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Economy => Economics => Topic started by: Hydrogen on December 08, 2021, 11:14:20 AM



Title: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Hydrogen on December 08, 2021, 11:14:20 AM
Quote
CIA Director William Burns said the agency has "a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrency" on the go.

There's a long-running conspiracy theory among a small number of cryptocurrency enthusiasts that Bitcoin's anonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, was actually the CIA or another three-lettered agency. That fringe theory is having a fresh day in the sun after CIA Director William Burns said on Monday that the intelligence agency has "a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrency" on the go.

Burns made his comments at the tail end of a talk at the Wall Street Journal's CEO Summit. After discussing everything from the possible Russian invasion of Ukraine to the challenges of space, someone in the audience asked if the agency is on top of cryptocurrencies, which are currently at the center of the ransomware epidemic that U.S. officials are attempting to get a handle on and stamp out. Here's what Burns said:

Quote
"This is something I inherited. My predecessor had started this, but had set in motion a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrency and trying to look at second- and third-order consequences as well and helping with our colleagues in other parts of the U.S. government to provide solid intelligence on what we're seeing as well."

This is hardly surprising given the focus ransomware is getting from every corner of government. This year, a ransomware attack targeting a pipeline company led to a shutdown, panic buying, and a gas shortage in several states.

Cryptocurrencies "could have enormous impact on everything from ransomware attacks, as you mentioned, because one of the ways of getting at ransomware attacks and deterring them is to be able to get at the financial networks that so many of those criminal networks use and that gets right at the issue of digital currencies as well," Burns said.

Crypto-Twitter had a field day with Burns' comments, with varying degrees of seriousness, which proliferated via—what else?—a tweet from the frequently apocalyptic, "Tyler Durden"-authored blog ZeroHedge.

"damm the CIA made Bitcoin smh. Pack it up it’s over," said one tweet. Another tweet by crypto influencer Crypto Cobain jokingly ranked crypto projects by their likelihood to be CIA plants. (Most likely memecoin? SafeMoon.)

Some posters even took the opportunity to say that even if Bitcoin was a CIA plant, it wouldn't matter.

"If it came out (and was proven) that Bitcoin was created by the CIA, it wouldn’t significantly diminish my bullishness. The only thing it would change is my view of Satoshi. But, crucially, Satoshi is not Bitcoin. That connection was severed years ago," tweeted Spencer Schiff, who is a Bitcoin promoter and the son of stock broker and anti-crypto advocate Peter Schiff.

Of course, (almost) everyone is just having a bit of fun with the joke that the CIA created Bitcoin. But the CIA itself seems pretty serious about its current activities in the crypto space, which no doubt reflects how troublesome ransomware attacks and the like have become.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyp7vw/the-cia-is-deep-into-cryptocurrency-director-reveals

....


Finally a serious remark from a credible source on the topic of whether intelligence agencies like the CIA are involved in cryptocurrencies.

I doubt they were involved with the initial development or deployment of bitcoin. It took many years for regulators and establishment personnel to take cryptocurrencies seriously. It seems they have finally decided to get serious. As is witnessed with crypto regulation being passed in recent US infrastructure bills.

Would anyone care to take a guess as to which recent cryptocurrency projects the CIA might be involved with.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: The Sceptical Chymist on December 08, 2021, 11:26:30 AM
Would anyone care to take a guess as to which recent cryptocurrency projects the CIA might be involved with.
Jesus....who knows?  It could be any of them, though I'd be betraying my ignorance about the origins of some of the altcoins out there if I were to guess--Ripple is the first one that comes to mind, followed by Tether.

By the way, here and there for the last few years I've been posting my thoughts about whence bitcoin was suddenly unleashed upon the world, and government agencies have been in my mind whenever I've posted about that.  It just seems extremely unbelievable that a human being could fly so far under the radar while creating something as huge as bitcoin that no one, not even any of the law enforcement or intelligence agencies around the world have been able to identify him.  And you bet there would be a lot of interest in doing so, even if it was only from the IRS.

The alternatives are that 1) Satoshi isn't a single person, but someone working for a government (probably the US), or 2) The government has already gotten to whoever Satoshi is and has recruited him for whatever cryptography projects they could buy him off for.  I suppose there are other alternatives, but those seem the most likely to me.  Granted, I wasn't around in the early days and didn't see Satoshi's posts or know any of the original people involved, so my perspective is completely skewed--and obviously I know I could be wrong about my theories.

But don't any of you think it's weird that Satoshi apparently couldn't be traced, that he vanished without a trace while still leaving what's presumably a digital trail behind that should lead investigators to him?  Oh, by the way Hydrogen: I'm not surprised whatsoever that the CIA is involved with cryptocurrency. 


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Wind_FURY on December 08, 2021, 11:28:21 AM
Quote


Would anyone care to take a guess as to which recent cryptocurrency projects the CIA might be involved with.


I don’t know, but someone in Twitter said that, “If gun pointed to my head, and forced to say which Bitcoin organization/project/company the CIA is involved in, I would say Blocksteam”.

He didn’t give a reason.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: dkbit98 on December 08, 2021, 11:46:47 AM
Would anyone care to take a guess as to which recent cryptocurrency projects the CIA might be involved with.
It's probably ethereum, because it has 70% premine, it's mostly run on AWS and other cloud servers, and it is one of the most popular cryptocurrency, that is perfect conditions for them.
They are probably running or they infiltrated many fake dex exchanges like uniswap and they are collecting all information, IPs and addresses.
This is just my theory and I can't prove any of my claims, but it's likely they would be involved in something where most people are.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Wind_FURY on December 09, 2021, 08:48:04 AM
Or it's also probably Craig Wright and his social-engineering attacks against Bitcoin, the community. Where does he get his money to fund all those lawsuits? Follow his paper-trail. If it's a web of confusion, then he's hiding something. Tin-foil hats on. 8)


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Mauser on December 09, 2021, 09:05:16 AM
From what I read about the CIA in the past is that they use all kind of shady ways to fund their clandestine operations. Engaging in large scale drug trafficking in the past is probably the most famous one. That is why I am not surprised they are involved in crypto currencies. To be honest they could even run a few of the well known projects. Acting behind closed doors and using famous entrepreneurs as their public face is a speciality. I don't think they worry too much about regulatory aspects since they mostly operate outside of the USA anyways.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: davis196 on December 09, 2021, 12:32:26 PM
The CIA is "deep into" everything.I would be surprised if the CIA actually decided to stay away from the cryptocurrency world.
I couldn't care less about the crypto projects,that are launched or influenced by the CIA.
AFAIK,The CIA is a conglomerate of private intelligence companies,which are hired as contractors by the US government.However,I might be wrong about this.
There's nothing we can do,in order to stop one or more of these private intelligence companies to get involved into the cryptocurrency industry.
Just try to reveal less personal data,when registering accounts at crypto websites.
Using VPNs and Tor most likely won't help against the CIA.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Lucius on December 09, 2021, 01:56:41 PM
Does anyone believe that the Central Intelligence Agency would do something like creating Bitcoin? They are not intelligent enough to do something like that, and you also need to know some historical facts that say that Gavin Andersen went to the headquarters of that agency in 2011 to give them a lecture on Bitcoin.

I want to get this out in the open because it is the kind of thing that will generate conspiracy theories:  I'm going to give a presentation about Bitcoin at CIA headquarters in June at an emerging technologies conference for the US intelligence community. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6652.0)



Would anyone care to take a guess as to which recent cryptocurrency projects the CIA might be involved with.

If the people from that agency deal with cryptocurrencies, then it is obvious that they do not have anything smarter to do, because it is difficult to fight terror and there are almost no serious terrorists in the world. It is my opinion that whatever they do, nothing good for all of us will come from it.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Argoo on December 09, 2021, 02:10:22 PM
Intelligence agencies are forced to deal with and investigate cryptocurrency, as well as everything connected with it, since it is also used by fraudsters, terrorists and other criminals. In order to solve crimes, you need to have a good knowledge of the technologies and methods used by the criminals. Therefore, I do not see anything unusual in this. This is part of the necessary work of the special services. What the special services are still doing with the help of cryptocurrency, we still will not see in available sources and will not hear from officials.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: el kaka22 on December 09, 2021, 02:30:04 PM
It is clear to me that we are talking about something not so obvious. Sure he might say that there are number of projects regarding this space, and that is alright but about what? I mean crypto is a vast space and "projects" doesn't make it any less vague neither. All in all it looks like they might be just a bit interested in it and that's it.

This doesn't narrow down what they are doing about it neither. Are they doing something regarding money laundering? Are they doing something regarding drug business? Are they looking about terrorism financing? What are they are really looking at?

I do not know what the point of it all is, but I know that "projects about crypto" is not really news worthy at all, what those projects are and what they are doing with it is the most important part of it all and without knowing that then we have nothing in our hands.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Sterbens on December 09, 2021, 02:46:15 PM
Interestingly, there is indeed activity from the CIA that shows links to cryptocurrencies so far. Given the CIA is an institution that is closed in carrying out its activities. Perhaps if it is examined further, it will produce various assumptions, however, this intelligence agency is quite difficult to dismantle if there are no leaks from former high-ranking officials who have served in it.

From the statement of a William Burns we get a little leak, and of course it can be justified. How about Tether? It seems more prominent to be associated with them, who managed to escape the charges and disappeared until there was no further clarification regarding the ending of Theter's case. Is this all starting to get into the realm of conspiracy, ah I will not enter that kind of thing.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: kryptqnick on December 09, 2021, 05:21:38 PM
CIA having a number of crypto project and Satoshi being a CIA agent/product is far from the same thing. Given how cryptos are often involved in crimes and also offer a way for the CIA itself to finance whoever they want with way less oversight than with banks, I'd be surprised if they didn't investigate and employ cryptos in their operations. I think it's more than likely that one of numerous altcoins was made by the CIA, but I don't think Bitcoin or any other top-10 crypto is among them.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: fiulpro on December 09, 2021, 06:15:06 PM
Why wouldn't they?
It's extremely easy to not only track the person, to track the transactions but at the same time, you can monitor every cent thats sent or recieved. It can not only be used against dark market but they can also control tax evasion. I do not think that bitcoins was their project since time and again they do so much to ban it.
Considering other cryptocurrencies they *might* be powered by CIA or they might be dipping their hands in the flowing river soon, but at the end of the day, I do think that it's not entirely bad since this not only give cryptocurrencies a major indirect support and a positive point but at the same time, it gives the government a entire new perspective. Still it would be irresponsible if they would be using this power to control and to invade privacy which they have already been doing since a very long time. <They are just gonna try and track everyone, nice new tool for them >


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: wxa7115 on December 09, 2021, 06:54:13 PM
By the way, here and there for the last few years I've been posting my thoughts about whence bitcoin was suddenly unleashed upon the world, and government agencies have been in my mind whenever I've posted about that.  It just seems extremely unbelievable that a human being could fly so far under the radar while creating something as huge as bitcoin that no one, not even any of the law enforcement or intelligence agencies around the world have been able to identify him.  And you bet there would be a lot of interest in doing so, even if it was only from the IRS.

The alternatives are that 1) Satoshi isn't a single person, but someone working for a government (probably the US), or 2) The government has already gotten to whoever Satoshi is and has recruited him for whatever cryptography projects they could buy him off for.  I suppose there are other alternatives, but those seem the most likely to me.  Granted, I wasn't around in the early days and didn't see Satoshi's posts or know any of the original people involved, so my perspective is completely skewed--and obviously I know I could be wrong about my theories.

But don't any of you think it's weird that Satoshi apparently couldn't be traced, that he vanished without a trace while still leaving what's presumably a digital trail behind that should lead investigators to him?  Oh, by the way Hydrogen: I'm not surprised whatsoever that the CIA is involved with cryptocurrency. 
Without a doubt that is something that is going to be one of the big mysteries of the century, after all it is understandable that we do not know who invented the wheel, as it seems it was developed over many different civilizations and it happened so long ago.

But the fact that someone could remain anonymous in this day and age and created something so big is without a doubt suspicious, however as unbelievable as it may seem I think there is a very high chance that satoshi was indeed a single individual, and my reasoning for this is that if this was a team then someone would have talked about it already and shown evidence this is the case, but nothing like that has happened so I have the tendency to believe satoshi was working alone.

But why no one has found him? There are only three possibilities I can think, the first one is the one you mention, he was indeed found and has been recruited by government agencies, the second is that he is still free and keeping the secret, while the third possibility is that he is dead, I prefer the second scenario but I think the most likely option is the third.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: magneto on December 09, 2021, 09:10:50 PM
Well this just shows the feasibility of blockchain technology.

Granted, they are probably working on centralizing control rather than decentralization but the point still stands - this is a testament to the commercial viability of DeFi tech as a whole.

Though this is hardly groundbreaking, one would think that the CIA would be at the forefront of cryptography in the first place.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: TheNineClub on December 09, 2021, 09:59:51 PM
Yeah, I'd say they were not involved in the early stages of BTC, but I doubt they wouldn't want to dip their toes into crypto as early as 2012 or so. But to counter the statement before me, I'd say they would rather have it decentralized, as that means that they could direct their funds however they wish without someone looking over their shoulder. Crypto is perfect for that, as was the dark web that was created by the likes of them.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: paxmao on December 09, 2021, 10:04:54 PM
It makes sense in many ways. Firstly, CIA has to pay an immensely large number of agents across the world and those payments carry certain risks. Firstly, if done in person (and many times that is the only option) they can be detected and intercepted. Secondly, individuals that get the money can look suspicious unless they somehow hide it "under the mattress". Using blockchain for payments solves quite nicely the problems.

And on another matter, they certainly must have projects on blockchain investigation, e.g. reverse-engineering the chipmixers?


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: fullhdpixel on December 10, 2021, 02:34:14 PM
Finally a serious remark from a credible source on the topic of whether intelligence agencies like the CIA are involved in cryptocurrencies.

I doubt they were involved with the initial development or deployment of bitcoin. It took many years for regulators and establishment personnel to take cryptocurrencies seriously. It seems they have finally decided to get serious. As is witnessed with crypto regulation being passed in recent US infrastructure bills.
Have always had it in mind that in one way or the other, the government would be involved in cryptocurrency. But what I never believed is when people say that the government are the ones who created Bitcoin, nah I do not agree with that one at all. I just believe that cryptocurrency was created by someone who goes by the identity Satoshi Nakamoto, as a way to cover his real identity.

Moreover, if you go through the story of how bitcoin was created, it is quite clear that it is one person that was behind everything, although he did need the help of some people who dedicated themselves to work hard and help him finish the project. So, it wasn’t created by the government, I do not believe that. Come to think of it, the government won’t create something and give the control over to the public, they would want to be in control.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Obito on December 10, 2021, 04:03:49 PM
It's more likely that the people behind bitcoin are probably former employees or current employees rather than the popular theory that it's CIA itself. They're just trying to get into cryptospace so they can probably infiltrate stuff that needs infiltration, I mean why would the CIA be involved in all of this if they're not going to get any benefits from trying their hands on cryptocurrencies.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Rruchi man on December 10, 2021, 05:06:22 PM
If you've seen a lot of spy and secret agent movies, you can see that there is a hint of high tech savviness and sophistication on levels higher than civilian standard that these secret government agencies operate on. Crypto and the Blockchain technology is the future , the CIA must know this, hence I am not surprised at this news of their involvement. IMHO, i think the major concern for most government and why they preach regulations and sometimes ban citizens involvement is because they have identified and recognised the power cryptocurrency provides to every user and are perturbed by it.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: savetheFORUM on December 10, 2021, 06:29:33 PM
Would anyone care to take a guess as to which recent cryptocurrency projects the CIA might be involved with.
It's probably ethereum, because it has 70% premine, it's mostly run on AWS and other cloud servers, and it is one of the most popular cryptocurrency, that is perfect conditions for them.
They are probably running or they infiltrated many fake dex exchanges like uniswap and they are collecting all information, IPs and addresses.
This is just my theory and I can't prove any of my claims, but it's likely they would be involved in something where most people are.
I would guess that they are not interested in something that is already big. Sure it was premined and that’s fine but that happened in 2014 and I doubt that they were the ones who did it because I doubt they were interested in crypto all that much back in those days. I feel like they are actually involved in a "project" as in like they are trying to understand it better and not just investing into it or creating it.

Consider these "projects" as "how could we stop it if we need to?" or "how can we take over it if we want to?" type of brainstorming projects, that makes a lot more sense. If they ever invested in anything then I am not sure if they would be able to actually invest too much money, probably just the ones they confiscated from people. Famously FBI still has a ton of bitcoin, this could be something similar as well and they just probably didn't sell.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Leonardo7 on December 10, 2021, 08:01:22 PM
It will be foolish for anyone to think the CIA wasn't dip into cryptocurrency. I have for long suspected them to have something to do with bitcoin but that doesn't matter today as bitcoin is now bigger than any department or states. The CIA would need develop projects to tracking some activities beyond the norm,


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: uneng on December 10, 2021, 08:12:04 PM
I don't think CIA is behind any popular crypto currencies. When they say they are deep into crypto currency it might refer to the fact they are closely watching it and developing new strategies to track and stop criminal activity dealing with crypto currencies, such as the ransomware attacks, used by hackers to invade and block victims' data and devices, asking for a payment in crypto currencies right after, in order to free the access to the compromised data.

It seems to be the main concern of CIA to fight this kind of wrongdoing, since ransomware attacks were heavily mentioned on the article in OP. All the rest looks conspiracy theories boosted by social influencers, because it generates engagement for them on twitter and youtube platforms.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: laredo7mm on December 10, 2021, 08:28:46 PM
I don't think CIA is behind any popular crypto currencies. When they say they are deep into crypto currency it might refer to the fact they are closely watching it and developing new strategies to track and stop criminal activity dealing with crypto currencies, such as the ransomware attacks, used by hackers to invade and block victims' data and devices, asking for a payment in crypto currencies right after, in order to free the access to the compromised data.

It seems to be the main concern of CIA to fight this kind of wrongdoing, since ransomware attacks were heavily mentioned on the article in OP. All the rest looks conspiracy theories boosted by social influencers, because it generates engagement for them on twitter and youtube platforms.

I am also assuming that their activity is related to criminal activity and drug deals through crypto. I would not be surprised if they are doing an investigation about some top crypto influencers that they think might involve in a pump dump activity with some project.

My other thinking is that they are monitoring and doing their research about any certain project that they think involves illegal activity.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Gyfts on December 10, 2021, 08:49:57 PM
Do you all recall what happened to the silk road bitcoin wallet owned by Ross Ulbricht?

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54833130

It was safe to say the US government and whatever 3 letter agencies (there's too many to count) are deeply involved, and have been for years. They're in the business of seizing Bitcoin, so who's to say they're not also monitoring transactions of individuals they're interested in? Perhaps monitoring ordinary citizens? I don't happen to believe the CIA are only interested in bitcoin related ransomware attacks -- they're interested in maintaining the solvency of USD, it's how they're funded.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: dothebeats on December 11, 2021, 12:58:31 PM
This makes me wary of the services, coins, and platforms that I'm dealing with. It might be just me being paranoid of something that isn't happening, but we know how the CIA works. Personally, I'm not dealing huge amounts in cryptocurrencies, nor have I tried to dabble with any illegal activities in the past. But to think that someone knows whatever the hell you're doing with crypto, your deals, your trades, etc. is enough to give me the creeps.

It's possible that they are involved for years now, and it's only now that they disclosed it because they have already established their control on these projects.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Reid on December 11, 2021, 01:34:20 PM
Here they go claiming anything that is good and dumping everything that is trash. They even said they created a lot of cryptocurrencies and I bet those are stablecoins that having been popping out like mushrooms trying to confuse people of where their money should go.
But I highly doubt they are the ones behind Bitcoin or Satoshi is in their midst. This is all just something to shake things up although I doubt it still work nowadays. Human eyes are already opened because of the internet and they will go deep just to get the facts and not rely on what the government said.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Argoo on December 12, 2021, 04:33:34 PM
I don't think CIA is behind any popular crypto currencies. When they say they are deep into crypto currency it might refer to the fact they are closely watching it and developing new strategies to track and stop criminal activity dealing with crypto currencies, such as the ransomware attacks, used by hackers to invade and block victims' data and devices, asking for a payment in crypto currencies right after, in order to free the access to the compromised data.

It seems to be the main concern of CIA to fight this kind of wrongdoing, since ransomware attacks were heavily mentioned on the article in OP. All the rest looks conspiracy theories boosted by social influencers, because it generates engagement for them on twitter and youtube platforms.
Indeed, I completely agree with this point of view. By how quickly the cryptocurrency is developing and spreading around the world, the special services should have long understood that it poses an increased danger for them and the state as a whole. After all, the financial structure of global control over the finances of citizens by states, created over the centuries, is completely violated. But it has long been known that whoever owns finances owns real power. Therefore, the intelligence services of different countries are forced to deal with cryptocurrency in order to know how to deal with it in the future.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: wxa7115 on December 15, 2021, 07:45:14 PM
I don't think CIA is behind any popular crypto currencies. When they say they are deep into crypto currency it might refer to the fact they are closely watching it and developing new strategies to track and stop criminal activity dealing with crypto currencies, such as the ransomware attacks, used by hackers to invade and block victims' data and devices, asking for a payment in crypto currencies right after, in order to free the access to the compromised data.

It seems to be the main concern of CIA to fight this kind of wrongdoing, since ransomware attacks were heavily mentioned on the article in OP. All the rest looks conspiracy theories boosted by social influencers, because it generates engagement for them on twitter and youtube platforms.
Indeed, I completely agree with this point of view. By how quickly the cryptocurrency is developing and spreading around the world, the special services should have long understood that it poses an increased danger for them and the state as a whole. After all, the financial structure of global control over the finances of citizens by states, created over the centuries, is completely violated. But it has long been known that whoever owns finances owns real power. Therefore, the intelligence services of different countries are forced to deal with cryptocurrency in order to know how to deal with it in the future.
It is going to be interesting what happens from now on, it is obvious those agencies will be very  interested in stopping bitcoin, but at least for the time being it seems they have failed, which makes me to ask myself if they actually have a long term plan about how to deal with cryptocurrencies?

Because so far everything they have tried has failed, some argue that quantum computers could be the answer for the government but there are already algorithms that could beat those computers, so I do not see how those agencies will be able to beat bitcoin regardless of the level of interest they have on it.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: pinggoki on December 15, 2021, 08:21:09 PM
Here they go claiming anything that is good and dumping everything that is trash. They even said they created a lot of cryptocurrencies and I bet those are stablecoins that having been popping out like mushrooms trying to confuse people of where their money should go.
But I highly doubt they are the ones behind Bitcoin or Satoshi is in their midst. This is all just something to shake things up although I doubt it still work nowadays. Human eyes are already opened because of the internet and they will go deep just to get the facts and not rely on what the government said.
High possibility that it's really the case for them, pretty sure that they want to try their hands on market manipulations, given that countries are trying their hands on cryptocurrencies, CIA will try their best to get into that too, we all know how the war is conducted in this day and age, with manipulation and deceit. They're unlikely the people behind bitcoin, you would hate CIA or any government agencies if you're going to create something that bypasses the current authority in some way.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Ozero on January 19, 2022, 06:19:26 PM
Here they go claiming anything that is good and dumping everything that is trash. They even said they created a lot of cryptocurrencies and I bet those are stablecoins that having been popping out like mushrooms trying to confuse people of where their money should go.
But I highly doubt they are the ones behind Bitcoin or Satoshi is in their midst. This is all just something to shake things up although I doubt it still work nowadays. Human eyes are already opened because of the internet and they will go deep just to get the facts and not rely on what the government said.
High possibility that it's really the case for them, pretty sure that they want to try their hands on market manipulations, given that countries are trying their hands on cryptocurrencies, CIA will try their best to get into that too, we all know how the war is conducted in this day and age, with manipulation and deceit. They're unlikely the people behind bitcoin, you would hate CIA or any government agencies if you're going to create something that bypasses the current authority in some way.
We must proceed from the fact that the CIA is called upon to protect the interests of the state from global threats. Cryptocurrency under certain circumstances can become a global threat to any state and the CIA should take this into account. Therefore, their interest in cryptocurrency may relate to the problem of combating its distribution or its use in their special operations. In any case, this structure cannot be interested in cryptocurrency only for the sake of conducting trading operations and making a profit.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: istiak2277 on January 19, 2022, 06:56:46 PM
I also saw CIA director William Burns talking about CIA involvement in various project focused on crypto currencies. The main focuses is to give us government what is happening in the crypto industry. Recently there are a lot of criminal activity by using ransomware and criminals demands payments by crypto currencies like monero. So they are trying to find out how these criminals using those network to moving these funds.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: paxmao on January 27, 2022, 08:14:40 PM
I would not expect anything less from the CIA, they are after anything that does not look controllable and frankly, is probably being used worldwide to move funds around without raising suspicions. I would say that bitcoin is not precisely the most anonymous stuff out there. Monero kind of does the trick, other such as grin or perhaps some others that I am not aware of :) may be even better.

There may be also a possibility of the CIA paying informants as well with crypto.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: barbara44 on January 29, 2022, 12:21:46 PM
I would not expect anything less from the CIA, they are after anything that does not look controllable and frankly, is probably being used worldwide to move funds around without raising suspicions. I would say that bitcoin is not precisely the most anonymous stuff out there. Monero kind of does the trick, other such as grin or perhaps some others that I am not aware of :) may be even better.

There may be also a possibility of the CIA paying informants as well with crypto.
Monero would be the least thing that would come to their mind. I know that Monero and some other altcoins are believed to be more anonymous than bitcoin, but the question is who even makes use of these coins? Nobody cares about these coins and you wouldn’t even see anyone using them to send and accept transactions. The only coin that is being widely accepted around the world is bitcoin.

There are many people who are making use of bitcoin and there are also many stores where it is being accepted. If there is any cryptocurrency that would likely draw their attention, it is bitcoin and not Monero. Another on would be ETH.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Kakmakr on January 29, 2022, 03:26:39 PM
Well, I seriously doubt that the CIA has anything to do with the development of Bitcoin... Why would they approach Gavin Andresen back in the day to find out more about Bitcoin.. if they invented it.  ::)

I do believe that they are working with Cryptographers and Blockchain forensic companies to gather information about criminal activities that are being done with Crypto currencies and also to follow money that was used in criminal activities.  ;)


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Haunebu on January 29, 2022, 05:53:07 PM
This isn't really surprising considering the fact that popular cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, LTC, Ripple, Tether etc are basically goldmines and dealing with them helps improve their financial prospects.

I feel that they trade less popular cryptocurrencies in order to stay under the radar. Some of them are probably crypto millionaires currently thanks to investing in certain crypto projects during their initial stages.

I don't think they helped develop any crypto technology though and are just interested in dealing with some of the assets themselves.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: eaLiTy on January 29, 2022, 08:32:22 PM
~
I do believe that they are working with Cryptographers and Blockchain forensic companies to gather information about criminal activities that are being done with Crypto currencies and also to follow money that was used in criminal activities.  ;)
The CIA have their own analytic team and products which are not available elsewhere and they always hire the best in countering all the activities and there is no doubt they are well equipped in monitoring each and every transaction and they might be responsible for busting criminal activities that we hear in the news every now and then. The front action might be taken by the FBI but all the data analysis and monitoring and sharing of information will be done by the CIA.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: stomachgrowls on January 29, 2022, 08:40:18 PM
~
I do believe that they are working with Cryptographers and Blockchain forensic companies to gather information about criminal activities that are being done with Crypto currencies and also to follow money that was used in criminal activities.  ;)
The CIA have their own analytic team and products which are not available elsewhere and they always hire the best in countering all the activities and there is no doubt they are well equipped in monitoring each and every transaction and they might be responsible for busting criminal activities that we hear in the news every now and then. The front action might be taken by the FBI but all the data analysis and monitoring and sharing of information will be done by the CIA.
Yeah and this would be a good explanation in regarding the difference between the two:
https://militarybenefits.info/fbi-agent-vs-cia-officer/

Whenever what government agency they belong as long there would be things that interest out then theyll surely be engaging and accumulating informations
in regarding into it.Nothing surprising considering that they've been dealing with a decentralized one and we know on how
people would use it negatively.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: RealMalatesta on January 29, 2022, 09:02:23 PM
I would not expect anything less from the CIA, they are after anything that does not look controllable and frankly, is probably being used worldwide to move funds around without raising suspicions. I would say that bitcoin is not precisely the most anonymous stuff out there. Monero kind of does the trick, other such as grin or perhaps some others that I am not aware of :) may be even better.

There may be also a possibility of the CIA paying informants as well with crypto.
Monero would be the least thing that would come to their mind. I know that Monero and some other altcoins are believed to be more anonymous than bitcoin, but the question is who even makes use of these coins? Nobody cares about these coins and you wouldn’t even see anyone using them to send and accept transactions. The only coin that is being widely accepted around the world is bitcoin.

There are many people who are making use of bitcoin and there are also many stores where it is being accepted. If there is any cryptocurrency that would likely draw their attention, it is bitcoin and not Monero. Another on would be ETH.
If you used black market then you would see who uses those coins. The reality is that people like you and me do not have a need to hide it too well, if it is in bitcoin that is hidden as much as we need and we do not need it too much. However, people who need to hide their money does use those coins, it is a smart way to hide yourself and your wealth. Think about the drug lords, they end up buying and selling crypto however they want and they can sell drugs with it and they use monero to hide that.

If they used crypto and coinbase, they would be out in a second because of KYC, this is why they use things that could hide their income. They could still cash that out and say that they invested to make a profit and they did and they made profit, but at least they would be hiding where it came from and that is how they make a profit from doing something bad and hiding it from the government.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: suzanne5223 on January 29, 2022, 09:22:44 PM
I would not expect anything less from the CIA, they are after anything that does not look controllable and frankly, is probably being used worldwide to move funds around without raising suspicions. I would say that bitcoin is not precisely the most anonymous stuff out there. Monero kind of does the trick, other such as grin or perhaps some others that I am not aware of :) may be even better.

There may be also a possibility of the CIA paying informants as well with crypto.
Monero would be the least thing that would come to their mind. I know that Monero and some other altcoins are believed to be more anonymous than bitcoin, but the question is who even makes use of these coins? Nobody cares about these coins and you wouldn’t even see anyone using them to send and accept transactions. The only coin that is being widely accepted around the world is bitcoin.

There are many people who are making use of bitcoin and there are also many stores where it is being accepted. If there is any cryptocurrency that would likely draw their attention, it is bitcoin and not Monero. Another on would be ETH.
Bitcoin is just a pseudonymous coin and it is never anonymous. It only privacy coins that have the potential to make an anonymous transaction.
Yeah, Bitcoin is the widely used Cryptocurrency but that doesn't mean there's no one that's interested in making use of privacy coin like Monero, Grin, Crypton, etc.
Privacy coin or not, the CIA will always pay attention to every decentralized crypto but it is hard to know which crypto they focus on recently if they have made a public announcement about it.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: STT on January 29, 2022, 09:54:10 PM
I'm not totally surprised, part of war games strategy is to explore viable threats to USA via economic tactics to undermine a country.   Surely crypto is large enough to be part of currency flow and the ability to transact with entities across borders.   North Korea frequently fraudulently produces currency of other nations as part of its renegade state activities to self finance itself by any means available to them, they also involved in crypto use in various nefarious schemes I think and so to CIA is part of the counter to that I would guess.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: Fortify on January 30, 2022, 01:49:10 PM
....


Finally a serious remark from a credible source on the topic of whether intelligence agencies like the CIA are involved in cryptocurrencies.

I doubt they were involved with the initial development or deployment of bitcoin. It took many years for regulators and establishment personnel to take cryptocurrencies seriously. It seems they have finally decided to get serious. As is witnessed with crypto regulation being passed in recent US infrastructure bills.

Would anyone care to take a guess as to which recent cryptocurrency projects the CIA might be involved with.

It's likely just some sort of mapping system, much like they can map a web of phone calls, they'll have developed software that maps out payments that could be involved in particular activities - e.g. darkweb drug purchases and where the money originates or gets cashed out. Those are rather easy targets and many people are unlikely to understand that they can be traced when Bitcoin and anonymity are regularly touted. They'll basically be looking to trace criminal connected money and there is enough to keep busy - terrorists financing, ransomware attacks, etc. In some ways Bitcoin makes it easier to trace money than following bank transactions which may end up at dead ends.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: bitgolden on January 30, 2022, 04:25:52 PM
I'm not totally surprised, part of war games strategy is to explore viable threats to USA via economic tactics to undermine a country.   Surely crypto is large enough to be part of currency flow and the ability to transact with entities across borders.   North Korea frequently fraudulently produces currency of other nations as part of its renegade state activities to self finance itself by any means available to them, they also involved in crypto use in various nefarious schemes I think and so to CIA is part of the counter to that I would guess.
This is exactly that scenario. They wouldn't want crypto to dominate over fiat, but in case if that ever happens, or in case another country uses it well enough, they need to be ready for it and can't just ignore it completely. I keep saying that China keeps on banning it all the time but they probably buy it lower after saying they banned it, I have seen them banning it 10 times already.

So, nations could be against it or support it but they are definitely doing something to be ready in case whatever happens. Those bad nations like NK would be taking advantage of this situation without a doubt, that is just how it is right now in the politics. So, I agree that it is very normal for CIA to be involved with it, probably FBI is even bigger involved considering the arrests.


Title: Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals
Post by: goldkingcoiner on January 31, 2022, 07:03:04 PM
The fact that the CIA is deep into cryptocurrencies is of no surprise to anyone, I would think. Crypto, especially privacy coins like Monero can easily be used to buy weapons, mercenaries and fuel coups. But I am *sure* the CIA is "officially" worried about terrorists using crypto to finance their terror attacks. It would not surprise me if the ones behind Bitcoin were actually the CIA because they needed a new way to secretly topple governments without many people noticing a paper trail.

But everyone knows what they are up to, with or without crypto.