Bitcoin Forum

We all know that because of the level of anonymousity of crypto identity by users, it has increasingly being hijacked by criminals for laundry and scam activities. It has become a tool of kidnappers and extortionists that is contrary to civilization.

We all know that very few people are using Bitcoin to pay their bills, but some people are using it to buy drugs or subvert elections. Research shows that illicit activity accounts for less than 1 percent of the overall transactions,of that small portion, scam make up the overwhelming majority of cryptocurrency related crime including money laundering, terrorism, trafficking, or other unlawful activities.

 One of the most widespread but false notions about crypto is that it is mostly used by bad actors for illicit financing: https://blog.coinbase.com/fact-check-crypto-is-increasingly-being-used-for-criminal-activity-and-is-a-haven-for-illicit-856a71dfb399

Why did you contradict your own topic?

Nature of Bitcoin won't allow any third party to be accurately tracking illicit and normal transactions. These estimations are (probably) based on known and exposed activities.  I'd say Bitcoin has been integrated into loads of ransomware and used in place of the gift cards or WU that were mainly used for this purpose. Cryptocurrency are great for money laundering but fiat is far more untraceable.

The thread’s heading is misleading here. The base article (on Coinbase’s blog by the way, which has its viewpoint implications) has "fact check" as a prefix to the rest of the title, and what the article goes on to do is to use that as a hypothesis and debunk it through data. Leaving the heading as is, will lead people to think that that is the core statement here, whilst it’s really the opposite.

Coinbases’s complete heading ("FACT CHECK: Crypto is increasingly being used for criminal activity and is a haven for illicit finance") could be clearer, and is semi-clickbait really, waiting for the reader to read the result of the fact check exercise.

What I just know is that criminals make more use of fiat if compared to cryptocurrencies. All the ransom demanded for by kidnappers in my country are in fiat, not crypto. This is how I believe it is still working in most or all other countries.

Before the first cryptocurrency (bitcoin) was created, terrorism has been so deadly during the time. ISIS, Al Qeada, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Taliban and many others had been using fiat before 2009 when bitcoin was created.

Cryptocurrencies are yet still money, anything money can be used for good or bad purposes, but should not be centralized on cryptocurrencies because fiat is even yet more faulty in design than crypto.

That's absolutely the reason why people are still not adopting cryptocurrencies in some businesses or investments.

People are still doubtful about it because of the news that they are seeing online that bitcoin is involved in many criminal activities like scamming, hacking, fake giveaways, and etc.

We should not tolerate that and report it immediately whenever you see something like that online or in social media platforms.

It's not Bitcoin's fault that we have criminals around, and creating a censorship-free decentralized currency while building it against illicit avtivity is quite impossible with the current knowledge we have.

Also, I think the ones who are VERY capable of stopping most of these scams are the platforms themselves. Google has a very intelligent AI and a lot of humans that could do the work and stop the scams, but instead they'd rather be actively promoting them so that cryptocurrencies just maybe somehow get pushed away by the masses. Once people realise that all those bills they're holding in their own wallets have likely been used at least once in an illicit activity, they'll know that this argument against BTC falls short.

This is very contrary to the infographic provided by a former FBI Director in the public.  That you've shared the link below.  
This has been published because of the campaign of Janet Yellen against Bitcoin which is something that other parties are investigating.

I pity Janet for demonizing cryptocurrency when in fact she knows how government, legalized syndicates, a secret organization does.  I find Janet and the people behind her scared of the threat of Bitcoin producing enthusiast that will soon become uncontrollably great intelligent people.

The governments are scare of intelligent people because their capabilities of replacing them in their positions are too high.

Are you sure with the link that you gave here?

By the way,  did you know how much money foat used for criminals everyday until now?  It is multiple times than crypto used.  Moreover,  we don't use it for crimes,  so does it really give impact?  Never panic and only pay attention on one side consideration.

Fiat is currently been used more for criminal activities mate, many criminals don't even know what BTC is or how it works, remember criminals are if different levels so Fiat is still more or well used

I think you shouldn't generalize what you think you know, and some of them you made mention of are not concrete fact/accurate, this topic as a body, has being reproduced multiple times, it's a reason to Wonder where all the vices the world suffers from caused by crypto-currency, and if we can magically take crypto-currency away will it put an end to money laundering, scams, cyber theft, drugs peddling and more, absolutely it won't.

I think if anyone feels security threatened by crypto-currency or not sure can cut-off any form of crypto-currency, I think the mis-conception is due to ignorance about Financial technology, internet, and security.

Criminals can use what they want since they are criminals and it doesn't matter if they use fiat or cryptocurrency but mostly they use fiat sinfe it's what have been used many times before cryptocurrency became a trend. Until now, criminals still used fiat when they launder money and some will use cryptocurrency but only those who believe in cryptocurrency.

The article is exaggerating since criminals can use either fiat or crypto, anonymosity has actually no sense as they can still hide their illegal acts whatever currency they used, its just we are here in crypto and most of the people think about increasing usage on criminal activities since bitcoin is always hook for that situations.

Maybe we should stop looking on negative side on it since its isolated case actually.

Anything that has value can be used as a means of payment or exchange by criminals, don't make crypto look like the real culprit here when criminals are also using Fiat and have been using Fiat for criminal fundings for years now, either crypto or other it doesn't matter, criminals will never seize to exists

Money laundering, Terrorism and other unlawful activities are more conducted more using fiat currency and it will be an injustice to believe cryptocurrency was increasingly used for criminal activities without proper evidence. According to the research done by Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Acting Director Michael Morell (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5330418.msg56775891#msg56775891), what was said in the article is all false and should be discard
 
OP, I will advise you to read about article very well before posting it, if it an article that the evidence was based on some people believe I will say don't post it or agree with what was writing in the article.

Actually, Bitcoin has been used already before by these bad people making transactions in the dark web and I still believe they're still doing it. Selling guns, drugs, anything that you can think these people are selling it. And I agree, fiat or crypto these people can sell everything and most cases they preferred fiat over crypto because it's the easiest way to earn money without going to any centralized exchanges that could traced them back.

I believe that transactions in Bitcoin can be traced or track back to the users too since it's pseudo-anonymous unless if they were using a mixer to hide their transactions.

It's a bit of a clickbaity title and intentionally misleading the way they worded it. The coinbase article does go into detail and disputes the myth that it is used in large part for criminal uses. 1 percent is a tiny proportion of the overall market and would most likely be in line with how every single other currency is used with regards to criminal activity. I wonder what should be done about the US dollar? The Euro? The Pound sterling? They're all used for every single illicit activity, do they need to be banned? I think governments around the world, as cryptocurrency seems to be sticking around, will bring in more laws that try to track all the entry and exit points where it is being converted back into fiat funds.

Is there any official statics that can back up your claims? Because according to Chainalysis teport (https://www.forbes.com/sites/haileylennon/2021/01/19/the-false-narrative-of-bitcoins-role-in-illicit-activity/?sh=78bc96a63432) only 2.1% of the total transactions volume have been used in illegal activities. And how criminals were running their operations before bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies ever existed?
Besides, bitcoin transactions, for example, are more transaparent than fiat transactions since everything is recorded on a public ledger.
I may agree with you that there is still a lack of regulation in some countries but this doesn't mean it's a safe haven for criminals.

If you read the OP very well, you will understand that the post is contradictory, he first like against crypto but later supported it, the link he included above is full of rubbish and misinformation about cryptocurrencies, that is not surprising me because some people are just blatant critics. But the topic writer later against what is on the link, which means the topic writer is supporting cryptocurrencies but his topic is absolutely not clearly written, he needs to edit the post.

This is just another excuse made by the government who fear increased usage of cryptocurrencies by masses.Fiat is used by criminals from centuries and were there were not any crimes before emergence of Bitcoin and other altcoins?First ever illicit crimes were reported on Silk Road where Bitcoin was used on dark web but there were huge crime ratio prior that period.According to this report fiat is used 800x more than fiat in criminal related activities:

https://www.tap.global/fiat-used-money-laundering-800x-crypto

Criminal prefer getting extortion money in fiat because they can easily trade them in legal jurisdiction because crypto is not much adopted at this time to be publicly traded everywhere.Moreover they do not want to hold as long term holder to gain profits and need immediate cash.Learn about positive aspects of new technologies arising around you.

Cryptocurrencies have used by people at unbelievable growth rate. 5 years ago, people use crypto to transact about $100 millions daily and nowadays it is $10 billions. Figures are used arbitrarily for examples. From the unbelievable growth of crypto adoption and usage for the transactions, it is acceptable and normal if you see same growth of crypto transactions for dark and criminal activities.

Why so serious.

Considering the large amount of money being transacted under the deep web, cryptocurrencies will be used more likely to provide sufficiency and ease of transactions. Also, the anonymosity the criminals will have can save them from being caught. It was quite evident that bitcoin was really famous in the deep web wherein it is being used as payment by the VIPs to avail services or items that are illegal on the surface web. It seems quite normal that crypto is much tolerated knowing that even itself is not yet legalized in the world.

The lie still persists because it has been constantly repeated for a long time and has burned itself into the minds of many.

Nowadays, even high-ranking CIA employees* say that Bitcoin is used only little (compared to the total Bitcoin transactions) for criminal activities and that its use is even decreasing.

* https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/how-an-ex-cia-director-proved-bitcoin-use-in-crime-is-declining-10013473

Bro we know vividly that Bitcoin is not used for fraudulent activities, emphasising or capitalizing that Bitcoin is a source or an avenue for fraud, i stand to dispute the point, and be aware that fiat currency is 90% used by criminals, they use fiat for money laundering, politicians embezzle fiat for project, you can't compare cryptocurrency or Bitcoin usefulness to fiat usage, no their is a lot of differentiation between them.

All of the crimes that happened in cryptocurrency are mostly happened to fiat currency, laundering and fraud are really common crimes that we have in different countries, we cant kill those problems because criminals are always there, that is their only way of making money and now they have seen the potential of doing those things in cryptocurrency as they know that they are anonymous in the crypto world. This is how popular bitcoin right now, even criminals are using bitcoin for their activities.

Some news reports say that Crypto, especially bitcoin, is used as a tool for crime. But I think it is only a small part, those who are too smart to use it for mischief because there is a chance. But behind the negative side there are many benefits that we get from digital currency. So until now, if we draw a conclusion, in my opinion, there are many benefits from the losses that have occurred. So I remain optimistic bitcoin is a future.

All crimes must be everywhere, including the crypto world, now we see that there are many hacks occurring on every major exchange and indeed this is a small part because it is not often that there is only a little off guard and when crimes have an opportunity they will do it.
But I also believe in the bitcoin system, which in the future will be even more stringent in security and this can make it difficult for crimes to break into the stolen funds that will become the currency of the future and with fairly tight security.
But it cannot be denied that every weakness, there must be something most important in us, we can guard against and don't let our guard down.

sometimes I don’t really care about cryptocurrency being used for illegal transactions because I am aware of the level of crime in our society and as cryptocurrency is an anonymous currency criminals will always take advantage of it, but even the centralized currency e.g. the dollar are used for illegal deals, I will say the reason there is an increase in using cryptocurrency by a criminal is that cryptocurrency is mostly referred to as the dark web currency and its transactions can be hardily traced to an individual unless on few occasions.

You said it all
As far as cryptocurrency has value, some people may decide to use it in such activities which will benefit them. @Op don't generalized cryptocurrency as if it is mostly used for  criminal activity. Cryptocurrency plays important role to the society and criminals will also think of away to benefit from it

When people said crypto can't be traced I always laugh, why? Because every buyers and sellers always leave behind a foot print, for example crypto exchange, you use them to swap to other coins but let's leave that aside, before you can get crypto fiat must come from somewhere, oh right , straight from your bank lol 🤣 the, changing crypto to fiat or fiat to crypto is where the privacy got broken

Fiat is been used by criminals more than crypto because things are just easier with Fiat, you can easily track faster when it comes to crypto than Fiat, by the way regulations is coming to crypto but still isn't fiat regulated? Have crime rate reduced because of this? No of cos

The title and content of the post are opposite. Could you please change your title to something like ' Is crypto being used for criminal activities ?'

Ever since 2014 the usage of cryptocurrencies for criminal activities have decreased and trading and investments in cryptocurrencies have increased drastically.
Over the past few years the amount of people trading crypto is growing every day. Cryptocurrencies have changed it's direction quite rapidly.
But yeah I was quite surprised to read that the number is less than 1% now.  :)