Bitcoin Forum

This article states that the World Economic Forum shared that attackers managed to compromise 2 billion data records in 2017 and 4.5 billion in the first half of 108 blaming that Bitcoin could be a big part of it.

Ciphertrace recently reported a $3 billion loss due to cybercrimes and mentioned in their report that BTC still reigns the king of the dark web. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think cybercrime has increased because of crypto?

https://insidebitcoins.com/news/security-experts-tell-why-bitcoin-is-a-game-changer-for-cybercrime/235786

Well it does make sense since the owners of Bitcoin is anonymous unless proven. Not to mention that you could create a lot of wallet now and use mixer in order to avoid getting caught. Fewer steps to transact money and doesn't need any documents to do any cross-border payments.


Tracking transaction doesn't really guarantee the identity of the criminal. It's not easier, it's a tedious job to do since they have to find some connections to the owners wallet first, not to mention that there's thousands of wallets now at this point. It's harder for them to track criminals.

What if the criminal divide the money into hundreds of wallets and use a mixer? it would be hard for the government to track more transactions. Then what after? they need to prove that it was the criminal's wallet.

But of course the criminals are not stupid to just rely on Bitcoin for anonymity, they will use some other tools to stay hidden. Not to mention we have decentralized and unregulated exchange that criminals can use. Also, criminals can use p2p Bitcoin transaction to avoid withdrawing from banks.

The cyberspace is becoming larger and larger each day. There is so much money in there. There are very important data stored in there that may prove to be vital information for some crooks to make some dirty money. Bitcoin is just a parcel of the entire cyberspace, no way it could have propelled cybercrime to different levels, especially with the 100% rise in just a quarter. This is again a poor attempt to generalize and drag Bitcoin into it. As a matter of fact, the mere use of "Bitcoin" over "cryptocurrency" is inappropriate.

Also, cybercrime overarchs a lot of different crimes. You have data theft, online harassment, extortion, intellectual property theft, cyber pornography using minors, and perhaps a hundred more. Why then should we think that Bitcoin, a very minor actor, could simply turn the cybercrime figures double in the next three months? And really, Bitcoin blamed for compromised data? 

Cybercrime isn't getting bigger because of bitcoin.It just uses bitcoin more often.
With or without bitcoin,cybercrimes will continue to exist and blaming bitcoin for this is just ridiculous.
However,this is the main argument of bitcoin haters,when it comes to asking for a mass bitcoin ban.
Banning bitcoin won't end cybercrimes,you idiots. :(

The span of internet is increasing day by day. The average time spent on internet by the world population is increasing as well. So it's no wonder that the cybercrime is also increasing along with it. But that's just a dark side of any technology. But if anyone links it with bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, then it's not right!

Majority of the crypto users are law abiding citizens who are willing to pay taxes and live a life of dignity. Criminals were always there in the society and they are just as flexible to quickly change their modus operandi. Blaming bitcoin for the rise of cybercrime is not a right thing to do!

No. Cybercrime is rising because it can. Because there are more and more devices that can be hacked, traced, and so on. Because there is more and more demand for data that should stay private. Because it's still easy to steal and there are much more sources to get milked. Because... Because...
Crypto is just a tool some hackers use to steal / get paid. That's all. Of course, media will always try to relate unrelated things in order to build up "news". But we should think a little...

Most of the time cyber crimes gets attributed with bitcoin just as a reason, because the government authorities or the responsible authorities can easily escape without a proper description on the crime. Here they just pinpoint bitcoin as the base, this makes the common people easily fix bitcoin as a negative asset that is created for cyber crime and illegal dark web usage.

Even before the existence of bitcoin cyber crimes were common and with bitcoin they got an added source to make it easier. This is interpreted at times in a completely negative manner.

Ah and up to this year, bitcoin is still getting that notoriety of being the king of dark web? Almost all of the cyber crimes are attributed to bitcoin so I'm not surprised by the negativity even though we are still in 2019. But lest we remember, bitcoin is quasi anonymous, so it doesn't make sense of cyber criminals are using to used it because they can follow the footprints. If I'm a cyber criminal, I would rather used privacy coins here.  ;D

the article is poorly written as it is expected of these shitty websites that keep popping up these days. it is just throwing random numbers around and binds them together with some random statements and mentions bitcoin amidst all that.
otherwise if you read each statement individually it has nothing to do with the title chosen for the article. for example the amount hacked that is reported is from the exchange hacks most of which were scams by exchanges not actual hacks. and has nothing to do with the general "cybercrime" that is being discussed in the article.

How much did crime statistics increase after the introduction of the Internet? Suddenly people can scam people in other countries, where they could previously only scam people in their own countries. The same thing is happening with Bitcoin now, because people can now transfer money over borders without the need of third parties like Banks and PayPal and those transactions cannot be reversed.

Did they shutdown the Internet, because the Internet made it easier for scammers and criminals to operate? No, law enforcement just adapted to the new threat and they developed more specialized tools and agencies to deal with it.  ;)

Cybercrime has been very evident even without bitcoin, and we've seen it grow into insane proportions right even before started to boom. It just so happened that bitcoin's model is complementary to that of the activities of these nefarious people causing some statistics for cybercrime in relation to bitcoin to rise up. Also, I don't think bitcoin per se is the primary reason as to why these crimes shot through the roof, and it's just plain wrong to assume just that IMO.

I don't think that Bitcoin is to blame for rising cybercrime. Any invention can be used for good and malicious actions. Weapons can be considered protection and means of killing, money can simplify exchanges of goods and services or be used to finance terrorism. Blockchain can provide financial freedom and allow people to actually own money without being affiliated with a certain country, but it can also be used to scam people more effectively. Not to mention that many companies that were officially registered and investment opportunities approved by the governments led to people losing lots of money.
Cybercrime is rising, because it's easy and not combatted to the same extent as more traditional crimes. Bitcoin is not to blame for this.

It is obvious that criminals will abuse the anonymity it had, we should know this and we will never be able stop this since, well it is anonymous. Fiats are not anonymous but there are a lot of transactions to criminals using that. You know, as long as there are ways to do crimes and do transactions to them anonymously, crimes will be there, cyber crime will be there since let's be honest, there are a lot of other crypto currencies out there that is more volatile than bitcoin, it is not always bitcoin.

I don't think bitcoin increase the cybercrime, some cyber criminal chnage its way of doing transaction, so they only shift not increase, it just some rumor set up by the government to make people hate bitcoin, and this limd of news is the media favourites to create more controversies

It's not bitcoin who causes the increase of cybercrime. It's in the people. If they want to commit crime, we can't do anything about it. They're just abusing bitcoin and making it as their platform in committing such things

This has been discussed here several times already. We all know bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency and it was designed this way to eliminate the middle man (banks) and make payments easier.
Bitcoin was not created to buy drugs or support any illegal activities. It is the people who do it. I know bitcoin makes their job easy since it is hard to trace but if bitcoin wasn't there then they would use credit cards and yet steal the money. If credit cards were not there then they would steal the cash from you in some way and if not cash then gold. It's a never ending journey.
We can't blame bitcoin just because it is harder to trace.

I think doing bitcoin related things might have given an edge to these people who have a bad intention. Same thing, bitcoin is not bad but it is just base on how we use it. Even though transactions are made public, trying to catch these people will still be hard.

Why blame Bitcoin and not the people behind this hacking and slandering money will be the one to be put to blame, There are digital services that hackers can integrate and if a person's Bitcoin wallet was easily penetrated by hackers then that person is not using all means to make his wallet safe from this kind of attacks, Yes your money will be vulnerable online but there are features that have been set for this kind of issue, Bitcoin and blockchain is only providing us the benefit of its services, Why blame it for other peoples wrongdoings.