Bitcoin Forum

In every society, corruption is a part of the economy. We hate it, because we know how it can negatively affect a country in long term. For those who do not really care about politics, you can read this article and imagine how corruption is going to mess up your children’s life and the life of the latter generations.

“Corruption affects us all. It threatens sustainable economic development, ethical values and justice; it destabilizes our society and endangers the rule of law. It undermines the institutions and values of our democracy. But because public policies and public resources are largely beneficial to poor people, it is they who suffer the harmful effects of corruption most grievously.

To be dependent on the government for housing, healthcare, education, security and welfare, makes the poor most vulnerable to corruption since it stalls service delivery. Delays in infrastructure development, poor building quality and layers of additional costs are all consequences of corruption.
Many acts of corruption deprive our citizens of their constitutional and their human rights.”

You can read more at:
http://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/learn-about-corruption/what-is-corruption/we-are-all-affected/

One of the reason I love BTCBitcoinBTC so much is the fact that this type of Blockchain-based currency, at first glance it’s just looked like an anti-corruptors currency for the people. BTCBitcoinBTC is secure, fast, low in fees and transparent.


But does BTCBitcoinBTC the REAL solution for anti-corruptor?

YES and NO.

Yes, the transparent part seems like a bad idea for someone who has the intension of having/doing questionable acts.

But the anonymous part, on the other hand seems like an even GREATER idea for those corruptors.

I love to listen to your opinion about this topic.   ::) ::) ::)

Hail to the Blockchian

What does bitcoin have to do with corruption? It seems to me that the government is spreading such rumors to blame it all on bitcoin and stop its spread. Corruption does not live by currency. This is a manifestation of the unperfect legislation. The fault lies entirely with the government.

Retaining anonymity on the BTC blockchain is a non-trivial matter, especially if you're a person of interest such as politicians may be.

Either way BTC is more transparent than traditional banks will ever be. With traditional banks you have to trust auditors. With BTC the public can audit themselves. No special treatment for government agencies trying to find specific individuals, everyone's on a level playing field. That alone is in my opinion already a winning argument for BTC over traditional banking.

I do not know how to fight corruption with the help of bitcoin. However, with the help of bitcoin, you can avoid paying taxes, laundering dirty money and committing other crimes. However, this can not in any case be accused of bitcoin and other crypto currency. Almost everything can be used for both good and evil.

Bitcoin is the only currency. It doesn't help and is not fighting corruption. It's not her job. It is wrong to blame the weapon is that it kills people. Initially it was created to protect. Charges of crypto-currencies is that they corrupt this element of the information war, governments and banks against a free economy.

Realistically it would be used illegally because any anonymous could use it and it is one of the main reasons why  government are against and making claims that it is some scam or a failure in the future. Honestly I could understand why they wouldnt want to allow transaction in there own country. But economically it could help also to at least increase earnings by a state.

I also have to agree because I don't see bitcoin as something that may combat corruption, but it is a tool that may encourage corruption such as how money is. In ways, it may be used to avoid acts of corruption or encourage it such as money laundering and other illegal activities. It ultimately would depend on the user and their values and morals. It's the same with money - it may be used for corruption but its up to the user.

Money laundering is happening now through Fiat. This is not a problem. In my country the corrupt use bitcoin to launder their income. They declare that bought bitcoins a long time and the present condition is acquired due to the difference in price. But they pay taxes. If they do it via Fiat then everything goes by the Treasury. Which is better?

I dont see bitcoin have the power to influence the mind of politician or any people to not to corrupt because bitcoin is still a wealt in which you keeping it to earn a huge paper money or fiat to be use on services and purchasing. Every time we use the fiat we are paying our tax share to the government thru income tax, value added tax, service tax, property tax and documents tax. Our tax is the source of corruption of our government in which is impossible to avoid as long we are using our local paper money or fiat to live.

I don't think you can fight with corruption by using bitcoins. either cash or crypto, dirty people will be dirty anyway. as far as the mindset is the same, result will be same imo.

People always find a way of botching good things. Bitcoin and blockchains in general are very transparent. Our banking system requires too much trust tbh.

The oly barrier to entry is how complex bitcoin can seem to a beginner lol.

The only solution for corruption is spirituality. Bitcoin is money and money isn't solution for this kind of issue. There are laws that could help decreasing corruption, but they aren't enough to make it disappear completely.

Many people worry about Bitcoin because money laundry and that is a fact. What I think could be done to prevent this kind of illegal action would be several punishment for who practices this. The question is: How to find money laundry enthusiasts?

That is surely very hard and to find them it would be necessary to finish the pseudo-anonymity of Bitcoin... There should be always some way to track the money and all its steps. I think those mixer services would be forbidden for this reason.

This kind of regulamentation would be acceptable, but it doesn't justify Bitcoin users paying extra fees to their governments, lowering their personal profit. And as I know this basic regulamention wouldn't happen because government would never be satisfied I prefer everything continues as it's now!

Bitcoin is neither to fight corruption nor the way to launder money. It is totally dependent on the users ,who use it. Some time in media it is said that bitcoin will be ban because of money laundering, terpor funding, hiding tax etc. But by banning bit coin situation will not be change . They ,who does the crime will certainly  find a alternative way. We have to stop the action not have to ban the tool.

First, everyone should know that Bitcoin is not anonymous, it's pseudonymous - it means that every address is a unique identifier and in many cases it is possible to trace transactions to some point that will reveal their owner. Also, transactions are stored on public blockchain forever, so even if someone successfully hiding their illegal money now, it may be uncovered at some point in the future. This all makes Bitcoin not exactly well suited for any illegal operations, so criminals prefer cash and privacy-based cryptocurrencies. But since Bitcoin is public and immutable, there can be many situations when it will prevent corruption by moving some operations to Bitcoin.

All States will never agree to ban the use of bitcoin at the same time. Those who impose such a ban will lose their income due to the fact that people will withdraw money in that country that do not. I think it would be Japan and Switzerland. Japan is always the first in the world adopts innovations. Switzerland is happy to provide its territory for investments.

I do not think with using Bitcoin the corruption will die,neither this transaction can help the own Government.There will be the banks that will keep all.

Will money leads to corruption or rather exacerbates corruption as we know it? Yes and no...this is depending on the person or people involved and depending on the situation. You see, money -- all forms of money whether fiat or digital plus anything that has real value -- is just a medium of exchange and is considered to be amoral (not moral and not immoral).

Bitcoin is just an instrument and how it can be used whether for good or bad depends so much on the user. It is just like the gun...we can use it to defend the land or we can use to harm ourselves.  Whether Bitcoin can lead to more corruption or not...that question has been answered long time ago because money has had been in existence for so many centuries.

With or without Bitcoin there will always be corruption. Bitcoin can never totally stop corruption as we know that humans can be so creative in finding ways and means to do what we want to do. Limiting the instrument will not stop corruption. Corruption can only be stopped if we all start to be totally honest with ourselves and we all learn to be humble and repent and accept each other's mistakes made in life. 

I will not act as a good citizen of my country and company employee. We live and surrounded by people that we see all our life that leads us in taking the path they’re doing in front of you. Corruption is not only present on our government, big or small businesses have and the sad part is that even our home is infested by it.

I don’t think bitcoin can change it, it won’t be good enough to even straighten the curve attitude of a people to corrupt others. Money has a bad effect to people’s way of survival and that will last until the end of this world.

No bitcoin is not the solution to corruption because it was not design to do. The only drawback is that it is being used for corruption but some scrupulous individual. But don't put the blame on bitcoin. Corruption has been going on in our society for centuries. And the argument that bitcoin is being used for illegal means like drugs or corruption is flawed. Check the fiat system. Even the dollar bill is physically tainted with cocaine/heroine.

Bitcoin is not a place for money laundering but because of its high security, illegal activists may choose it as a place to wash money properly. Because it is a virtual currency and no one manages it so they will use it to buy large amounts of bitcoin with the money they earn illegally but no government can intervene. Nowadays, investors in the field of cannabis through bitcoin do so without tax or the state controls you.

In my country many officials actually bought bitcoins and now to tell about what they did in 2010. Only if desired, they can be easily accused of fraud and tax evasion. No one wants to do. The government spreads the rumor that we need to ban bitcoin due to the fact that they launder money, only to deny doing it to ordinary people.

No I think bitcoin and corruption are two different things. Corruption cannot be stopped with bitcoin rather many people think that bitcoin will cause of more corruption. Corrupt people will invest their illegal money in bitcoin because they cannot use such money anywhere in the world otherwise they will be caught by the investigating agencies. Therefore they thing that bitcoin is the safest way to invest black money.

I see no way for Bitcoin to fight corruption. I mean, sure, every transaction is recorded and transparent, but they're also all anonymous to a degree with no regulating body. It would take a hell of a lot of resources to pin down an address to a single person, so a large scale anti-corruption operation would take ages. The same reason is also why it's being used to launder money.

Blockchain technology is a different story though. Governments are already looking to use it to improve convenience and transparency. Dubai is planning on doing this with their land registry to eliminate the need for their citizens to visit physical offices, leaving the process with less room for corruption.

In my opinion,All big players of the market agreed on the publicity of information and they are ready to give a special information to investigative authorities if they doubt in any transfer,Just imagine,In another situation all goverments will ban bitcoin,because criminality will be the main problem.despite this,I think there is a great balance and the price of bitcoin is rising day by day.By this balance, it’s much easier to investigate crime and nowadays,it has  a great role in justice.

There have always been scammers and corruption, and this is not a problem of bitcoins, it is a problem of society and countries. If you look at this side, anonymity in the network bitcoin is not the best thing.

Both ways because it can be used in that perspective.. But it doesn’t really happening on bitcoin or cryptocurrency alone because for a long time this practice is been done on fiat currency.. I can’t clearly state on what matter cryptocurrency can fight corruption but we can work it out soon and money laundering is a really big problem to our society now and I’m sure this platform is already abused by those criminals..

It would depend on the person who uses it. It can be use to fight corruption because of the transparency of transactions but the problem with it is the anonymity of the one who uses it. If however, government would use it, I am sure there would be records as to who are the one who use the addresses so that it would be easily identifiable as to who is responsible in case something happens to the funds and the auditor too can do something about the policies and procedures so that they can easily trace the flow of transaction.

Money laundering would be easy too because of the fact that the people behind the addresses cannot be determined easily. A lot of bad publicity about bitcoin is connected to money laundering which we cannot deny is possible but money laundering can be done using other means too like cash so they cannot just easily spout about bitcoin being bad money because if a person intends to do something illegally, he will do it whether it would be bitcoin or cash for that matter.

To launder money using bitcoin is easy because the government does not recognize bitcoin. In my country many corrupt officials use bitcoin in order to legalize their income. They declare that bought bitcoins in 2010 for a few hundred dollars and now become millionaires. The tax on capital gains we have about 5%. Paradise for legalization.

Bitcoin will prevent any fake projects because they need to include the details in the blockchain so yes it is a very good way to fight corruption. Every transcations in the government should be like that. The money laundering can still be avoided if every exchanges and trading sites will cooperate.

I kind of agree that it will fight corruption but not in the same way. If a corporation would invest in bitcoin, then they wont need to make high prices,they would even lower the commodities and if a government would want to invest in bitcoin,their is a high chance that they will have another source of income  and they could lower taxes.

I cannot suggest it will fight against corruption since there is no system that can provoke them as long as there is corrupt person in the government it will remain this kind of illegal actions.
It is great opportunity use bitcoin for laundering system to help some people to start something new in their life.

Lol! Who will reduce taxes? This will never happen. the government will not use bitcoins. They cannot be controlled. The tax the government uses not only to serve the life of the state. It seems to me that tax is used to ensure that people always felt the lack of funds and was dependent on the state.

I think in this case bitcoin do both things in our society. The company of bitcoin builds a systemize and well-organized process in all aspect wherein they can lessen the conflict of interest by some individual which leads to no corruption. Another thing it is great launder in money to provide assistance in some fellowmen.

Bitcoin is not really anonymous, those who get involved in negative activities are caught immediately with the help of the blockchain. This time launderers and criminals think twice before they use bitcoin as system of payments. I guess They prefer other altcoins to secure their anonymity and maintain stealth status.

"Immediately" is a bit of stretch. Nonetheless, blockchain analysis is evolving fast due to increasing interest by
law enforcement and tax offices all over the world.

Regarding the original question of the OP:
Why would anyone want a corruption-related transaction on an immutable, public ledger? It really makes
no sense. I guess when Bitcoin was in its infancy it was suitable for this purpose, but nowadays there are simply
more anonymous and secure options available.

The main income from illegal activities of criminals get into Fiat. Money laundering is the term used by corrupt officials in order to gain access illegally acquired money. There are many law enforcement agencies which must identify the offender at the time of the crime. Then find any money is very difficult. Attempt to prosecute bitcoin is a hidden desire to leave everything as is.

Its possible but not actually an easy job to do for sure and thinking off that those corrupt people will surely make the best possible move for them on not to be traced.The thing here is that they do able to deposit corrupted money by means of fiat exchanging to bitcoin which would really able for us to track up if someone would really enforce or investigate. Fighting corruption would be somehow hard specially if it already involve on online matters specially on anonymity it would really be a tough job for investigators.

That's why my government decide to make a new regulation on 2018 and mostly will forbid bitcoin for main transaction.
Personally I have no problem if I can't purchase good with bitcoin, but as long as I can still trade, I will adapt with government's regulation !

the bitcoin depends on its owner it can be a way of money laundering that c sure since it is untranslatable but in no case it will be a means of corruption because the coruption is human she has no report with the bitcoin

We already know that bitcoin is not really anonymous. However, criminals or those corrupt thinks that it is the best way to used because its very easy but you can be followed and tracked in blockchain unless they do hide thorough TOR or mixing services. But the thing is once the money goes to a exchanges because you need it to convert it to FIAT then you can be caught. It will take time for investigator but they will if they decided to really hunt those money launderers. But as far as bitcoin fighting corruption? I don't think it applies to bitcoin. In addition, if criminals or money launderers wants to really hide their identity, there are coins out there that they can really used. (Monero, Zcash).

This would really be their problem which they would really be stuck on cashing out those cash for sure because if they would decide to withdraw on bulks then they would really need to go on KYC process which is really a risky thing for them but they can actually make withdraws on smaller ranges though but would really be a tiring thing for me. Bitcoin to fight corruption? I would rather believe on reverse thing which bitcoin can really be used on corruptions than on preventing it.

I don't think it will help in fighting corruption in any way because nobody can find out the names and original identity of any person due to anonymity transaction. Your only identity is your BTC wallet address. This address comprise of both numeric and alphabets (eg: OpzxR2856Ljk).
Moreover, Corrupted persons can use BTC as a money laundering tool to convert their FIAT into BTC.

You are right people would rather hide themselves because bitcoin cant really be tracked up and just being said above I do rather see this thing on negative way when it comes on helping to launder money and would be a good thing for corrupting money instead on helping to avoid it.  This is the negative thing on bitcoin this is why government do really have negative impressions and reasons why they do become strict to accept bitcoin.

When it comes to financial assets, you can't really escape the negative part( money laundering, corruption)

Almost every monetary model is hit by corruption. Bitcoin emerged from darkweb, house to illegal market. Many such acts were tracked because of transparency of transactions on Blockchain. But the rate isn't that high. You can easily escape authorities through mixing services or TOR. I read recently that rate of use of Bitcoin in darkweb has reduced significantly because of the presence of more secure and anonymous currencies like Zcash, XMR etc. On the whole, cryptocurrencies don't really help in bringing down corruption or money laundering.

Today we have seen people use the most improvement in technological for both good and bad. Even cocaine is being used for medicinal purpose while its destroying some other people lives across the world. Another is the nuclear plant while its a potential for some countries, its a weapon of war in other countries. The same thing with bitcoin and even more importantly the blockchain technology which to me its the best technological advancement we have come to see if its harnessed to its fully potential.

To fight corruption would be a very good thing I just imagine how magnificent its going to be to see budget being implemented, taxes paid, payment to contractors, results process, public polls, elections, census, shipping lines, filing of returns, payment of taxes and everything is so public that can be traced I wonder how corruption will not be defeated to a large extent. For those who chose to use it for negative things, we hope to change their ways.

Additional to this I like blockchains mechanism, criminals are unlucky because blockchain is the permanent record of all things and cheaters should back off. Blockchain will surely put a lot of bad people to prison.

I would agree if bitcoin is a great way to launder money. The bitcoin transaction is easy, safe, and only its users know. If the mafia are trying to launder money with bitcoin, it will be very easy to do. The reason is what makes the government so far still doubt the bitcoin.

The question is , is bitcoin and the government are same ? No. They are different entity, with a different function and different benefits. I dont think bitcoin has a connection to the corruption or laundering money on the government because first of all, bitcoin is a personal investment.

The reason why some governments are setting up some cryptocurrency regulation in their country is to prevent any unlawful use of virtual currencies by some elements that deals with money laundering, drug trafficking and other illegal activities. Any corrupt officials can easily use the cryptocurrency to pursue whatever their plans. 

Bitcoin may be a way to launder your money but it is highly risk,if you want to buy bitcoins you need to buy through the bank transactions so if you deposited your money into your bitcoins into bank then you will get caught. :P
But you can still launder your money if you can find a bitcoin trader on your local you just pay him as cash and you can buy bitcoins.

And bitcoin may leads to serious corruption because it is fully anonymous so no one can find who is having bitcoins so regulation is also important but is highly impossible to regulate the bitcoin also.

Fight corruption? I say yes because bitcoin can utilize transaction and I see that the blockchain is weel inform than other traditional banks while money laundering is a great way to use bitcoin but there's a limit if you withdraw a lot of money in a banks.

Even if different government around the world choose to ban bitcoin, the technology behind bitcoin does not make btc a good platform to host any illegal activities like corruption or money laundering because the blockchain will always have the evidence on the public ledger which cant be taken down in case one tries to cover their tracks.

No, you don't. There are many ways to buy your coins with cash. Localbitcoins and facebook are among them. You don't have to do it yourself if you're a public person. You can always send a friend or a family member to do it for you. That's all you have to do when you have cash that you need to launder (a typical dirty money you were bribed with).
If you have been using BTC (selling illegal stuff) it becomes much easier, you just have to sell for fiat, move it to your bank account and pay taxes. That's it. You got some clean money that you can buy a house with.

Even though all transactions are on public and can be seen by anyone but still cheaters and money launderers do have still ways or chance to erase their transactions trails by making use of mixers. One mixing or even twice would really give already on the anonymity that we do seek up. I don't know if its still traceable or not but I'm sure it would really takes time for someone to make such thing. Fighting corruption is either hard on bitcoin or even on fiat still.

Selling on places like Localbitcoins or Facebook opens up a whole bunch of
potential dangers/disadvantages:

-getting robbed / kidnapped
-getting counterfeit bills (really good counterfeit bills are not easily distinguishable from real bills)
-making a deal with a law enforcement / tax authority officer
-hard to get rid of really large amounts
-you possibly have to pay vig, which will be more expensive than trading at an exchange like Bitstamp
...

Nevertheless, this might be an option if you take security seriously (e.g. meet in a bank and check
the bills for authenticity using a bank teller).

Most of those things that you're talking about can be mitigated with ease. You only need to possess the most basic wits and understanding of the society and law.
Getting robbed/kidnapped? Take a friend with you, meet in a crowded place, like a mall, restaurant, cafeteria, even a gas station as they have cameras there.
Counterfeit bills? Make the seller withdraw from an atm in your presence or go together to a bank.  A bill that passes through the tellers hands + uv light is a good enough copy for you to be able to risk it. If they were fooled, typical store clerks will be for sure.
Law enforcement? Last time I checked selling BTC was legal and it also means selling BTC for cash is legal. You are required to pay taxes after the transaction, not before.
Large amounts? It's like with everything in quantity. If I tell you to sell 10 luxury cars you'll be struggling with it for weeks.
I have no idea what vig is. The only thing that comes to mind is that insurance company from Austria...

Everything has 2 sides, one good and one bad. Now it depends on a person if how he wants to use that thing. Bitcoin is also like that. It wasn't created for any bad purposes, but we all know it can be used for evil things like any other currency or maybe even in a better way, but just because of that, we cannot say it helps grow corruption because it is us who let the corruption spread, not a currency or any asset.

What I have understood is that people involved in bitcoin are really too shady. They want to remain anonymous and want to maintain anonymity of their funds too. So with advent of blockchain corruption would surely increase. As tracing out these rats would become even more difficult due to lack of identity. Even the so called transparency these days can be easily tackled using various mixers and blenders which will end your trail in such a way that even the best computer expert can't hide it. So I think blockchain gives a lot of advantage to the corrupt people and promotes bribery.

I couldn't agree for more which is actually true regarding on this matter because a single use of mixers will make things changed on making your transaction to be more untraceable. Imagine how they do mix up address to give another new output and imagine what work need to be done even tracing a single address transaction.

I concede that you are right that most of the risks that are associated with trading
on Localbitcoins can be mitigated if you are cautios.

Vig is short for "vigorish", which is a term mainly used in reference to gambling or interest on loans.
In this context I wanted to express that you are paying a fee of a few % for trading P2P, while
a trade on an exchange like Bitstamp might only cost you 0.25 %. Meanwhile, many people on
Localbitcoins charge 10 % or more on top of the current exchange rate.

It depends on how you apply it. I'm dreaming of using the blockchain for election, full transparency and legitimacy.

That would be a good option too but i do believe this thing would be prone on being manipulated or fraud votes. I dont know if a certain project would able to patch up the flaws on this kind of ideas but im hoping the same thing too. Going back to topic bitcoin isnt really avoided to be used on laundering money because it is anonymous which is the perfect recipe on hiding transactions and keeping out those corrupted money.

I choose "Yes"
Yes, If Bitcoin Will be used legally and not corruptly then Bitcoin can be The Way To Fight Corruption for Economy Progress Because Bitcoin can Help Every Individual of The Respective Country. And if Everybody Is Rich Through Bitcoin  Then There will be no corruption. (hope so) we can be a cashless society buying Things in any merchants through crypto currency Transaction, that should Be transparent so that every Liquidation of Tax should be visible.

I'm iffy on if pushing the citizinry into the cashless society is a good idea from a tyrant perspective. Yeah, you'd know everything the people do with your money, but you also effectively make fiat the same thing as bitcoin in the average Joe's eyes, making bitcoin adoption alot easier. Especially if the only private or superior products are all accepting bitcoin.

I think Star Wars has a quote for this. Something about a tight fist and star systems leaking out.

In my view, I do not see bitcoin extricating the phenomenon of corruption in human society. In fact, corruption is endemic in human life. It has been with human from inception of the world, that cheating has always trived.

Things like self aggrandizement and personal enrichment has always been and there is no correlation between bitcoin and eradicating of poverty.

Meanwhile, everyone can not be rich with the  creation of bitcoin because, it is not everybody that get to be informed about bitcoin nor believe in it.

For me I see bitcoin is the way to fight corruption. But money launder I believe it can be happen, because bitcoin transactions government can control and can track the detail of the sender. But actually bitcoin is smart way to invest for the investors.
Bitcoin can make people life better, because is long term investment.

I don't see the need to connect bitcoin with corruption. Corruption is done by a greedy person, meaning it's an action done by a person or group of people. Bitcoin won't be able to win against corruptuon because it has nothing to do with it.

I don't think bitcoin has anything to do with corruption as it is all part of the government sayings and there plan to demolish bitcoin at some point. But , saying about money laundering through bitcoin ,i think it has been widely used by people in different countries. As bitcoin is untraceable the people find it as a good way of laundering there money.

I don't think that we can involve bitcoin with this "corruption" and such or even just connect it. As people uses this personally. Some government banned the use of bitcoin, so I don't think that it will help in fighting corruption. Also, I believe that if people wants to do something illegal they would always find ways. Even if the government will legalized the use of this and do it to avoid corruption, people who are greedy enough will do illegal things and corruption will take place. But maybe it will also depend on how we use this and what actions the government will do.

Bitcoin can go both. It depends on the one who use it. Bitcoin can be a way to fight corruption if they wanted to, but it may also used to money laundering.

Bitcoin has really nothing do on fighting corruption infact it would rather add up the case of corruption due to its feature which is anonymous and untraceable.Same as you said that's why they do really plan to demolish it because they do know its capabilities and possible things to happen when people do have knowledge regarding into it.


Sad fact that people are entirely different on decision being made and bitcoin was just really a tool which is capable on doing such things.