitcoin thefts are nothing more than simple embezzlement.
How can you prevent scams like fake cloud mining company or HIYPs Ponzi schemes stealing our money?

Yes, that is true with bitcoin anonymity bitcoin can not prevent crime, in addition it can used as a tool to encourage make a crime. Bitcoin is simply lioke our fiat money. Whatever you do with yopur money, whether for fraud or not its up to you.

No it will not prevent a crime actually its strengthen and give confidence to the criminals to commit a crime because of its anonymous nature , When dealing with large sum of money I advice not to use bitcoin because you have no assurance of the identity of the buyer and can easily scam you.

You must be dreaming. In some parts of the world they will rob you at gunpoint just to steal the phone. They won't even know how to use your bitcoin wallet nor will they care to learn.
If you have trezor you still aren't safe as it is worth more than the cash many people carry in their wallets.

Perhaps the nature of bitcoin is anonymous. People like terrorist and cybercriminals can easily abuse Bitcoin seeking to take advantage from payment method and payments technology. I think we've heard some news about criminal news that smelled bitcoin and bitcoin couldn't prevent crime but only help them.

Are you kidding?!

Every BTC transaction for a good or a service on this forum involves the use of an escrow because regular bitcoin transactions are irreversible and technically anonymous.

Escrow is almost the most frequent service offered on this forum, second only to signature campaigners.

While money is one of the most common reasons for any crime I was under the impression most crimes in the world are still passionate in their nature, basically people do them because they fell something about committing the crime, envy, jealousy, anger.

What about greed? Is this still a crime of passion if one is greedy? ;D
Sure, crimes of passion are the most common and usually the victim and the attacker know each other, but there are other feelings responsible for the wave of crime. One of the most common is boredom. Kids from both good and bad families want to try out something new, with a kick of adrenaline, so they go shoplifting or attack and rape some girl, just to see how it feels. Bitcoin won't prevent such crimes from happening, nothing will.

I have no idea how bitcoin could and can prevent crime,in fact they are being used illegally in the dark web,people can set up an escrow company but still many people will prepare without an escrow as long as he company or the person they are sending their bitcoin are trusted.

I am not sure, it depends of the user bitcoin. quite the contrary, the existence of the bitcoin is very prone to be used as a place of criminal transactions, such as purchases of drugs, money laundering and so on. but I say once again that it depends of the user bitcoin.

Maybe he never thought that bitcoin is a currency not a police.
Preventing crime isn't a job of the bitcoin, i might say that it can't prevent crime, but with it's technology the blockchain people will think twice before do something criminal, however people can increase their anonimity like using 3rd party such a mixing service so it makes the police hard to trace who's behind that address.

Bitcoin is just a tool for financial transaction and it is upto the user how they gonna use bitcoin. You may be talking about using escrow in middle to not get scammed during some deal, than yes escrow can prevent someone from scamming others but this can't be taken as preventing crime.

Bitcoin is being used for both legal and illegal transactions and businesses.

yes good thinking bitcoin can really reduce such kind of crime to snatch the physical money from a person or to steal a check book and then cash it illegally, because if you have bitcoin in you wallet they it so safe form stealing unless some one steal your pass key, and that can only be possible because of your carelessness. otherwise it is not so easy to steal the passkey of a online wallet of a person.

Bitcoin can't prevent crimes

Also, if you steal physical cash, it is impossible to track the cash and the person who stole it. But if a robber hacks in to someone's wallet and steals the Bitcoins, then it may be possible to track the coins. If the thief is using a coin mixer, then it gets difficult to track, but if necessary resources are available, then it is possible to track the movement of the coins.

Definitely if there is no physical cash, there will be nothing to steal therefore there will be no theft! But if we will use bitcoin as the only medium of exchange in replacement for cash, it only encourages hacking which is also another form of theft. There will still be crime but on a different way.

I guess also need to pay attention to person who use the coins. If only tracks the coins movement without taking action who is using it I guess it is useless. I know it is not easy to track the person with only seeing the bitcoin address. That's why bitcoin will not prevent crime.

Actually running away with bitcoin is easier because nobody can track back where those scammed bitcoin end up and also scammer can remain anonymous while running bitcoin ponzi. Bitcoin is also being used by many drug dealers and in darknet marketplaces so bitcoin is a safe heaven for criminals as well as for money laundering. But there are also lots of legal use cases for bitcoin, bitcoin couldn't be useful to prevent crimes.

Actually digital currency can prevent crimes . Yeah its right. There wont be thieves or robbers. Nobody will hurt anyone for money.Because nobody will be carrying physical currency in hand or in purse. So there is no purpose of attacking or robbing.All money transactions will be digital.Its good. But I am not saying about the cryptocurrencies.I am telling about the usage of internet banking, debit cards and credit cards of fiat currency. But it will be reverse in the case of cryptocurriencies. The main thing is its anonymous and nobody will be able to trace out for what purpose its using or where the amount is send. If it reaches in the wrong hands , the whole world would be in danger.

I guess it could be hard in fact many places are being used bitcoin for legal and illegally.However,looking others point I pretty believe that Bitcoin transactions could prevent crime as it is internet based currency which called virtual currency.Overall if people stop carrying physical cash and start using wallet for transactions there possibility could prevent crime.

If we talk about online transactions anonymously in bitcoin. Of course, these have positive and negative sides. And I think it will help the criminals launder their money through bitcoin. It can't be denied. That doesn't include hacking wallet accounts. Escrow can't be a solution for a maximum of individual cases, because people want to deal directly, without intermediaries.

If a crime occurs, where are we going to report? Police? they will only make you more confused.

Bitcoin will never be a means of preventing crime, it would be otherwise.

yeah let alone bitcoin itself was illegal, in fact there are many crimes that are in bitcoin, ranging from the many fraudulent transactions because bitcoin anonymous and it makes it easier fraudsters committing crimes

I think bitcoin it's not illegal thing, but bitcoin is often used for illegal things. So let us don't blame bitcoin, because bitcoin itself is made to provide the benefits.
So let us keep this digital currency so that bitcoin not disappear just because the people who are not responsible to use it for things that are not good. Thank you

Physical money or digital money, it won't solve anything regarding this matter. If you solely focus on the benefits of Bitcoin as digital money compared to physical money, then it would even offer people extra options to expand their operations to the internet where they buy or sell certain services and drugs. It's no surprise that the demand for deep web products and services is only growing. And exactly that motivates criminals enough to go online as well.

Bitcoin can organize crime. Bitcoin is widespread in countries such as Argentina, where the control over the movement of capital has impeded the withdrawal of the country's physical assets. The ability to move money in digital form opens up a new way for criminals or people who fear detection by the authorities. Now they can transfer the money without any problems.

If you are referring to online frauds and scams as crime,yes this could be prevented If we use escrow but what is the role of bitcoin in all this ?We can use escrow in non bitcoin transaction also and prevent crime.
And what if escrow himself turned out to be a scammer and run away with your bitcoin?

Bitcoin is cryptocurrency which bring crime to growing because bitcoin cryptocurrency is anonymously and nobody cant check your bitcoin wallet so only bad news for trying to stop  crime with  a bitcoin cryptocurrency.We dont need to give any private informations to create a bitcoin wallet ,we can send bitcoin from one to another bitcoin wallet so we even dont need a bitcoin wallet for transactions.Also we can send our bitcoins directly to like example bitkonan from where we can send our bitcoins directly to our bank account.There is also other way but more expensive which I dont suggest to nobody because exhanger fees and risks in transaction like a that  and that way is to change bitcoin to paypal and nobody can also check this transaction,paypal will ask you from where are bitcoins but I heard that they can easy lie them and there will not be tracks leaved in some ilegall business.

People always seem to find ways to get things done, be it legal or illegal. As with bitcoin, it is just another tool that makes it easier for us to make our transactions online and anonymously. There have been a lot who took it to their advantage and made deals that are deemed "illegal" by our laws. Although the blockchain is there, I am not sure if it can prevent or deter crimes from happening.

No. Bitcoin is not meant for that. Bitcoin cant prevent crimes. Infact, its the opposite of it. Bitcoin can be a way for violating the law. Like money laundering. Bitcoin can be use for money laundering because the transaction is anonimous. We cant trace where the funds originates. Theres also a trending malware right now which bitcoin is involved in. The ransom ware. They will hack the important files of companies or individuals and they will ask for ransom. The ranson must be bitcoin.

yes it is true in some cases, but over all i think bitcoin just like other currency and people use it according to their well. i think it is the duty of law and forces agencies to prevent  crimes. the states have different resources, which they can use for stopping crimes in the society and can ensure the security of the people.

No it can't prevent any crime at all, That's the reason why other country before they banned bitcoin for thinking that might gonna be use for crime or money laundering. That's all I know about it.

Initially, criminals think that they can get away and because they think it anonymous and can't be track. But, they are dead wrong. Example is the creator of Silk Road, he thinks trading and selling illegal drugs in the dark market is ok, however he was caught and sentence to life imprisonment. However, I still believe that majority of bitcoin user are law-abiding people. Only a few just manage to take advantage of it.

actually it could , prevent a chargebacks and disputes scam. but of course in other hand creates another problem which i think it's normal , nothing perfect made. it's just depend on how we can handle it all . as long as there a lot of benefit that people can receieve much more than the negative side.

Bitcoin evolved with the purpose of supporting and making the ease of transaction for illegal purposes. Now when gained more popularity, it is trying to overcome its negative part with the advantageous solutions of earning access, investment option and other related sources. Crime happens everywhere, so bitcoin is something which can make things in a much secure manner. This could eventually change, because people who have been using it for illegal needs have started to use it for good deeds.

The point is bitcoin consider as currency so what ever currency can be done inside the web can also be process with bitcoin i cant see any difference when bad guys deal with fiat and deal as well with btc nothing will change the only thing is there are a lots of things that can be done to hide illegal activity and hide for a while. But if government is really serious to chase criminals no matter how they deal with it theres still a way to caught them and let them pay with their illegal activities.

"prosecution future"

I think you guys are missing OP's point here when you tell how Bitcoin is used for illegal activities. OP tried to start discussion about Bitcoin's impact on monetary crimes like counterfeiting, bank robberies, some types of scams like Paypal's charge back, etc. So, in my opinion Bitcoin can be really secure and help prevent some crimes as long as the user makes takes care about security, because there are some vulnerabilities like viruses that steal people's private keys or exchanges and other web wallets getting hacked.

 
no bitcoin could not prevent crime it does not have any relation with crime but in some cases it can be effective becoz like this our money will be save even no one can steal our money from us.

How you can tell bitcoin doesnt have any relationship with crime ?You forgot one thing. Its anonymous . So if it reaches in wrong hands , imagine what can happen. They can use it for funding illegal activities. Thats nothing but crimes. The government or any agency cant track the payment details done through bitcoins , to whom the bitcoins were transferred, to which part of the world its transfered. So its easy for anyone to do any crime. So bitcoin has a direct relationship with crime. But if we use internet banking , like credit cards it will help decrease the crimes.

The main thought of bitcoin is to go digitally but few people are not using it wisely, using it for illegal activities that's why government are not accepting bitcoin. But bitcoin is becoming most popular asset in all parts of the world, even people from different countries are eagerly showing their interest toward bitcoin, government should come forward and make some legal rules on this activities.

In "Blacklist" a TV series that bald dude with connections to criminal organizations uses bitcoin and when he wanted to bribe someone that person refused to work for him because transaction wasn't confirmed.
Do you think nuclear bombs are going to cuddle people when exploded or destroy them? being destructive didn't stop countries to build them.
You should ask if criminals could prevent mass adoption of bitcoin or not?

When you transact a bitcoin to one another, he can only see the bitcoin address of the sender. They don't know whos person sending him. Because of that it can use for illegal transactions, it can use by criminal accept a money from their boss privately. Even in the wallet, when you sign up, you can type any name you want to hide your informations. So for me it can't prevent a crime for transactioning but in cash out it can.

You are right bitcoin is a tool which can play a major role in preventing crimes. Suppose if a person involve in bitcoin and he find it that how much higher is the profit in bitcoin then he will not care for crimes as getting money but he will then start earning money from online.
Unemployment is also reduced with bitcoin because even students can earn money from their home.

There is no relationship between the bitcoin and escrow.
At least it depends on the people's minds. The government will see it about the easiest way for the criminal to running his business or the terrorist try to sending the funds.
The bold is clear statement.

very difficult to conduct transactions always with escrow. I think bitcoin system even easier to make money laundring.
Our task now is to keep guarding that use bitcoin targeted and well directed. so the use bitcoin could be positive.

I don't think that it can prevent crime since bitcoin is widely used and no one ever can know who is the person using it, so it can easily use for illegal transactions. Being anonymous here in bitcoin industry has advantage since it is not easy to hack and you have your privacy as well as has disadvantage when use in illegal.

I think bitcoin can't prevent crime cause Satoshi Nakamoto create it for the anonymity of all of its user,

So even if there are many bitcoin user that use's it for bad things we can't even know who they really are.

It is not thing for to start bad things if a person will say that bitcoin will be used for crimes then he will be at wrong because every user of bitcoin is teaching to others in the way that other only know that it is another type of currency. None of the user promote it with bad words. In my country most of the criminals are uneducated so for them it is impossible to adopt bitcoin but only nice and well educated people are adopting it for their benefits and for the benefits of their country.

It might increase crime.
Since it has just emerged it might be easy
For hackers to hack blockchain.
As many banks and huge industries have been hacked.
But if bitcoin will become an official international currency,
It will be hard to hack.
But there is always a possibility that it will be hacked.

You have mixed some concepts here, bitcoin can't be an official international currency in these years, nor in this decade.

But if that ever happens it doesn't mean that bitcoin will be protected and will be hard to be hacked, if it can be hacked now it can also in the future, not just bitcoin but also other coins can be used for any reason so it can't stop/prevent the crime.

Bitcoin wil increasw only amount of washed money and bring so many criminal actions but it is also good coin for other pupil which are really fair persons.

Bitcoin would potentially prevent some kinds of crime, such as simple robberies, but digital crimes such as hacking, phishing and other forms of fraud would become more prevalent. If Bitcoin became the most used currency, robberies would likely turn into kidnappings and they would force people to send money from their wallets under threat of torture or potentially death.

It likely won't do anything to prevent crime.

yes you were right mate. just because you were told that one of bitcoin's advantage is the anonimity, that doesnt mean you were about to use it directly for bad or illegal stuffs. people must be educatedby the concept of bitcoin so that people will adopt it and use it for their benefit and not use it for doing crimes.

Smart people does not mean they have to make good things, there are smart people who uses bitcoin just to make their illegal activities untraceable. Bitcoin is freedom, that's why some people abuse the freedom they have and they do such illegal things, it's not our control anymore, we just have to do what we think is right.

I think with bitcoin opportunities may occur more comprehensive crime. for example, is like money laundring and also transactions of illegal goods on the internet. This was one of the weaknesses of the current bitcoin. the absence of appropriate regulations causing bitcoin can be used for various activities.

Naw ya dumb fool.  Lookit all the bitcoin crime that's goin' on jist on this forum!  You ain't never seen such a collection of scammers as ya seen here.  I ain't read anythin' in this here thread thet would convince me thet bitcoin is a McGruff tha crime dog crime buster.  It jist ain't so.

Bitcoin can prevent crime but not much if we see how many transactions is linked to criminals and illegal buying. I think that the biggest problem is that a lot of criminals is using bitcoin for illegal trade.

I think yes , It can be possible to destroy the crime from bitcoin only . Because everyone making or doing their work only for money  .
When the bitcoin get accepted officially by every country then it will remain possible to the government to track every transactions clear and for what reason they are transfered .
Second one thing which is also a bug thing for the development of country and hence for world . The tax will be paid by everyone which no one can hide their money like real life practical cash .

There is too much laughter in this thread's title, wtf do you think bitcoin is, a sheriff maybe? or did you think an experimental software could take the justice in it's hands? judge Dredd and stuff lol. now answer my question: Could bitcoin prevent global warming or maybe abortions while you are at it.

I also need a house and a car please tell bitcoins and friends to provide them for me :D.

I don't see any possibilities that it could prevent crime. We have all the freedom to transact online, so we can do anything we want and that includes doing criminal activities.

It will not prevent crime but we can trace crimes.

No, bitcoin can not prevent crime because bitcoins can be used for good and bad everything
depend on users bitcoins what will do with bitcoins,
bitcoin is same with other money although bitcoin can be tracked via wallets and the peoples can see it
but bitcoin is more like new technology for save value than prevent crime.

Yes I almost agree with the comments above, Bitcoin will not be able to prevent crime on the Internet, while in the real world Bitcoin will be relatively safer because transactions.
If it's safe or not an issue, then it's back to the individual self, how strong you are to protect and prevent the crime itself.

Here is an interesting question, and answer it more difficult, especially in view of the fact that many businesses manage to break the law and thus commit crimes using bitcoin. So, how to deal with small to reverse it out of the realm of fantasy.

Any interested persons who will seek only the negative aspects in the use of bitcoin and that all financial institutions of the world and the people who own them. So what about how to fight crime using bitcoin question is no longer relevant.

 Just the opposite OP it facilitates crime.  Have you ever heard of Silk Road?

You mean the Silk Road, which appeared in the Golden Age, and served as a transport route across Eurasia?

   Nothing can prevent crime, that is sad truth. There is too many people who wish to earn a lot without hard work, they turn to criminal because there is high risk of losing freedom but profit is also high with minimal efforts.
   Bitcoin is just a currency, and bitcoin cant prevent people from using this currency for their needs, whether they are legal or illegal.

If the risk of getting away is minimal and the penalties are high, criminals will think twice before committing crimes.
The question is will Bitcoin aid in that? I don't think so unless its adoption is universal.

Nothing can prevent crime, even some of those going after criminals are criminals, like the police that confisticate Bitcoin and stole some of it.

Bitcoin can facilitates crime, that is the negative side of it and that is why it is a darling of Dark markets and even some hackers

Those people who are doing crimes are not those who are seeking for to earn money without any hard work but these are people who do not have any job or work for to earn money to fulfill their needs and these people are convinced by some bad company to start crimes. So I think bitcoin can stop crimes because if a person will be unemployment then he will have a chance to earn some money from bitcoin.

Many situations happening to people who are indesperate of finding money just to sustain their needs have to do crime in order for them to find money.That is so rampant to those country who have lots of jobless people,the best solution is that their must be job for everyone.If someone who is oriented and know how to earn bitcoin and if that person previously indesperate need of money then there's the possibility that his interest really matters on how to earn money in a good way then possibly bitcoin prevent crime.Because it is really interesting to earn bitcoin of someone who is seeking to have an income.

I am certainly not sure about what you are really thinking when you are writing this up ,you mentioned online wallets does that mean online wallet providers ,if it is the other way round then hope you have heard about hacking of bitcoin wallets and exchanges and hope you know that it is a crime where ever you do :P, so the fact of the matter is if some one intends to do a crime he will do it irrespective of the currency he is using .

Assuming you're not being sarcastic or whatever. Silkroad is an anonymous marketplace which often used for illegal transactions such as buying and selling drugs, any illegal goods, and so on which accept bitcoin as a payment method, therefore, it's also considered as a marketplace which could trigger criminal activities among bitcoin users over the world and now have been taken down by the FBI as I've heard from the media.

I have read the same thing too regarding silk road its being taken down by FBI but still there are marketplaces pop out the same as silkroad which means they cant really stop those illegal marketplace because it is really profitable for them.Bitcoin couldnt prevent crime because of its anonymity.

I dont think bitcoin can prevent any crime because it was designed to help the transaction and give the people freedom to used globally, in my opinion actually it increase crime but in a secret way, like example the country forbid the citizen to gamble, but you can easily find bitcoin casino and gamble using bitcoin

Indeed, it can track down criminals because as FBI said Bitcoin is not anonymous.  But tracking down cannot prevent crimes because crime need to be executed before a person become a criminal, maybe the future crime :D
I think this is worth reading : http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-cops-criminals/

I don't think so.
In fact, even in my country, I already heard a few stories how criminals, drug dealers, used bitcoin for their crime.
They bought drugs from the dark web, with bitcoin and sold later in my country.
Bitcoin is decentralized, anonymous, so it's impossible to keep track of criminals.
So, in fact, bitcoin is perfect tool now for criminals.

Crime can be in sense of violence or theft and  laundering.

Case 1 - Violence
Yes, Bitcoin can prevent crime as people don't need to travel with cash. Theft will be decreased. But in this sense too, Bitcoin has no difference than other cashless means.

Case 2 - Laundering
I hardly feel Bitcoin can prevent money manipulation. Rather, its anonymity behaviour entertain such crimes.

it works for honest people, but for those who do criminals, I think it will not work. why? because they sometimes do not want to use an escrow. I've ever seen a campaign (if I am not mistaken) or a service thread asked people to do something without an escrow, then a few people trusted it, and finally it was a scam. so even we have escrows, it does not mean they can prevent criminals.

Crimes generally Ponzi, Hyip and other Schemes have been on the rise for some time now. I believe that  Since Bitcoin makes it easy to send payments faster, Illegal schemes can utilize bitcoin's feature to make their operation smooth and the identity of the Scheme operators are unknown. So I agree with you Crime will still be there despite the fact that bitcoin is Secured, Users need to take security into their own hands and ensure safe use of their funds.

We should really be responsible on our money/funds because bitcoin transactions are fast and secure but anonymity has its own problem which its being used by people to do crime and you are right ponzi hyip and other scam schemes do really pop out every now and then.

Well the error is on the persons side who happen to be overwhelmed by greed and forget about the possibility of scam.  They let greed takeover them making them blind to see the scam that is taking place that time.  So there is no hacking or force being used there.  They just simply giveaway their bitcoin willingly LOL.   But still even with all this bitcoin security, it cannot prevent crimes.

Apparently, majority of the posters before me didn't read the post at all.

If I were buying something face-to-face, you can easily just put a knife to my face and I would probably send you my Bitcoins. Just don't bring too much with you.
You can't track Bitcoins, if you were to use an escrow, the escrow probably won't reveal his/her identity. If they do, the escrow could be in danger if either of the criminals decides to attack him.

Why would it prevent such things in the first place when bitcoin itself is being used by illegal traders and criminals to use in hiding stolen goods and whatnot? Even cash, I don't see why these two would help eliminate crimes when they are the main causes for it.

It has been answered several page back and so the following people are just taking conversation and reacting to the post before them while relating it to the topic in my opinion.  Else if I write something to answer what is in the OP I will be  parroting almost majority of the member who replied here including you.  So basically your answer had been posted several pages back.

---

With regards to the OP Q, Ill be parroting the answer.

It can't prevent violence if people are transacting face to face, but it will if it is done thru 3rd party processor but, it will not prevent a crime if one of the person have malicious intent to scam the person with BTC even if there is an escrow. e.g. paypal < > bitcoin  paypal triggers the chargeback after the successful trade.

Well Bitcoin is not a law enforcement agent to prevent crime in the first place, it is a currency even though the government out of their selfishness opt to see it otherwise. There will always be people who are inclined to commit economic crimes and it matters less to them if it is with Bitcoin or the fiat currencies, these crimes are as old as mankind. If the governments are willing to listen, the best way to prevent crime is to get to the root cause of the crimes and not just the shoots or leaves.

Criminals do find new ways to hide their stash of money acquired illegally and that is not a new thing and investing in bitcoin and other crypto currencies is a safe bet for them as it is easy to store your wealth ,so bitcoin wont prevent or aid crime and it all depends upon the individual users what they make with the money they make.

How could bitcoin prevent crime, I can't see the way. In fact bitcoin had and still have some bad reputation because criminals use it for illegal activities and commiting crime. Maybe bitcoin could be alternative for some people who doesn't have enough fiat money so bitcoin could be alternative income and thus maybe prevent them from commiting some crime like stealing.

An Italian politician has asserted recently that bitcoin is providing Italian mobsters with a legal way of entering the gambling sector.
So, maybe it's preventing crime, but it's not stopping the criminals. Just helping them gain more power through legal moves.
I wouldn't count on bitcoin alone to solve all the world's problems.

Haha bitcoin is not a social program, bitcoin can do miracles. This headline is funny, thread have sense and some logic but again people who wish yo do illegal things will use different altcoins for that. Criminals will always find a way!

I do not know, maybe bitcoin could not prevent it, even bitcoin may increase crime. Well, excess bitcoin make a lot of people to do things that are illegal. but, perhaps bitcoin able to do that, if used in the best possible. it all just depends on the person using it.

Most definitely it can prevent corruption and other shady practices. This starts at the government levels but it also applies to many companies, non-profit ones especially. Factom project for examples aims to create open records for many applications in the real world like birth certificates, etc where you can't really forge or erase them, well if you do you can see it in the blockchain (kinda like a hidden list of changes).

To be honest, we as citizens of the world should really start demanding the use of public ledgers in our governments, there's absolutely no excuse not to implement it because that's our money as tax payers that we are. Company records on the other hand of course should remain private but they could definitely adopt blockchains either way since auditing will be much more simple and fast. That's why they want editable blockchains, so they can cook the numbers behind curtains hehe.

Bitcoin is a lubricant for crime like alcohol is a lubricant for sex.

You can get her to say yes without it but alcohol makes it so much easier.

You can commit online crimes without bitcoin but it makes it so much easier.

i think in some cases it can be helpful to prevent crime. for example if a person is carrying an lot of fiat money in his pocket from one place to another for business or whatever. so there is a a possibalities that some snatcher may snatch the money form him, but if he is using bitcoin and blockchain technology then he is quite safe as he can sent the money to some one online in seconds.

Definitely it can increase fraudulent activities and crime. The volatility and high profit will make people greedy. And as it is not possible for back tracking or claim back payments, people will fall prey in fraud services. But absolutely all this can be avoided, so this is just general assumptions.

Criminals will anyhow make an alternate path for their criminal activities. Even with fiat the majority of crimes taking place though it has got several tracking accessibility. As suggested bitcoin can do miracles but the miracle has a dependence upon the user who is responsible for that.

Lol, bitcoin itself has nothing to do with crime. It's like does fiat money prevents crime? Bitcoin is neutral, it depends how do you use it. Criminals can always find some way to use bitcoin, like criminals can use cars or guns, but there's nothing wrong with cars or guns.

Crime cannot be prevented by using bitcoin because bitcoin is not police authority, it is just use as an instrument to commit crime but in general it is not to be blame for any crime that happen. The thing is, it depends on the decision of the users, they can use it in a right transaction or bad transaction. They should be stop and not bitcoin, and by knowing the simple answer of the question will make literate with what we are fighting for.

It is impossible for bitcoin to prevent crimes as it is firstly known to be used for Illegal activities although it is not made for the said purposes bitcoin is designed for anonymity in the early years and even all the transactions of bitcoin could be traced now there are many cryptocurrency that can used as an alternate for bitcoin and which is totally not traceable.

Remember that no software is un-hackable. There's always a way...

I think you got it wrong. What the OP wants to know is if during the transaction, bitcoin could be the best solution for scammers to keep out and escrows could make it happen. Anyway, I think if the purpose of the thread is for those who has illegal transaction hiring a escrow so the conditions in their trade is being followed, it is possible.

But if the escrow that you find on a big deal is one sided, or probably there is a conspiracy between the other guy, then I think it will just be a mess if the other side notices that it is what you did.

Yup I hope the fetures of bitcoin ( anonymous one of fetures of bitcoin)
don't be used for something illegal is like for money laundering,
because the impact will make image of bitcoin is bad.

No, it increase the crime rate imo xd

Look at credit cards, banks fraud. Everything is registered with personal details, names, age, gender, address and so.

But look at bitcoin, look at all the cryptos, Look at zcash.

Zcash offers total payment confidentiality, while still maintaining a decentralized network using a public blockchain. Unlike Bitcoin, Zcash transactions automatically hide the sender, recipient, and value of all transactions on the blockchain

It hides the sender, recipient, value of transaction.

It doesn't prevent crime i suppose

It is difficult to answer such a question.
Bitcoin is being a crypto currency helps us definitely ,
To keep our privacy and details safely.
But this asset of bitcoins can be misused too.
Many blockchain accounts may get hacked by hackers.
Activities like bribing, gambling etc have increased drastically.
Bitcoin was created to ease the transition but its this feature is being misused.
Bitcoins can definitely increase the scope of trade.
But I don't think it can prevent crimes.

I totally agree with you. Many may think it can reduce crimes like theft etc. And its right too.It can reduce small crimes like theft etc but frankly speaking ,it will only increase  illegal activties such as weapon trades , drug trades etc because there is no proof or evidence.
In my opinion usage of bitcoin will only increase the crime rates.

I think no. Because as you can see the bitcoin transactions is on the web and the transactions and wallet address is still anonymous because of that, So simply the bitcoin is not preventing crime and somehow it the source of the crime because you will be anonymous if you will use bitcoin. So for overall I think bitcoin is not preventing crime. All of kind of money is used at the crime even fiat money so It is normal that bitcoin is use in crime. 

If anything in my opinion it will create crime. Since bitcoin is untraceable people can use it for illegal stuff such as drug selling, etc.

This is a very serious concern

Bitcoin cannot stop or prevent crime just like the traditional currencies. As a currency its function only is to serve as a currency and not on crime prevention. Crime monitoring is not the job of bitcoin technology but on the police department. But it is possible to stop criminality if the authorities will create a task force to monitor and trace the monetary activities of criminals.

I once read an article that drug dealers in jail because of a trade using bitcoin, but many say that bitcoin is a tool for crime because many loopholes that exist in the currency bitcoin as anonymity

They are not loopholes but people use it for the negative purposes.
The OP is asking as if it can prevent scams, well, if you use a trusted escrow service then most probably yes and if you think, Bitcoin can indirectly prevent crimes as people can earn them for their daily needs rather than thinking of doing crimes..

Bitcoin cannot stop crime but with the blockchain technology crime can be identified easily. Though bitcoin is anonymous the technology is unique to support identification and confirm based on the enrolled data. Using the anonymity several crime has got increased through bitcoin for which people believe technology can't reduce crime.

Nothing can prevent crime, there are so many technologies that are able to help us on pursuing criminals but even with all of this technology it is not enough to stop crime and the same applies to bitcoin.

I think it must be, but its not. It is really hard to hack a wallet but there are lot of news about wallets that are being hacked. And I think there will be not only hacking but also murder in the future, it is a currency, people will kill for it.

bitcoin prevent crime? maybe ..
but in reality bitcoin instead being misused as a means of black market

It's not maybe, it's no. You don't even doubt about it. How can bitcoin prevent crime when it's just a payment system or currency as we call it?
The final say will always on the owner of bitcoin and if they decide to use it in illegal activities, that's always possible as the system is decentralized and no one will check prior to the actual transaction if it's for legitimate transaction or not.

In short, it's systematic and automatic, and bitcoin has no brain to control transactions.

Well as for crime it won't stop :) and for the bitcoin it cannot prevent crime as criminals use bitcoin for crimes here in the internet like buying drugs and scamming also it depends on what should you spend on bitcoin people who do crimes they put a bad name to bitcoin >.< this is my opinion :D

I don't think that bitcoin can prevent crime because bitcoin has anonymity feature which criminals can abused because if they do transaction using bitcoin then they can't be traced by the authorities so i think bitcoin cannot prevent crime because of its feature that been abused since then.

I think bitcoin could make crime lesser but could not prevent it. Because there are still many crimes when it comes to trading of bitcoins. Like scamming, hacking, frauding, etc. Which all of those are cyber crimes.

Bitcoin cannot completely prevent crime. It can be kept under control. In the mean while governments can make changes to eliminate crimes if bitcoin would be officially adopted as the main currency of the country.

in my opinion it can not be removed if there are still people who commit crimes. bitcoin not wrong, wrong is the use (people).

Bitcoin cant prevent crime, we use bitcoin for a transaction that is not needing to meet face to face, the problem is, it can be used or is usually being used for an illegal transaction, and it will be harder for the Police, NBI, etc. to track them because they used bitcoin for transaction.

I think there is nothing to talk about any preventation here. Bitcoin can only support crime, because of through bitcoin may be provided many illigle transactions for who knows what kind of activity are going to be used.

how is it possible for bitcoin to stop if it's even used by people to commit crime . it is the characteristic of bitcoin which is not so good although we can say that it is like the money we usually use and even though bitcoin would be safe for people who are going to conduct a criminal transaction still the illegal activity and crime is done .

There is no way bitcoin to prevent crime. Criminals don't need bitcoin to commit crime either. On top of that regarding using crypto for criminal activities, there are far better and more smart to use than bitcoin, for exemple monero. Secondly, in case bitcoin could prevent crime they will  find others ways for theirs dirty act... They are always full of imagination

Bitcoin can't prevent/support any form of crime. It's the people that happen to abuse whatever they can to accomplish their goals. I find it unfair that people and the media always easily point at Bitcoin when something negative happens. I don't really expect any different from the media with their anti Bitcoin campaign, but from a fellow Bitcoiner? Nope. Blame the people and not the tool!

You mean crimes here in bitcointalk forum like being scammed by someone? if it is, then yes, obviously with escrow, we are sure that we are not going to get scammed by someone, but if we are talking here about those crimes like buying drugs, guns, and using bitcoin in other illegal stuffs, then I'm afraid bitcoin can not prevent it just by itself.

That is why Government just pop in in this story, people use bitcoin in the wrong way, that is why the Government get rid of it. They banned bitcoin in those countries they know which are using bitcoin in illegal stuffs and for their own reasons that can affect they countrymen.

This would be very hard. Unfortunately bitcoin is largely being used for illegal transactions and activities and therefore it got to the bad reputation. But everything could be misused and so the bitcoin too and honestly I can't see how bitcoin could be used to prevent crime.

Actually in my opinion it is the other way around.
The bitcoin thing could actually lift up the crime. I am not giving a good opinion but it is the truth.
I have seen so much in the deep web and been offered a lot to sell my bitcoins to them.
This things should be avoided to prevent more crime.
It is just hard though. When they say they will double the price to how much you would sell them you could not just resist it easily.

we are not too hypocritical although we do not know what people does with their bitcoin, but I'm sure with the anonymous nature of bitcoin, This makes bitcoin used for illegal activities.. this certainly

Hats off to your way of thinking. Bitcoin is not a magic wand which will prevent crime. Bitcoin is being used for illegal transactions as well from a long time. Specially in money laundering industry bitcoin is a big hit! So it can't prevent crime in any way.

 

it all happened because of a mistake the culprit. they can not control the use of the money is right. as well as good a financial system there must be a crack / things that can be used by people who are not responsible.

I think money could not be blamed if used for ilegal thing. That is not the money dude, but users who are not responsible use it for crimes. I think it has become the authority of the authorities, let us leave it up to them. The most appropriate way to prevents the crime itself is to start from ourselves to not commit a crime. thank you

I don't think bitcoin can prevent crime, it is because if bitcoin can be use for legal and illegal activities transaction there's now way to resolve any crime situation. Unless if all bitcoin users are gonna use bitcoin for legal or good purposes only, perhaps that's possible.

For me it would help prevent crime because of the ability of bitcoin users to be anonymous, and digital currency is not that visible to human eyes unlike when you're  holding a fiat currency cash bicoin has more advantages. Btc cannot be stolen directly from your direct position, which you compared from fiat currency cash it can be easily stolen like crimes of money roberry or crime related on hold ups.

No it can't never help to prevent any crime via bitcoin. Though bitcoin was an open source, and can be use  for any illegal or legal activities. this could be the reason of some other country of why bitcoin is not welcome to their place.

i don't think if bitcoin can prevent crime but otherwise bitcoin can be used to criminal activity
like money laundry buy some drugs or etc because bitcoin is anonymous the government can't track it easily

Bitcoin cannot completely prevent or eradicate crime, but with the successful blockchain development in all investigation sector can make effective tracking and locking of the criminals in a very short time.

That is not possible, bitcoin as we really all know was very open to anybody, which means whether good or bad person they can used bitcoin for good and bad also. Meaning in that  case, we can see that it can't be happen even there is an escrow it will b useless.

It will be the home of criminals!  ;D
Crime is created by human bitcoin cannot prevent that. It will always be the user who will be responsible for his actions and not the thing that he used.
Now there are a lot of illegal transactions that is done under the use of bitcoin because they know they can hide with it. Imagine this knowledge being passed to new users. It will be a chaos.

True,bitcoin could really be used more on crime because of its anonymity features and you are right there are people who will use it to commit crime since they know they could able to make money and cant be traced if they do something illegal. This is the disadvantage of bitcoin does depend on users aims on how to use it.

Has invention of guns prevented crime or deterr criminals?
Bitcoin can not prevent crimes on its own.It is neither an objective of bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a currency and it can be used for good or bad purposes alike.

bitcoin government precisely in order to bring disaster in addition to facilitate criminals to launder their money and many criminals will take advantage of anonymous bitcoin for selling drugs, etc

That's not a big problem now because in reality bitcoin is not really that anonymous as you think, blockchain is very transparent and the government has the power to verify transactions and that is their job to prevent illegal activities regardless of the means. Bitcoin cannot prevent crime but it is widely used making crimes and only the government can prevent the crime despite bitcoin is decentralized by nature.

A big no. Some of bitcoin transactions are being used in illegal activities only the officials of the government can prevent crime. I've seen in deepweb that you can hire a hitman using your bitcoins

Bitcoin preventing crime i think will be possible.But much risk still just like youre paying a real money for something.Bitcoin i think is anonymous enough to identify if it is used for bad or not.They are invulnerable of traces in making illegal transactions so they can freely make a purchase of illegal things like drugs,prostitution and many other

I don't see any possibility bitcoins could ever protect anyone from crime or prevent it because just like fiat, it is also being used as a mode of money laundering as well as terrorism activities which is shaping a bad image in the views of newer investors that are coming in daily, and most of them get out of this with some profits as this currency has no hold as well as impossible to know how the funds are being moved by whom... Sometimes, this advantage becomes a disadvantage for us too...

I think it is actually preferred by the people involved in these kind of things to prefer exactly BTC for their use,it's not like they would prefer cash and they can be traced,so I don't think BTC is a good example of a prevention,it's rather an encouragement

I believe it is the other way around. Bitcoin is not really designed to prevent the occurrence of any type of crime per se nor should it encourage anybody to commit the same. However, the concern is that due to its seeming anonymity it can be used by criminals to launder money. But to be fair to Bitcoin, any form of money can be utilized by criminals so singling out Bitcoin may not be that all right.

Bitcoin can be used to hide crime transactions, and there is no way to know where the money camed from. Only exchanges able to see where the money comes, with their rules to trade and invest big ammounts, soo criminal has several tiny accounts and stay out of radar always, without the need to wash the money with a regular business anymore.

Yeah, probably many people don’t really know this but the amount of bitcoin is used in the black market for drugs guns and other illegal stuff, is more the amount of bitcoin used in the good way like investments and trading, and that gives a bad reputation for it and makes people think that it is something that is used by bad people only and we as a community who believe in bitcoin’s potential we need to change that.

all depends on the people who use. people who had evil nature must always take advantage of everything that exists. bitcoin basically created as digital currency to help finance our activities. good people using bitcoin for positive activities. while bad people using bitcoin to a criminal act.

Basically transaction on the blockchain are publicly visible, and permanently stored on blockchain, you can discover where bitcoins are allocated and sent, so for this reason i might say that bitcoin could prevent crime, but there are many ways for people to increase it's anonimity in order to protect their privacy like use a new bitcoin address each time you receive a new payment and also use a mixing service, well it's not a secret anymore.

It maybe permanently recorded but the problem is tracing who is the owner of such Bitcoin address.  We all know as long as the transaction does not link the personal info of a person, it is really hard to track.  One of the example is Satoshi Nakamoto.  We are still guessing who he is until now.

At the first place we are knowledgeable that bitcoin is not designed to prevent crimes. Instead it is schemed for transactions to be  ttansacted quickly and efficiently. Therefore theres no assurance that it can prevent crimes especially its anonymity that could possibly be used by illegal doings.

if all bitcoin transactions recorded, I think we can follow the footsteps of transactors, and can prevent crime. but, if bitcoin has been in the mix, we will be very difficult to trace. besides, it is very difficult to know the real identity of bitcoin.

If a person involved will use bitcoin address came from bitcoin exchange that needs an identity verification, chances to track that person is possible. If it will just look at the blockchain record then it will took a deep investigation and lots of time to make it successful and honestly odds are low that it will become a success.

Bitcoin can prevent crimes on some of the ways but also it can also be used to play an important role during a crime. That's how vulnerable bitcoin is because of it's non regulated status.

I think that the use of bitcoin in the form as it is now does not affect the level of crime in any way. Bitcoin is anonymous and nobody wants to change it. So, the criminal will be able to hide his identity

i think not only bitcoin but all kind of coins are used for criminal affairs. i think bitcoin is a very new currency and very little number of people still know about this therefore it may not be used for criminal activities. i think that it is the duty of the government and law and forces agencies to stop crimes and criminal activities.

Think deeper, do you think this criminal will not cash out their bicoins to enjoy it? One can hide his identity with his transactions online but when it comes to the exchange sites, we are required to comply with the KYC and all information must be real before we can be approved and use their services. I don't know with other countries if their government is not strict now, but in my country we are required by our exchange site to comply with the basic requirements, it's like the same process as the bank does before approve your account application.

You can see the bitcoin in two ways .
In one direction bitcoin is fully a open source where we can see every transactions which is making is everything clear without hide anything about the transaction payment in the bitcoin .
But opposite of this you can see that use of Bitcoin doesn't need any verification of documents . Most of the wallets directly available to use without any email/mobile number , the best example for this is mysellium wallet , where you don't need to give your any detail .
So it is only the way of thinking in the bitcoin to prove it bad and good .
For me the bitcoin is only that can kill criminal activities for illegal payment but it need some changes .

How can bitcoin exactly prevent a crime? This is not possible especially if bitcoin provides privacy feature(which is very high). Stop thinking about it. For me that is nonsense bitcoin is a currency not a some sort of police or citizens security

Through the usage it won't prevent crime, but the blockchain contracts management and other technology advancing. Crime investigation were much supported by the technical real time identification of the individual involved into the activities.

Why not ? I believe both bitcoin and blockchain technology could be used to for a transparent transaction system so that we could track where the money flows is occurring. But we need more advanced technologies for implementing it but there are many conceptual implementations are taking place worldwide for such a system.

Wait and watch how blockchain technology will work for preventing crimes in very near future.

Are you sure, dude? bitcoin desirable because it can anonimous although it was not entirely because by the way the authorities can still track it.
Just imagine if bitcoin and blockchain implement such technologies, which certainly is closely connected with the police and the police are part of the government. So we are not directly make bitcoin is not decentralization, rigth? IMO, thank you

I do not understand how the technology of blockchain can be connected with the police. Already everyone knows that the banking system is successfully testing the technology and many banks are implementing blockchain. But I do not see communications with the police. But if there is control over bitcoin, then it will not be difficult to link it to a crime, if someone dares.

Blockchain is very transparent as all transactions involving bitcoin are recorded on it, that way it's easy for the authorities to trace transactions if they will search for it. Of course there are millions of transactions in blockchain and the government will not look into all of that, they will only priorities those transactions that are under in their watch list. Now if you are doing illegal activities, you will surely belong to the watch list.

Hahahah :D but true, this can't be deny ;D at least we cannot by control by them because bitcoin was decentralized, I think that's one of the powers of bitcoin can' t be control by the government or any private sector company. We keep and control our own bitcoin, but to prevent in real crime bitcoin can't do anything for that things due to its an open source.

I would say yes it can and its by looking at the good side of bitcoin by innocent users who just want to make decent income doing some basic functions and even rendering their services online and where distance is no longer a barrier. By offering these services means generating income which if gathered over a period of time could substitute for unemployment and in turn reduce the crime people would have delved into in the course of looking for money to meet basic needs.

According to OP, bitcoin could prevent crime if we use escrow, so no one will be screwing anyone in the deal. It nas nothing to do with real life unemployment and living of people. Instead OP is telling us that when we are in a deal, when we use bitcoin, it could prevent a crime.

Escrow could not prevent a dispute when the escrow starts to become biased, who knows, probably one of the two know the escrow and there is already a conspiracy.

Bitcoin cannot prevent crime. Actually, it is one of the things that a criminal uses. According to what I've read in the past, bitcoin is widely use in the Deeo Web because many illegal activities were done and the mode of payment is via bitcoin. One of the characteristics of bitcoin is that you can use it anonymously. The criminals' identity can be hidden when using bitcoin as a mode of payment in their illegal activities.

This just change the topic by giving the details of what are you pointing at, but a lot of users was just commenting on your starting post I think you need to edit that, because I really think that bitcoin can be use by anyone and it can be use by an ordinary people and by the criminals but even if  transactions are not physical you still will withdraw your bitcoin with fiat that is why there would still be some violence that can occur.

I assert that bitcoin can not prevent crime, that's for sure, and vice versa, I think they will take advantage of bitcoin to do more offenses, because bitcoin is not legal and Not managed, not subject to any taxes, so it will be used as a tool for money laundering, bribery and other implicit transactions, we can do nothing and can not check. Control that. Right now, perhaps a series of transactions like that happen, and criminals are taking advantage of bitcoin to work

No, i think cause btc has a faceless transaction and no one knows who is the one who is paying and who is accepting so there is a chance that people can use btc for wrong purposes as well because people think of every for doing their work and complete it no matter what.

This is in fact the reality on bitcoin world and you are right its not regulated,cant be traced,cant be imposed tax and inable to control then for sure this is the best feature on most criminals would really use and make it as an advantage to commit crime.We cant do anything about it but accept the reality on how bitcoin can be used.

The way you put it here, it seems that instead of blaming the people that abuse Bitcoin for whatever shady purposes, it's Bitcoin that is receiving your part of the blame. It doesn't work like that. Bitcoin is nothing more than a tool, where people are reponsible for how they make use of Bitcoin as tool. There is a general saying; Blame the people and not the tool.

Other than that, people often take the 'anonymity' aspect of Bitcoin a bit too serious. There are dumb people just buying Bitcoin from whatever exchange they are fully verified at, where after that they spend these coins to buy drugs or whatever other illegal goods. From the moment the coins are withdrawn from the said exchange, the exchange in question can follow every single step you set. You can be easily linked to the purchase of illegal goods, where in some cases the exchange can even play all this precious information to the government in case they are forced to do so. In order to avoid all these problems, you should run your coins through a mixer.

In my opinion, I think bitcoin and crime has no relations. So bitcoin cannot help preventing the crime.
Bitcoin's just the currency, like others currencies. You know that, people still use USD but we still catch the high rating crime in every country. And with the bitcoin, we have many types of scams,... and cybercrime.
Btw, if you know the way to stay away from trouble, stay secured, you will be safe in the internet. Good luck ;)

Nope you are wrong. Just take bitcoin address is been legal in your country and your government budget ledger under one btc address. In this case bitcoin will save us from this corrupted politicians. If the amount from one to another we can easily identify it then responsible minister should answer for it. This is main reason still any government staying away the bitcoins. It will secure our taxes from these corrupted politicians and officers.

as 2 factor authentication codes and API keys exits..bitcoin can prevent the crime

i think its not because bitcoin that can prevent crime but the human that can prevent crime. bitcoin is only a tools that could help people to prevent or to help people. but what kind of crime that bitcoin could prevent? i am curious about this and i wonder what crime. bitcoin itself is like two side, positive and negative, and only us that can know about good and bad.

It cannot prevent crime. On the contrary, they can use bitcoin in illegal activities because it is pseudo-anonymous. However, if criminals think that they can it, they will be wrong because it can still be trace where the bitcoin comes and where it will go. Or maybe the criminals will be one step ahead of those local exchanges, maybe they will used fake documents, similar to opening a fake bank accounts and the money will just flow in there and the criminals will just withdraw it.

It cannot and will not prevent crime in any way because in the first place. it became one of the safe havens of criminals due to the fact that you would be nearly anonymous and untraceable when using the said currency. And to begin with, bitcoin carries value so why would it prevent crimes when it is also one of the roots in the first place?

Yeah bitcoin via online help stop many crime as can see it today. As we are join our head thinking and working everyday it prevent many to out over there to do other things that does not good. So for me i think  bitcoin have done a lot of good for many of us.

I don't think so, really.
In fact, I feel that bitcoin is perfect tool for criminals.
They can, for example, buy drugs in the dark web and sell to others without to big risk because they don't need to prove (or show) identity in the bitcoin network.
For police is very difficult to find such criminals.
Recently, I heard such news in our country.
Police explained how criminals used bitcoin and dark web in order to do buy and sell drugs.
Because of such news, connected with bitcoin, some people don't like bitcoin and avoiding us.

I think personally Bitcoin can help alleviate the corruption in bad governance and big companies. As the blockchain is a edger of transactions, accounting can be done on the blockchain in all public service departments so no corruption can be done through public funding and government funds.

in fact bitcoin is a currency just like other fiat currency and it can be used as tool for good or bad activities by the people, just like other currencies that are using for difference activities. my personal view is that i do not think that bitcoin will be use for criminal activities i do not think that it will be so much effective in controlling criminal activities.

I think we can just use bitcoin for many purposes because bitcoin is anonymous and we have a freedom to use it anywhere..
Bitcoin is not only use for criminal purposes if you are member of perfect money  they are some same feature. that can be also use for illegal activity..
I hope that they can realize that they are wasting time since the price of bitcoin is increase slowly..
And more crimes will happens in bitcoin because they are still anonymous.

I don't think so, I agree that there were some illegal and criminal activities carried out and the culprits were paid in bitcoins in the past but it's not bitcoin which increases the crime rate it's the sick mind of people they might use bitcoin today for illegal activities but it will be just a temporary median for them as they might find a new way of carrying on illegal activities without bitcoin so bitcoin is not directly proportional to the crimes.

Bitcoin can't prevent crime because we already witnessed it can't. One of the factors why bitcoin can't prevent crime because it is anonymous and people like scammers can take advantage of that feature and scam other people without worrying about his/her personal information. In my opinion, there is no currency that can prevent crime even though it is bitcoin or fiat.

Bitcoins can prevent crime if they are being used in the right way while if you see right now most of the guys are using it for storing black money and some people for criminal activities. I think if everyone starts using bitcoins then it would be awesome and kill crime as no one can then rob you on roads and a positive impact at the very least !

Bitcoin willnot prevent crime.It has nothing to do with it.If you say about the money sent from one person to other via blockchain transaction and hence it cannot be stolen.Then, what would you say if the bitcoin account was hacked with stolen password and all the savings in the wallet gone?

Its all about the mindset of people who uses bitcoin. If only bitcoin will be used in a positive way. Since bitcoin doesn't need personal meet ups or face to face transactions, it will indeed help to lessen the rate of theft. Especially in the for of cash transactions.

of course not all transaction are positive and not all users gonna use bitcoin in a positive ways there are always ups and downs even in the most perfect system there is, there will always be a human error, and in my opinion bitcoin would not count as a theft lessen transaction because even escrows would do such crime!