Bitcoin Forum

Hello crypto bros.
Today I want to discuss a pretty big problem that bitcoin adoption is facing.
Bitcoin is great in means of anonymous transactions and getting away from the banks and government control, but the problem is, it's the exact problem why criminals are using it. And it's a pretty big one. I'm not saying that criminals use bitcoin more than fiat, but we all can see that illegal services are widely accepting bitcoin.

The problem here is that the system should have some way to fight these criminals because we don't want bitcoin to be associated with drugs and sex trafficking,  but the problem is, by solving these problems we should get rid of anonymity which is a pillar for the bitcoin technology, so it can't be done. And this problem might be a big obstacle in mass bitcoin adoption and regulations that are coming.

So I want to hear your opinion: how to make bitcoin technology "safer" so we could fight a crime committed with crypto and help with bitcoin adoption without taking away the main features of bitcoin like decentralization and anonymity?

Ever since bitcoin was first introduced to masses, they are already linked with illegal activities, sometimes it was even said to be the main currency being used in illegal merchants or black market. It was already pretty common since then, and one thing the government did in order to prevent criminals in doing illegal acts such as trafficking and laundering, they introduced the KYC system which is up until now the problem for every person who just wants to do trades peacefully and anonymously.

Even in the real world, there are still illegal activities we keep seeing or hearing on the news daily, while people say that money is the root of all evil, there are people like me who believed that it just an instrument and the people who are doing those illegal activities are the ones evil. Money or even bitcoin only served its purpose of being a currency, coz if money is literally the evil here, all of us would be arrested and be put in trial on the court for using such illegal instrument. In conclusion, until now there is no exact ways and methods to keep bitcoin safe, since privacy and reputation (by reputation I mean, bitcoin's reputation), will never go along together and also impossible to happen.

Bitcoin was never been anonymous in the first place, it's pseudonymous which mean no one know who's you, but anyone know your address, how much you have transacted and  how much your total holdings.

We? or only you? I don't care if Bitcoin to be associated with drugs, money laundering, sex trafficking etc, as long as I don't use it for bad purpose, there's nothing I should need to worry. Ask yourself, can you make sure and verify if every fiat money you get from banks or other people are clean money which not associated with drugs and sex trafficking?

Money is money, there's no dirty or clean money.

Almost all currencies are misused in one way or another. Centralization here does not mean that currencies will not be misused. Cash is used in most of the drug trade. As for central systems, if we take banks as an example, despite the strict regulations, we note that the banking system is used in money laundering and extensively in illegal activities.

• French authorities raid banks in massive tax fraud case (https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230328-french-authorities-raid-banks-in-massive-tax-fraud-case)
  
• French authorities search 5 banks in Paris in tax fraud case (https://apnews.com/article/france-banks-raids-tax-e9d39ad6409803258e4ff9d1368760a7)
• The Five Biggest Money Laundering Scandals (https://sanctionscanner.com/blog/the-five-biggest-money-laundering-scandals-317)
  
• Danske Bank Pleads Guilty to Fraud on U.S. Banks in Multi-Billion Dollar Scheme to Access the U.S. Financial System (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/danske-bank-pleads-guilty-fraud-us-banks-multi-billion-dollar-scheme-access-us-financial)

These are a few examples of banking systems in countries that are known to be strict in censorship, let alone in countries whose system was designed mainly to hide money laundering.

Yes currencies has been misused but I doubt that the government are just ignoring it right? Means they are indeed compromise those illegal people. Comparing to bitcoin and decentralized, its really contradicting the situation. We cant argue with OP since criminals are really taking advantage Satoshi made and that has been seen everywhere. Like the seized of chipmixer, whom discovered been used on laundering.

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OP since bitcoin is fully decentralized, I doubt anyone can stop from using that as a means, unless someone regulated a thing concerning that which I think can be implemented on the ongoing space of bitcoin. Maybe for other coin can still be salvage but not in btc.

Criminals use all things they can use for their jobs. Fiat currency, drugs, gold, real estates, Bitcoin, cryptocurrency so you can not say Bitcoin is the most favorite tool of criminals for things like money laundering.

Some reports for you
Crypto Mixer Usage Reaches All-time Highs in 2022, With Nation State Actors and Cybercriminals Contributing Significant Volume (https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/crypto-mixer-criminal-volume-2022/)
Crypto money laundering 2022 (https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/crypto-money-laundering-2022/)

Bitcoin is only one of their channels for money laundering.

Money laundering (https://www.europol.europa.eu/crime-areas-and-statistics/crime-areas/economic-crime/money-laundering)
You see many channels for it on Europol website.

Just because Bitcoin is being used by criminals that doesn't mean that we, the Bitcoiners "should do something about it".
The police and the juridical system must find and punish those criminals. We can't do anything, in order to stop the criminals from using Bitcoin.
Fiat is being used by criminals as well. Do you think that the central bankers around the world care about this fact? Maybe they do, but that's not their main problem. Do you really think that the criminals around the world would ever stop using fiat currencies? I don't think so.
Many criminals and scammers are using gift cards. Do you think that Amazon, Google, Steam and all the other major corporations are going to stop issuing gift cards, just because scammers are using them for criminal activities?

isn't Fiat also not free from crime? it's even worse than what the media reports about Bitcoin.
say a bribe, an online transaction from a bank account might be detected. but cash transactions for bribes, drug transactions, and other crimes using fiat are still very large.

then, are we going to make rules that will govern Fiat? I don't think so. the same goes for the use of Bitcoins for money laundering. it's not Bitcoin that will be the focus. but it is the bridge between fiat and Bitcoin that must be controlled. therefore KYC solutions on exchanges are indeed quite important. there is no denying it if you want to combat this abuse. and that means it will be difficult to be truly decentralized and remain anonymous. when everyone remains anonymous, even the perpetrators of the crime there will be untraceable.

"A new study by Recorded Future has found that Bitcoin is losing its position as the number one currency on the Darknet markets."
https://cointelegraph.com/news/is-darknet-done-with-bitcoin

As far as I'm concerned, illegal activities move to privacy coins like monero. Bitcoin slowly loses dominance here because it's only a pseudo-anonymous coin. I don't think we should do anything to fight cryminal activities because its not the bitcoin battle and most of it still uses dollars.

bearer company, bearer bonds, and bearer shares, and you can move billions of dollars in illegal money. No one fights it. I don't think we should. 

BTC can be traced so thats their sure way to fight criminals using BTC. Its time to update the skills of the police officers on how to trace criminal transactions. Authorities do have databases of criminals qnd usual suspects as well which they could link them and show evidences.

But most probably the 85000 IRS agents that was trained recently is meant for this job.

you said it yourself, to solve these problems, anonymity would need to be removed which is the pillar of bitcoin, so it can't be done without compromising it.

we can just accept that bitcoin will be used(whether we like it or not) for illegal activities by criminals just like any currency out there, it may not sound good to say that but, it is what it is.

Regardless of whether criminals use Bitcoin or fiat to facilitate illicit activities under the hood, at the end of the day, they are free to use whatever they want as long as it is convenient for them, and there is nothing we can do about it.

Plus, the notion that "bitcoin is used only for buying illegal shit" is perhaps a clever move of the government to brainwash people. They know that the average person does not bother to do their own due diligence, when in fact using bitcoin is much more unsafe than conducting transactions using fiat. It's all part of the game where blaming bitcoin removes the accusations against scammers and money launderers who use fiat.

It's not like nothing we can do, we could actually report some addresses that doing illegal stuff to be aware with them. Much better to get traced but due to its decentralized system it would be hard for them to get caught that's why most of the criminal deeds are also open in Bitcoin. And some scammers who caught some newbies that doesn't have an idea to their crime. It would be hard to retrieve what's loss.

That's the pros and cons of Bitcoin, it give people power to control and decide for themselves wether to win or lose without exposing your identity. However the cons of it is that its also open to illegal activities especially the volatility of it unlike fiat money.

At this point you cant.

The governments are actively trying to devise methods to track bitcoin and use it for forensic purpose, to catch money launderers and is extrapolated crimes committed with bitcoin as payment method/hackers taking ransom with bitcoin and so on.

But at present we only have to be careful on our own as we have nothing else to protect us with. Maybe in a hundred years the framework of legal and financial systems surrounding bitcoin will improve but that is a long time from now.

The only way to make this possible is to make Bitcoin centralized, but why should Bitcoin be made centralized? Does it mean that if Bitcoin becomes centralized, these problems you mention would be totally eliminated?

Fiat money is used to commit a lot of illegal stuff, and the only way to completely put an end to it is to stop the use of money, which is not possible. Crime will continue to occur with Bitcoin or fiat money, and most of these crimes will be discovered and resolved accordingly, but not even 98% of the crimes committed with fiat are being discovered.


Illegal services are accepting Bitcoin as well as fiat, so just accept the fact that most illegal services will be discovered both in bitcoin and fiat, but not all could be discovered. To me, I would just say it's better that way.

Each and every thing has both good and bad things. If you look at the bad side of the coin, then definitely you will find lot many things to complain. But in the other hand, if you look at the good side of the coin, then Bitcoins have many benefits over the traditional banks and FIAT eco systems. No one really can stop the crimes. If people will stop using Bitcoins for the crimes, then definitely they will find another alternative for it. A criminal won’t stope until he does the crime. So rather than blaming Bitcoins for the crimes, we should take control of the Criminals.

Unfortunately, this is one downside of bitcoin but that's not gonna make it pure evil because this kind of scenario is nothing compared to the vast list of Bitcoin's positive effects on people. Because there are still lots of positive things that bitcoins can offer and those things you cannot find in other platforms like banks and any other online payment method. If you look at it more, you will not only find that bitcoin is always the tool for crimes rather you also find other methods that they use to scam and do other bad things. Bitcoins have lots of benefits compared to their harm so it is better to overlook its harm so that we continue to move on.

No one can stop criminals from using bitcoin or any other means to carry out their evil deeds. Even if bitcoins are not anonymous or centralized, there is no guarantee criminals will stop using them. Bitcoin is also just an asset, a means, what people use them for, we do not control. Like the government so well controls fiat, why can't they stop criminals from using it? It's people's behavior, you can never stop them. Bitcoin doesn't need to change anything, bitcoin is perfect.

Cryptocurrencies are being used for criminal activities; that's true. A quick look at the darknet markets is enough, although they may also be used to launder money. However, fiat currencies have been used for ages for the same purposes, and laundering money can be conducted in various ways and probably more effectively than with cryptocurrencies. It's frustrating that a lot of news websites and officials portray them as an issue when they are the minority causing these issues. Criminality and corruption are widespread matters, and cryptocurrencies should be the last to blame.

Anonymity is not a guarantee with Bitcoin transactions. It can still be traced, except mixing services is used but still the final recipient of the said fund can get into trouble because the can decide to check the balance of all the addresses that went into the pool then the wallet with the biggest balance can be suspected and monitored further until it get to CEX where it get converted to fiat.

Will you agree with me that paper money is  the best anonymous currency for illegal transaction because the transaction isn't recorded any where and it is only the accomplice and as well as the perpetrator  who knows what went down  during the transaction. Bitcoin is like every other currency and everyone uses it how the choose to. Even the money in the bank can still be used for illegal deal so Bitcoin hasn't helped anyone accomplish their illegal works just that the elicit act was done through that medium

It is not Bitcoin's responsibility to stop crime, just as the governments of the world were not concerned that Fiat are widely used by criminals. There are other ways for law enforcement to catch criminals... Example : A drug Kingpin have many people working for him... they run the drugs for him, but he takes massive profits.

He buys luxury cars and properties and run businesses that launder money for him.... those are the focus points for law enforcement, not the currency that are used.  ;)

They catch them and charge them with money laundering / Tax evasion ...etc... no matter what payment method they used.  ;D

Anonymous? It's only pseudo-anonymous.
It isn't that anonymous compare to Monero because anybody can still track your Bitcoin address depending on the transactions that you've done in the past. Bitcoin used in illegal services? Nothing new. With Bitcoin being pseudo-anonymous, criminals, and bad people will utilize it so that they can get away from the government.

How can you fight these criminals if they are psudo-anonymous.
Also, include the fact that Mixing services are becoming more and more popular right now, and because of that, they can just get away easily because of these services. I'm not using that mixing services are bad in general, but we know that there are some bad people who are using it still.

You can't.
Even the governments can't stop the criminals who are using fiat money in their criminal activities. Take note that they are using fiat, and it can be easily tracked because of their transactions. With cryptocurrency especially with Bitcoin, and also add the mixing services which makes the tracking way harder for the authorities to do, I don't think that there's a way for us to fight a crime without taking away anonymity.

You can use every kind of asset in illegal activity, the question is only how easy it can be done. Bitcoin for example can easily be used if you need to send money to foreign countries without fees or control. Cash/Gold/Diamonds or whatever are still as easily usable for local transactions as bitcoin and are shure still a lot more used than bitcoin. Governments only talk bad about bitcoin because it is not possible for them to talk bad about their own currency.

Preventing crime is the government's responsibility, not bitcoin's, bitcoin doesn't need to change anything. Criminals are human too, and they are free to use whatever they want, not only because they use bitcoin, but bitcoin has to change for them. That's absurd, and you should ask the government to regulate fiat so criminals can't use it. Governments are spreading false propaganda about bitcoin and crime because they are doing everything they can to stop bitcoin, and you are being deceived by them.

The root cause is the self or the mind that does bad things, not the tools.


Why don't we abolish the current currency system since it also supports drugs and sex trafficking?


By educating that the inherent features that bitcoin has and what makes it sustainable until now are essential things. Do you think you want to switch bitcoin to PoS since it way "safer" for the environment?

The unintended consequences that bitcoin offers are acknowledged. It is the same with the Tor network, the benefit is outweighed the bad. And by integrating a backdoor to combat criminals, will very likely do more harm than good.

Why do you have to want bitcoin to change, not criminals, or should you tell the government because it is the responsibility of the government? Bitcoin was born to bring freedom to everyone, not designed for criminals. If you use bitcoin for your bad behavior, the government will prosecute and punish you, not bitcoin.

We already told you not to call us "crypto bros.", but you are obviously illiterate to the extent that you cannot read several comments in the thread you open.




Criminals still prefer fiat, because not only is it safer for them, but because Bitcoin is not as anonymous as you think. If all relevant research shows that Bitcoin is used by 1-2% of people in the world, where do you see a problem in that? In addition, every bill you have in your wallet may have been in the hands of a drug smuggler, a weapon smuggler, or maybe it was used to pay for a murder - so if you want to solve the world's problems, you should start from the top, not the bottom.

They just use crypto because they can easily use it upon doing transaction everywhere and they can use mixers to hide their tracks. But actually this is not solely happening on crypto since this is also really happening on fiat. Criminals using different methods since they are taking advantage on something where the hype is on. So its so exaggerated for other to think bitcoin is used for only illegal activities just like those other people or officials who are skeptical about its purpose.

Even the traditional currencies are mostly used for crime kidnapped ransom is paid in United dollars euro or other local currencies, so for you to say that bitcoin is mostly used for crime is an understatement and the ratio is large and one of the things way ransoms are paid is through physical cash.

Bitcoin is just performing it role as the alternative currency and anyone can use it since it is decentralized and open source.

Which system do you want to fight the use of Bitcoin in committing crime? Do you mean the Bitcoin system or what?
Fighting crime is the responsibility of the government and with the help and cooperation of its citizens. It is not the duty of Bitcoin fight crime.

Do you have any correctional centre in your country that is named bitcoin. Do you have any police force in your country that is called bitcoin police force. Do you have any president in your country that is called bitcoin president. So how would people using bitcoin to perpetrate evil be arrested by the Bitcoin system.
Bitcoin is money, nobody fights US because crime was cimmited with dollars.

Criminals use fiat currency as well...in fact, I could bet that 90%+ of all criminal activity volume would be in the fiat realm than in the realm of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency as a whole. The only reason why it is so highlighted with Bitcoin is because:
1. Very wealthy people/corporations or extremely well-funded organizations who are behind armies of lawyers or a large amount of power are usually behind fiat crime, and are essentially invincible and invisible. One great example is HSBC.
2. The blockchain keeps a record of everything. Crime committed with Bitcoin is there forever, crime committed with fiat especially on the scale like the above is much harder to prove and store in history.

Crime will never go away. Maybe it will be reduced with Bitcoin as time goes on. Crime's existence in Bitcoin isn't really what's hindering Bitcoin's adoption though in my opinion.

You have talked about very important issues. Still various countries have declared Bitcoin illegal, they consider Bitcoin a threat to that country.In countries that do not recognize Bitcoin, the use of Bitcoin is considered to be associated with crime.It has a lot of impact on the common investor. Not all Bitcoin users are associated with crime.It is true that there are many unscrupulous people who use Bitcoin for bad purposes and it is very difficult to catch them because Bitcoin is great for anonymous transactions and avoiding bank and government control.Criminals use Bitcoin for this reason.They think Bitcoin transactions are very safe and their crime activities will be safe.Hopefully very soon will be change this system.

As long as bitcoin is a currency,it will be involved in illegal activities because human are the ones using bitcoin. Human nature is common with illegal activities because some people see that as a means of making huge profit. Fiat is also attached more to illegal activities,since it is used worldwide by all countries and it all countries there are always illegal activities carried out by citizens.

Although, this will not affect the nature of bitcoin or its adoption from spreading because any government that blames bitcoin as the key factor to illegal activities is been biased. The culprit should be face whatever crime he committed and not putting the blame on bitcoin. Anonymous or no anonymous criminal activities will always be carried out by evil people.

Money laundering and so on is a problem that existed even before bitcoin existed, even now and so on money laundering and other crimes continue to exist and mostly use fiat money through banking, illegal business and so on. So not all crime occurs because of bitcoin and this will actually make many people misjudge.
maybe some criminals just use anonymity to facilitate their actions, everything that happens is the duty of the law who must seek the truth and realize that everything that happened has happened a long time ago and can never be lost and that is life.

by now associating Bitcoin with illegality has become commonplace, but is it really like this? perhaps it could have been 5/6 years ago but now and after the introduction of the KYC it has become complex for scammers and criminals to obtain FIAT currency! as what is reported as a scam/crime on the blockchain remains so forever. there is no absolute anonymity on Bitcoin unfortunately

it's not Bitcoin that's the problem. but back to the user. just as fiat is misused for criminal activities. Bitcoin is also a tool used by perpetrators.
the problem is how to prevent criminals from using Bitcoin as a tool. KYC which is applied to local exchanges can be said to be the method that we currently encounter the most. but indeed it comes into conflict with the anonymity of Bitcoin.
however, if there is a crime using Bitcoin, of course, it will have an impact on the market. this market is very susceptible to Hype.

We can't do anything about it but just to start the good use through ourselves. Why? Because every currency in the world is being used either with good or bad use. And that's why we just have to use it in the good and best ways that we can because no matter how we advocate the good usage of it, there will be people that will go against that advocacy for the betterment of the impression of bitcoin. Even in USD and other fiat, there have been illegal usage and the government can't even stop it because those criminals will always use whatever they want that has monetary value as much as they can. That's the reason even if it has a feature of being decentralized and giving anonymity to its user, it's like a double edged sword.

People think Bitcoin always has privacy that can never be revealed. All transactions are permanently recorded on the blockchain ledger and can be viewed by anyone, so they will eventually lead to the owner of the asset.

Criminals still prefer fiat, of course, that's true. In the end, criminals use fiat to make transactions.
Bitcoin is just a disguise at first, as a cleanup of crimes that use mixer services and such.

Using mixer services to hide traces of crime is a common practice.  Some time ago services like Chipmixer were shut down by Europol because they were proven to be involved with several money laundering crime transactions. this proves that mixer services will not always be safe,
When you can't catch the criminals then catch the services the criminals use.

Some other methods of laundering usually also use gambling sites to launder the proceeds of crime, so that the criminal trail of money can be clean.
This is a full concern and regulations for online gambling are getting tighter.

Has been existing eversince. This technology promotes anonymity with transactions and that also covers illegal ones. What can we do about it? None. Those transactions are simply payments and it is the wrongdoings which should be condemned and not the mode of payment.  Even with fiat currencies, tracing only is being used to track accounts involved but not certain with the one who did a crime. And it is not this technology's fault if it would be involved on such things because no matter what currency is being used, the purpose of crimes are solely with doers' intentions.

Would it be the reason to stop adoption of this technology? Has low chances that it is. It would be more acceptible to know that countries are afraid because of the risk involved, but with crimes? that's too far from a currency's purpose and function.

Many people in the crypto space have had this thought, It is why I brought up this topic recently on this forum for discussion; Could there be any importance and need for some kind of mild regulations? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5445876.msg61955976#msg61955976) The general opinion that you can observe from the discussion is that before bitcoin will be accepted by the government, they will need to find a way for some mild regulations to be able to ensure bitcoin is not exploited and abused by criminals.

Bitcoin has to be accepted first, before it will be adopted.

Yes, usually regulations by governments is the answer for this kind of question. However, some governments have gone too far imposing too strict regulations on their citizens, some even banning it from their countries. I don't know how efficient regulations are being to prevent the usage of bitcoin by criminals on their schemes, but I suspect it's not enough to stop them, because criminals are always improving their tactics and operational methods.

If they can't use bitcoin, due to the enforced regulations, they are going to use another cryptocurrency to reach their same goals. The point is that they aren't going to stop their schemes. So, it brings a question up: does it worth to prejudice and difficult the access and usage of average users to bitcoin in order to stop a kind of criminal activity which is unstoppable?

Cryptocurrency illicit trading volumes hit an all-time high amid a surge in sanctioned appointments and hacker attacks, according to the latest Chainalysis reports. But it can be noted that "in general, illegal activity in cryptocurrencies remains a small share of the total—less than 1%. It is also worth bearing in mind that, despite the jump this year, the share of crime in all cryptoactivity still tends to decrease."

https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2023-crypto-crime-report-introduction

It can be concluded that fiat money is not only more anonymous, but also enjoys a great advantage among criminals.
Therefore, it is very wrong to consider Bitcoin in a negative light; this is the lot of those who are not ready to accept it. This is the excuse of regulators who do not stop creating fake news, in every possible way disclosing isolated cases of fraud as a typical phenomenon.

The issue of Bitcoin being used for criminal activity is a complex one, and it is very important to strike a balance between protecting privacy and decentralizing the technology while also addressing any illegal activity that may be associated with it. While Bitcoin's anonymity and decentralization make it attractive to a wide range of users, they also make it difficult to regulate and prevent its use for illicit purposes.

It is important to recognize here that although Bitcoin has been associated with illegal activity, it is not inherently a tool for criminal behavior. As with any technology or currency, it can be used for both legal and illegal purposes. Therefore, it is very important to focus on the balance between privacy and security, rather than sacrificing one over the other.

In my opinion, one approach to making Bitcoin technology more secure without compromising its key features is to increase the transparency and traceability of transactions. I think this can be achieved through the use of blockchain analytics tools, which can help identify suspicious transactions and track the movement of funds.

That is the obstacle or you can say the reverse side of the bitcoin currency, when you want transaction security, anonymity, and not to be detected by any party, you will definitely choose this bitcoin option as the means. Then are we just ordinary people who want to get all of that, then the answer is no, there will be other parties including criminals who will get a great opportunity to transact safely and unknown. Everything has its positive and negative values ​​​​and there is a way to prevent or act on their behavior, so it can't be because it seems like bitcoint parties think it's beyond their victory to interfere in their transaction affairs, If so, another option is to regulate it by changing the transaction rules and working with the government to help regulate the data of these Bitcont users, but on the one hand this has come out of the slogan or characteristic of Bitcoint which prioritizes its anonymity.

That's actually sad part of btc that many criminals using it and money for their activity

well, why we should care about negative image of bitcoin, anyway paper money also have that image, my point is this is a free world, do u think bitcoin is a innocent money/assest that should be used always for good thing ? , people are entitled to do whatever with their bitcoins and  of course everything have a consequence.I believe sathosi know this part even before btc operated.

Simply put, you can't punish guns for being used to kill innocent people, but guns being used to kill.
The same thing happened with bitcoin, someone took advantage of its decentralization and privacy for both legal and illegal things, but I don't agree that bitcoin is blamed. Even all currencies are same, this will not be prevented.

I don't know, I don't think we all know what to do other than just prevent ourselves from doing illegal things with bitcoin. Bitcoin and other currencies can always be abused, you can't prevent others.

It's sad to think that there are people who use Bitcoin in the wrong way. This is because the transaction is pseudonymous, meaning your transactions through blockchain but not your identity because your address is not linked to your identity. But there are more criminal cases that happened through cash compared to those who use Bitcoin, but there's no complain. One of the purposes of Bitcoin is to solve the problem of financial blockade just like what happened to WikiLeaks. It is better to take time to read for more details and let's know how it impacts Bitcoin's price : The call for Julian Assange || The WikiLeaks Manifesto - We all should read it (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5228619)

That means crime only involves in the circle of criminals? That's not the business of bitcoin users as a whole.


Every time a new system is created, there must be criminals taking advantage of it and it is inevitable that the use of bitcoin is no exception. After all, criminals or not depends on point of view. If you ask them, they are not criminals, they are just doing "business".

Okay before btc was introduced the crime rate or illegal activities were not happening at all? The people use technology in a bad way so this mean nothing new should be introduced at all? The online transactions can still be traced to some extent but how do you trace fiat whose serial numbers you don't know? So these all are just excuses to add on with btc restrictions as always.

I think that there are also criminals which are involved bad activities with fiat currency and there is no strict regulations from the government therefore they are involved in such activities. Some people are involved in illicit activities but there are also large number of people who just want investment in Bitcoin to earn money to make their lives happy so it can also use as a good source and also for bad purposes now its up to the person that how he managed it.

The stopping of criminal to use bitcoin is not easy because no one have any idea about any person that why he is holding bitcoin? we don't know the real purpose of his holding may be its for the good fortune and we make wrong concept about that person.

There are no any other fields which is free from illicit activities, there are large number of illicit works going today in the world and no one can stop these activities.

From the days of old,any means of exchange have been associated with one crime or the other,there are cases of money laundering,government hoarding of cash at the detriment of its citizens, so is not anything new to hear of cases here and there where bitcoin have been used as a meas of illegal transaction,but never the less,there are millions of people who have and will always continue to benefit from bitcoin,and its current nature  is what makes it special, and I will rather prefare it remains that way.

Bitcoin transaction is transparent enough, as every transaction is recorded on the blockchain and cannot be altered, deleted, or destroyed. The only thing here is the synonimity of the individuals carrying out the transaction, which, in my opinion, is okay the way it is.

Do you want Bitcoin transaction to be as transparent as causing a situation where individuals who carry out a transaction can be known and monitored for every financial transaction they are carrying out?

Crimes or illicit activity cannot be 100% eradicated, and these acts are even more on the centralized financial system than cryptocurrency.


Centralized exchanges, through their KYC features, are making it possible for Bitcoin transactions to be traced to the user, because by doing so, individuals personal details are being collected by those exchanges, and it could be tracked from where they are using to send money to those exchanges and the wallet they are using to transfer the coins they buy. is already possible.

This kind of issue is old and yet you see Bitcoin adoption is still growing.  Any services and tools are subject to good and bad usage.  Bitcoin itself is neutral but the people that exploit it are culprits and should be dealt with by law enforcers.

I also think that in order to fix problems such as exploits of BTC being used as money laundering or being used in illegal means, it needs to be compromised.  It does not necessarily need to remove its features but instead, services that access the Bitcoin network should be regulated.  Bitcoin although creates anonymous transactions, it is recorded on a public ledger that is fully transparent to anyone.  So I think, the regulatory institutions can take advantage of that to detect and track illegal services.

All the things in markets whether it's financial currencies, political votes, parties, authorities, ranks, and goods like guns and games, etc. have good and bad use cases. Authorities are only targeting BTC to be the main reason behind all financial criminal activities while according to statistics (https://cointelegraph.com/news/elizabeth-warren-is-pushing-the-senate-to-ban-your-crypto-wallet#:~:text=only%20about%20%2410%20billion%20or%20less%20in%20cryptocurrency%20is%20involved%20with%20money%20laundering%20each%20year%2C%20compared%20with%20between%20%24800%20billion%20and%20%242%20trillion%20laundered%20in%20conventional%20currencies) it's not that big. I know it is being used but I also said every other technology is also being abused. Like games, can put a bad impact on gamers thus resulting in an increment in criminal activities or vice versa. What we can do is teach those who started to play games at a young age or tell those who spend a lot of time wasting on it. Teaching is one of the ways to stop people from using technology in an abusive manner.

Fiat currency is used in more criminal activities than BTC and it is still being used. Why this can not be circumvented by now? The reason is simple, Due to Criminals, and to stop the abusive use of BTC we need to stop them, BTC needs no security or encryption or anonymous restrictions. all it needs is a world full of commendable people but that's not possible. Because every day there is an increase in crime rates, Why? is it due to a lack of laws and regulations? No, it's because of the economic conditions and criminal mindset (developed from childhood) that urges people to get involved in criminal activities whether in the real world or in the digital world. I know, it's like impossible to change the mindset of every criminal instead we can punish as many as we can (not we, I am talking about authorities).

The thing is at least we could give it a try to improve not only our moral activities but to improve others too, like by guiding them toward moral activities which will build a commendable mindset in them. I have seen many people in my area where people are just want to earn money despite of immortality of that work. Like Promoting drugs websites, or earning through SEX tapes, etc. All we can do is to guide them but like lightly not just get strict on them. They are not intended to do that (well I agree some are) but mostly just want to earn money, Better option is to provide them an opportunity of earning money while following the moral laws when. Overall, the point is Morality of mindset could decrease the number of criminals and thus increase the good use case of BTC, which results in a good adoption rate. These suggestions are for long-term benefits if at least we give them a try.

Why isn't the title 'Fiat Has Been Used for Crime'? Comparatively, more crime involving fiat currency is happening than crime involving cryptocurrency. However, it doesn't matter what currency criminals use because they are still criminals. Just like we can't prevent anyone from using fiat currency, we can't prevent anyone from using cryptocurrency. Whether they use it for good or bad, we can't control it. The argument that Bitcoin adoption is being resisted by centralized governments due to the possibility of criminals using it is just an excuse. There is no way to prevent criminals from using any currency, including Bitcoin.

There's no way on fighting or the plan on removing it, considering that this had been the main feature on which why Bitcoin is that mainly been supported because of this one.Come to consider that fiat had still the same.
How it did end up? People would really be using it and since its a digital currency with having those features then of course its not really that not shocking that it would be used into those transactions and there's
nothing we can do about it.

You do dell that it is having more criminal or illegal transactions than with fiat? Do you have any evidence or something you could show about this claim? We know that there's
no way that we could be able to do so.

I guess there’s nothing we can do about bitcoin being associated with illegalities, that will continue to happen as long as there are people who will always take advantage on bitcoin and ruin its reputation. Even in fiat, knowing it’s highly adopted and back up by the government, it’s undeniable that fiat is also involved in different illegal activities nationwide. So whether it’s bitcoin or fiat, both are still used as tools to commit illegal activities, but only bitcoin is being put in high restriction since it’s considered a threat in the government.

Well for a while, until CEXs and DEXs introduced KYC in order to better identify users and give the authorities useful leads for when they need it.
This is both good and bad at the same time because for one, this provides an added layer of security over the users because oftentimes these users will find that the KYC requirement disables the account they are using from following through with a scammer/thief's activities that could be detrimental to the account health, like password change or withdrawal, but at the same time this is also detrimental to the user as it practically leaves them open for exploitation on the enterprise's parts, selling their info to advertisers in order to better provide targeted ads which are scary.

OP you have spoken well but I would want you to know that the inception of every technology has its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantage in the sense that a technology being developed accordingly has benefits to the end users or if you may like,the society at large to help cushion some side effects and make things normal and working well for the populace and the disadvantages is that the technology could be exploited by some elements in the form of humans who always are looking for a means to commit a crime and escape without any trace. That is the situation of bitcoin now and there is no much big deal about it.
However, as you have stated, bitcoin by origin is designed for anonymous transaction and to by pass government and every other third party engagements in transactions but to be frank with your post there has never been a situation where there was no recorded exploit in a technological innovation. Bitcoin is not exempted from that as well but it is our responsibility to safeguard our assets very well so as to avoid unnecessary stress and pressure as a result of hack.

It is for this reasons exchanges came to existence and you should know that unset from the inception of exchanges government took advantage of it to introduce the KYC policy so as to know bitcoin holders and as well monitoring transactions.

So therefore, there has never been a situation where crimes have not been recorded with new technological innovation but there should be a way to cushion the effect ydo as not to make it too obvious that such technology was innovated for such purpose.

You move in the Bitcoin wave and that is why you perhaps mention that it is used for criminal acts, but... and where such a situation does not happen (!?)

There is  even used as payments works of art, for example, on the other hand you have an incorrect approach, since Bitcoin can be traced and it is in In any case,  ideal to have more chances of finding these criminals than those who use traditional money or, as I said, works of art.

I don't know exactly what you are thinking, but i believe it would interest you to know that, even before Bitcoin came into existence, this crimes have been, drug, human, arm trafficking, robbery of all sort and of different levels, this crimes and even more have been in place and were being committed and the perpetrators getting away with it without being caught.

Now bitcoin came and because of its features, like the anonymity and decentralized nature of bitcoin, several persons began to believe that every transactions carried out by criminals are done in bitcoin, forgetting totally that way before bitcoin came, even with the high centralized fiat currencies as the only means of exchange, this crimes have been, and even if bitcoin seize to be, this crimes will still continue to be because most of it are funded by dirty politicians.

There are a couple of things that you seem to be confusing hereof not fully understand why Bitcoin is valuable. Any technology that reduces friction will be used by criminals and there is nothing you can do against it. Whenever something is useful for people, it will also be useful for those with bad intentions.

I also doubt that it would have any influence on the overall amount of crime that is being committed. They have found ways ever since to commit crimes even before Bitcoin existed. How would you even go about it? If you change the codebase for Bitcoin, another crypto will pop up. Think about Monero. Whenever there is demand for something, someone will build it.

In essence you are intending to turn Bitcoin into something that people don't want. Imagine how many technologies can be used for evil and we still use them.

The good thing about Bitcoin is that the authority has an advantage on tracing these criminals.  Due to the blockchain transaction being transparent, authority can use enhanced tool in tracking illegal activities.  Just as the earlier reply stated, there is more chance of tracking illegal activities in Bitcoin than the traditional fiat.


As far as I understand, Bitcoin had its own anti-fraud system, it is also one of the reason why blockchain transactions is available to the public.  If only authority can take advantage of this opportunity and learn how to use it in tracing illegal activities, Bitcoin natural feature will greatly reduce AML and other illegal activities that appears in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

No one can guarantee that Bitcoin will not be sued for crimes. because there are various people in the world.
Even though it is just fiat, it is also used.
But for Bitcoin, probably certain crimes happen because of the easy use of Bitcoin for global transactions, more secret transactions, and other easiness.
But actually, this is part of the negative side of the usage, not Bitcoin. This will always depend on people who are using it for, what's for. Moreover, we cannot control what people using Bitcoin. I know that certain media or parties will always use this case of crimes to highlight the negative issues of bitcoin as always, but aside from that actually, Bitcoin has more advantages to do and to have, more than negative sides. So, why should we be worried about this?

When you admit bitcoin is money, that's when you have to admit that money can always be misused. Then show me which currency hasn't been abused so far, I don't think you can proof it.

All currency is misused, it's not the fault of the money but the fault of who uses it. So no one will sue bitcoin for being misused by someone, whereas users who misuse bitcoin will receive legal consequences.

In my opinion, this is indeed a deficiency that will appear or exist in every thing that has value. Anything that has definite value will still have the drawbacks of being misused. We all know that not only Bitcoin but also fiat and gold cannot be separated from misuse for illegal activities, right?.
We cannot do anything about misusing Bitcoin for illegal activities. Even removing anonymity or using KYC will not be able to prevent it. Everyone who has bad intentions will always find loopholes to take advantage of them.
This is not a major issue with Bitcoin adoption as fiat and gold both have the potential to be abused. There is something positive behind this actually that Bitcoin can prove that Bitcoin is real and has a high value so that many "criminals" take advantage of it.
For this adoption it will only be a matter of time before everyone starts to know, accept and use Bitcoin.

Once Bitcoin was criminals money. From that point things have slowly changed and the need changed from an source used for the criminal activity to a potential investment. Even now the beginning days usage is discussed by some users and stay away using cryptocurrency. If we go through the statistics it is clear to see the difference in usage of cryptocurrencies in the beginning days to the present days. Quite often we'll be able to see news on cyber attack and the same too have decreased much in recent years.

Bitcoin just give advantage to those criminals to make their transaction easy but the same with other currency they are all use for any crimes. Its just we are following bitcoin and crypto that's why we always see a new regarding about bitcoin has been used on illegal activities. On regulation side maybe government need to take action with this so that they can easily combat frauds and can establish the real legitimate usage of bitcoin.

Its wasnt criminals money since its users or holders are the ones who do choses on what things they would really be making use of it.It is really just that this kind of impression where Bitcoin do able to get
which it isnt really that shocking nor surprising. Government do make use this as a bad publicity towards Bitcoin or in overall crypto which i couldnt blame on because without any doubt it could really be
used more on illegal activities considering that transactions could really be done anonymously or cant be traced. Its not new and this is the main reason on why government cant really be able to decide
on accepting it or adopting because of this one common characteristic.

These type of talks only benefit the people who dislike bitcoin and doesn't help us at all. Sure it might have been used in crime activity before, and maybe it will be again in the future as well. But that doesn't change the fact that fiat is used for it as well and has been used for it for a long time as well. Which is why I believe that we shouldn't really be considering that as a negative for crypto and move on. Try not to look at the negative of crypto that is not negative for you, like this one is not a negative to you, so ignore it, because its still by far better than fiat and that is why it is better to have than any other currency.

This is not the way things work, every technology has its upsides and downsides, lets look at cars, since their invention cars have changed the world and we could say that cities are built with cars on mind and not people, and yet the technology has huge downsides like producing high levels of contamination, reckless drivers and even the use of cars as weapons, and yet we keep using them, why? Because the benefits they bring are greater than their costs, bitcoin is not perfect but the benefits it brings are great and the whole system will not be changed just to reduce the number of bad actors which use it.

Fiat is the most used source on criminal activities, but the information won't be talked much. Whenever a person takes a stand against cryptocurrency, he says bitcoin is for criminal activity. We can't deny bitcoin being used for criminal activity for which we shouldn't take it completely on the negative note. People needs to understand the positive side of bitcoin.

According to me, bitcoin had its circulation happening on criminal activities and gambling in the beginning days. Maybe if it hadn't got used, the usage of bitcoin now could've never reached this state. In my understanding the usage on criminal activities too contributed to the growth.

I really do not think it so. You see criminals always want a situation where by they would  commit a crime and go Scott free without any trace which was why the increase in digital or cyber crime became something else since bitcoin supports anonymous transaction. Now casinos back then wanted a way where by people could patronize them without any trace of their identity hence their resolve to accepting bitcoin which made it popular amongst the gamblers and there was the major breakthrough bitcoin got them and it started to blossom and gradually because the talk of time. See OP, I am meant to understand that there are some scenarios in life that is needed so as to facilitate a process. However, bitcoin was able to passthrough this process so as to get that popular amongst the gamblers and firm there it was well known amongst them.
See OP, I have come to realize that most times, there are some certain things that do not really scale through when things are done the right way or the right process to get things done but when it goes through the iron furnace, the heat of the fire makes that something get the relevant desires. I just assume this that it was that way.

The best start to fight cryptocurrencies crime is not to make one. We can't deny that we've been curious how those crimes happened but we don't have to do it ourselves, and that is a big prevention, I believe. It's true that criminal activities are inevitable but that doesn't mean that we have to ignore it. We can raise awareness and improving the security protocols of Bitcoin network.


I doubt it. Those people who believe right away with misconceptions are the ones losing something, not bitcoin. Having talks like these increase awareness on how we can be careful with our asset and how we can build a better bitcoin community. Also, it is the negative feedbacks that made Bitcoin grow up to this date, the users and bitcoin itself were able to prove those misconceptions wrong and improve the network.

I think it’s not news for a long time that Bitcoin is used in various dark schemes.But state regulators didn’t waste time either.If you remember 5-6 years ago there were no departments to combat cryptocurrency fraud.And now in many developed countries there are special units that catch criminals engaged in breaking the law and using crypto in their crimes.Progress does not stand still,this is a fact and I would not say that criminals cause great damage to the acceptance of Bitcoin as a payment instrument in ordinary society.

Criminal activities can be carried out with any means, from cash to bank transactions. The idea that bitcoins are a tool to help criminals is a widespread thesis among Italian rulers. To those who think these things I always answer in the same way: a knife can be used to cut bread or to attack a person. It is not the tool that is dangerous but how it is used!

And when the community we have built tries to use bitcoin for good things and never talks about bad things and it has grown out there, maybe people out there won't talk about the bad things people have done. And as long as we can use bitcoin well and only introduce bitcoin for a good cause, that's more than enough to help bitcoin become better known to people. And we also always have to remind people to take good care of their bitcoins so that no one wants to steal them.

Well, even criminals are using FIAT but unfortunately the media always targeting only Bitcoin in a negative way, that’s the difference. In fact, it is always safer to use Bitcoin or in general cryptocurrencies than FIAT . However, there is a minority who using them in criminal or illegal activities like, drugs and arms trade… etc
That’s the negative aspect of Bitcoin due to it is untraceable, They can know only your address but not your personal information and location.

In addition to that, the governments been looking for way to track Bitcoin since 2009 but they never achieved it.  Otherwise, we cannot end the criminal activities in the world but we can reduce the rate if we find a way to track criminals and improve the security . In fact, it not only related to Bitcoin but FIAT.

It's up to law enforcement and the judicial system to identify and penalize these individuals. We, as Bitcoiners, don't have the power to prevent criminals from using Bitcoin.

When we talk about global adoption, that means Bitcoin is already regulated. Otherwise, it would be banned due to its association with illegal activities. As you may have noticed, there aren't many successful decentralized exchanges today because governments are making sure they regulate exchanges and ban those that aren't compliant.

As Bitcoin becomes more widely adopted, it will slowly lose its anonymity due to regulation. Speaking of regulation, that means KYC is mandatory, which requires you to provide your real identity to use exchange services.

This is the direction we're headed in, not the promises we heard during the early stages of crypto which is "pure anonymity".

First of all bitcoin doesn't support anonymous transaction, you can follow it, so if someone steals from somewhere, usually that's tracked, even through mixers if it's a bad mixer as well, so it's a trouble. I have to say that it's not going to be a bit of a simple situation, it's a big deal and I think it's obvious that fiat is used a lot more no matter what.

Even if you "think" crypto is better for criminals to use, that doesn't change the reality that fiat is used a lot more, and I mean thousands of times more. Which is why you can't, or anyone else can't attack bitcoin or any crypto because it can be used in crimes, since fiat has been used so far anyway.

The issue you've raised is indeed a complex one, as it touches on the tension between privacy and security, as well as the desire for greater adoption and regulation of Bitcoin. While it's true that criminals have been known to use Bitcoin for illegal purposes, it's also worth noting that traditional currencies are also used for criminal activities, and that Bitcoin can actually be more traceable than cash in certain circumstances.

One potential solution to this problem is to develop more sophisticated technologies that can track and monitor Bitcoin transactions, without compromising the anonymity of individual users. This could involve developing new types of blockchain analytics tools that can identify patterns of suspicious activity, as well as working with law enforcement agencies to develop more effective methods for tracking down and prosecuting cyber criminals.

If you trust the government to solve this problem then you should be prepared to lose out on decentralization for bitcoin. What that means, the government simply does not want many anonymous users using bitcoin for any purpose, nor does the government want you to stay in its vicious cycle. While the government cannot blame bitcoin for any action regardless of scam, money laundering or other illegal acts.

That definitely depends on the person using the network. All too often those people who want to stay anonymous for whatever reason either make mistakes or don't know how to exactly go about it. It also depends on what kind of crime it is all about. I guess if someone pays for weed then law enforcement is probably not even interested in the person buying it.

I think authorities are on top of their game by now and it is not as easy to use Bitcoin for legal stuff as OP suggested. Most probably freaks who are into child abuse and what not are likely using Monero anyway. That is what I mean. Let's assume Monero would one day be cracked, well, there is still demand for an anonymous currency and someone would try to build it.

When forum members talk about the $5 wrench attack when it comes to crypto, sure that can happen anytime. But that can also happen when people know that you are storing gold bars in your basement or expensive art. In the end all these criminals usually look for an off-ramp and that is where it becomes difficult I think.

Everything we are doing have both advantage and disadvantage and that will not make us to stop using Bitcoin because of what we had been seeing and hearing from people. There is nothing we can do about this, even with the fiat that we had been making use of for a long time now, scammers and Fraudsters had been using it to wicked the innocent ones.

The U.S. Dollar is probably the worlds most used currency for drugs, sex trafficking, and other illegal behaviors.  Yes, those bills in your wallet have probably been in the hands of people behaving in illegal and immoral activities.  I do mean, take a $1, $5, or $20 out of your wallet and I am talking about that particular bill.

So, if you are worried about BTC being used for those purposes, what do you suggest be done about that currency in your hand?

It is obvious that some group don't want Bitcoin to be adopted so they are creating issues with the use of BTC.  The point fingers on Bitcoin being used in illegal activity while keeping blind that the fiat currency cases of being used illegally is far more worst than Bitcoin.


Bitcoin transactions are traceable, I think they had been longed achieved it since the implementation of centralized exchanges.  Any address that is linked to centralized exchanges can be traced by the government, though the mixer makes their task to trace people harder that is why the government is somehow hostile on mixing services.

For the first point, I can assure you that it's not like what you think of, anonymous haha it exposes everything for a normal on-chain user yeah from government-controlled policies you can say that it helps to get rid of. Still, I can say that the transparency of the Blockchain is its core beauty yeah if you are a person who likes to stay hidden due to some reasons you can try mixers to avoid regular problems faced by the users of that domain. Anyway, Adoption is not dependent on any type of circumstances its up to the law enforcement interests whenever they would think that ohhh now is the time to shock the market they will haha. Because currently opposing time to time is disturbing and getting more interesting for the profit makers.

There will be no War haha except for the Bitcoin war in the digital world from that I am pointing out 2 major stakeholder of the market Aisa and West. Both follow each other timely one attacks other defends and again one attacks and the other defends haha kid of a volleyball game. I am the one who is on the back of both because whoever did the goal its indirectly beneficial for us.

I guess disregarding the bad things happening with bitcoin is not a good because it might grow in the future. One problem must solve first as soon as possible cause it will cause more problem as time goes by. Anyhow bitcoin might be really use in the crime because criminal will always find a way to do it. What important is we have this forum to give awareness and for us to be careful all the time.

Every single item/tool can be both used in good and bad ways, bitcoin is no exception. Cash is used as well for criminal activities, no? And you can take a car and use it for a robbery, so are cars bad? What about screwdrivers? You can kill someone with one of those. Dogs? If trained in a certain way can kill people as well. Using possible criminal activity as a way to attack bitcoin is simply pointless, and sooner or later the majority of will understand that.

This is what got me wondering, how can we continue to protect our privacy when bitcoin is widely accepted and used as a mass payment method? I see people really want bitcoin to be more accepted and popular, but at the same time, they also want to ensure privacy, which is not possible. But like it or not, regulation is almost inevitable, the government has started to get tougher on us, and the crackdowns are getting bigger and bigger. I really hate regulation, that not only makes us lose our privacy but also makes the market no longer free to move, they will control everything.

Yes, being on this forum and other crypto forums that aim to educate people will bring awareness that bitcoin is not for criminal things. And if any problems arise related to bitcoins, they will surely resolve themselves. But even though there are criminal things associated with bitcoin, people know that it is a side effect that will be in bitcoin so they will not care about it and will only use bitcoin for good things that do not break the rules.

Maybe yes but we can never change that right forever? If some wanted to use an escape goat, they ll go to some mixers and they can never be tracked again. Thats an application which really destroy the image of bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Decentralized is nice but werent living on a place where there is no authority and have some rules.

Satoshi did a clever innovation of putting bitcoin into the scene.

I think it's good because you can spend your coins directly on the merchants or trade through direct P2P with someone in your country. As long as the country where you live doesn't force you to use their own wallet or exchange, you can still protect your privacy. Many people are very hard want to convert their coins to cash because there's Bitcoin holders aren't exposed and not many people accept Bitcoin as a currency.

It is true that cash is often used in illicit trade and the banking system is also used extensively in illegal activities and money laundering, despite strict regulations But it is important to know that the decentralized nature of Bitcoin does not inherently make it any more or less vulnerable to criminal activity.
Just like any currency or financial system, there will always be individuals who seek to exploit it for illegal purposes. However, there are also many legitimate use cases for Bitcoin, such as international remittances, micropayments and as a store of value.

speaking of crime, bitcoin is not the only tool that can be used for things that are illegal. it can happen to all transaction tools, even fiat. we know that before bitcoin existed, there had been a lot of crime going on, starting from money laundering, and other illegal things. it was even still happening and more when bitcoin appeared.
Actually, the government is already taking action on this, like KYC, or even something else. the proof of that is that quite a lot of criminals are caught for abusing the use of bitcoin. however, it is very difficult to stop crime. even when we look at the legal things that a country has made, there are still some people who try to plan crimes.

Almost every single currency or asset that exists in the world is used somewhere in a criminal or bad activity, and that doesn't really make much of a difference as those using it are the ones who are bad and not the currency or asset that is being used. People used to think Bitcoin is a currency used only in criminal activities some years ago, but did that stop Bitcoin from becoming famous or proving everyone wrong? No.

So no matter how hard a certain group of people or authorities try to convey it so that it looks bad and people stay away from it, it will become more and more popular and people will start using it more. So we don't really need to worry about that thing.

True. I can't believe some people and even politicians are accusing Bitcoin and other coins of that. But fiat was involved in crimes for centuries, but you're not banning it because of that!

As our local fiat can be used for criminal activity so is bitcoin. And contrary to popular opinion, we cannot say that bitcoin is used for more illegal activities than our local fiat is.Before I ventured into bitcoin investment, I was well informed of the potential for criminals to use bitcoin to conduct their nefarious acts  but I knew from Satoshi's whitepaper that this was not the true purpose of bitcoin but of those who used it in this manner. I hope we are aware that if we take a walk down history lane, we would see evidences of the US dollar being used for illegal activities.

True bitcoin supporters or enthusiasts do not support the use of bitcoin or any fiat currency for illegal activities and also they do not let the bad news of people using it for such purposes deter them from investing in it. Therefore, they have no need to worry.In conclusion, bitcoins investors have the moral responsibility to use it in a legal and ethical manner.

The first thing that came to mind was that Fiat is not crime free, which means it is still used by criminals in transacting, which means it has loopholes and they can still get caught, and the same is true with Bitcoin, they just use it because they can easily send money online from it unline in banks, where you can easily see it, but being anonymous, I believe the FBI is already tracking it down, as you are not 100% anonymous on this because you still need to send it to b 

No currency is perfect for all its circulation, acceptance, and operation.  All fiat, including assets like gold, securities are potentially involved in transactions of criminal activity, not just bitcoin.  Bitcoin offers freedom and scopes of use it will not be interfered with in any space, it is a need and usage.  I'm afraid bitcoin can't be built or changed in its special structure and most of the change is up to its users.

Yes, even though gold has a shape and weight that can be used for criminal transactions, this will only be ambiguous for all those who think about securing currency from criminal acts. I don't think how it would be one of the strongest pillars of bitcoin as a decentralized currency and giving freedom to be removed just for reasons to avoid criminal acts.
Criminal acts can be committed even without using any currency as a means of transaction, so it will be very difficult to eradicate such things, basically currency cannot control human actions, because currency is just a tool including bitcoin.

yes, Bitcoin and other currencies including fiat are used only as a means of criminal action. tool removal is not the solution. because the problem lies in human greed itself which is never satisfied with what it has.
in the context of the problem, it would be very difficult to find a solution. but I also don't believe that the negative press about Bitcoin will hinder its future adoption. public trust has increased quite a bit, several countries are starting to open up to Bitcoin and Crypto.

The issue is that one can not dictate how the other should make use of what they have in their custody however, in the case of fiat and crypto relating with crime, one can say criminal would be very difficult to handle when they make use of Bitcoin or any other crypto coin for their evil acts. Fiat transactions can easily be trace by security and financial institutions if they wish to.

I agree with you that we should not blame the whole system for the actions of a few hypocrites. Most of us still have this kind of misconception, Bitcoin is being blamed for these criminal activities, but if you look at it, most of the illegal activities in the world are still included in fiat currency, and gold is also included in this list.
However, even though identity hiding is the quality of bitcoin, the government can control this issue through its various regulations, and for this we need to create awareness about this issue, moreover, if a crime is committed, the accused can be identified based on the type of crime.

That's right, it's utter rubbishness by those who link Bitcoin or any asset out there with criminals or their activities knowing that they are not bound to use a single asset or currency to carry out their operations. We all know, even the authorities, that criminals have been using fiat for all their activities for centuries, but we never blamed fiat for being a criminal currency, then why the hypocrisy when it comes to Bitcoin?

I remember, a few years back, the mainstream media tried to do the same thing with Bitcoin, trying to make the general public think that it's a bad thing and only criminals use it and the general public shouldn't, but what happened is that they failed miserably, and the result is in front of us.

I don't know why some people will consider bitcoin as the preferred money in criminal activities. If criminals are able to utilize bitcoin for over a billion dollars of transactions, then how much more criminals were able to transact using fiat money. At least bitcoin transactions are trackable thru an honest blockchain whereas fiat transactions especially cash aren't trackable at all. Billionaires, millionaires, businessmen, politicians, and companies can use as dummies to transact illegal transactions.

All things created with good intentions can be used for criminal activities as well. Pencils are made for writing and drawings but someone can use them to kill someone. :D

We need to remember that crime predates Bitcoin by centuries, so whether Bitcoin exists or not, criminals will still live and will use other methods to carry out their evil deeds. The OP's suggestion of modifying bitcoin or doing anything to stop crime is more like he's trying to blame bitcoin than the criminals out there. Crime is like human greed, we will never be able to stop them all, all we can do is try not to be one of them.

Nice topics

But from my own opinion, the moment bitcoin transactions can be traced, lots of people will start lossing interesting.

I agree that so many people uses crypto for fraudulent act, but introduce means to trace them would be a bad idea.

What about fiat currency? Does this imply that people do not use fiat to commit fraud?
Most of the time, the government is looking for something to blame for their failing economy, which is why they have decided to label Bitcoin as a commodity that aids in the success of fraudulent activities, which isn't entirely true.
Permit me to say but in my country, some lazy/greedy people who still engage in that fraudulent activity still use fiat transactions to carry out their scams.

P. S. Do not use the terms "Bitcoin" and "crypto" interchangeably, as they are not the same thing, and you should know by now, if you didn't already, that Bitcoin is far better to the other coins (cheap copies of Bitcoin) that are being introduced into the market.

Everyone knows that bitcoin is the best, but bitcoin is also part of the crypto industry, bitcoin is not alone. Initially, only some governments wanted to ban bitcoin and crypto, so they found ways to blame bitcoin. But nowadays, governments are slowly realizing the benefits of bitcoin, so they are gradually adopting it but with regulations attached.

To me, bitcoin or fiat is just means, and criminals use what is up to them, without bitcoin and fiat, they will also find an alternative. They will never stop.

Like you said, Bitcoin is anonymous. That is also the main reason on why criminals like to use it because they can escape easily with their crimes. There are still cryptos out there which are more private than in Bitcoin (Monero for example.) Criminals also use this and I think they are using this heavily than in Bitcoin. Even the criminals do also use fiats especially when they are about to encash their cryptos so don't focus only in Bitcoins.

There are now in-direct regulations which are put in place to possibly combat these criminal activities. This makes people trust Bitcoin even more so adoption is still doing fine and it only got improved. Don't worry, Bitcoin is still decentralized.

Well, we should also look into the positives the transactions are transparent and can't be erased from the blockchain database never so once the transaction is done it will be there forever so in case someone at one end of the world get caught then it will be a lot easier for the investigators to trace the group with the blockchain technology which is a good thing right. Eradicating the criminal activities in a nation is in the hands of government so as long as the authorities are corrupted the criminal activities will continue even if there is no bitcoin so here the system should be changed not the mode of payment.

I don't really think so. Because if we take a closer look, the bitcoin blockchain is an open ledger that really everyone can see. Anyone can track any transaction. Sure, you can't say who exactly is behind it, but you can still understand everything as long as they don't use a mixer service to prevent this. But I think most people know that too.

There are also companies like chainalysis that analyze the blockchain in detail and try to find out who owns which bitcoin address. So by and large, the bitcoin blockchain is not 100% anonymous.

Fiat money is used by more criminals and more often than the bitcoin blockchain. Yes, the bitcoin blockchain is also used by criminals, but certainly less than you might think. Either way, there are ways to track down such people and they are used. But that does not diminish the interest in bitcoin. Neither by people who use the blockchain normally or by people who want to use it for illegal things.  ;)

Here's the point.
I think everyone should look at the root of the problem, because to say bitcoin is a den of evil, then what about money or other valuable assets.
But on the other hand this is also not the fault of bitcoin itself because in this case bitcoin or other valuable assets are just objects here. What needs to be straightened out is how our attitude is in using it.
This happens because of greed and how everyone's mindset always does things in ways that are not justified and this will definitely happen not only for bitcoin but for others as well. Dirty human minds make it appear that bitcoin is ugly, but that doesn't mean that everything in it is also ugly, because this is only for a handful who can be represented as irresponsible "persons".

The fiat has been fully backed and controlled by the government and yet some elites were able to use it for fraud and crime, what do you think of Bitcoin that doesn't have any control and it is censorship resistance? Bitcoin, of course, is primarily designed without any middleman where there is a center of authority, and seeing these features is a green flag for the bad guys who are into kidnapping, money laundry, and other forms of illicit activities, there is nothing governments and authority can do to stop these guys even with the implementation of KYC on exchanges, they still make use of decentralized exchanges without anyone stopping them.

Bitcoin can be used by criminals just as fiats to perpetrate crimes such as extortions, tax evasion, cybercrime, drug trafficking and many more but that doesn't make it all bad. On a bright side, the transaction is carried on a blockchain that is immutable and traceable unlike the fiat currency that one can easily manipulate and delete the records.

First of all, whatever the reason for the existence of Bitcoin, why it can never be controlled by any country's government because of the technology it has called blockchain technology.

And what you are saying in my opinion is also impossible, that's why Bitcoin is for everyone, it just depends on the purpose of the person who will hold Bitcoin if it is used for illegal things, and as you also mentioned we are really anonymous here and find out who owns the address.

Bitcoin is also just a currency like a fiat and they are used by people. So we won't have any way to restrict the usage from criminals, if there is any way, the government will do it with fiat, not just bitcoin, because fiat is used by criminals hundreds of times more than bitcoin. The government does not accept bitcoin because its decentralization threatens their power, it has nothing to do with criminals using bitcoin.

As someone said "You can kill someone with spoon". Way you using something is more important

As Bitcoin gets more popular, folks are getting more worried about its ties to criminal activity. Bitcoin's anonymity is cool, but it also attracts some unsavory characters. That's got us wondering how we can stop illegal stuff without losing the privacy and decentralized nature of the tech.

One idea could be to make a system that allows anonymous transactions but can still track illegal activity. Blockchain technology can make a public ledger of transactions that we can trace back to the source. That way, we can stop criminals from using Bitcoin to do shady things.

Another thought is to make some rules about Bitcoin and crime. We could make Bitcoin businesses put in measures like KYC and AML to make sure only the good guys are using the platform. To make Bitcoin "safer," we gotta find a balance between privacy and security. It's not easy, but it's gotta be done if we want Bitcoin to be a real currency.

Because there are a lot of criminal activities in cryptocurrencies that's why many users when using CEX mandatory to complete KYC to prevent any criminal activity. Since Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are anonymous and easy to transfer to various countries making Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as their ways to do their criminal activities.

Same concept as to how people say that money is the root of all evil. A tool is a tool no matter how much you value or view that, it doesn't change the fact that it depends on the one using it to be able to call it something good or evil. Just because the government cannot hold its authority over it, we should just call it illegal or bad? Of course not, right? I do agree that people have different intentions and perspective, that is why it is possible that a certain tool can be used into something horrible. In regards of bitcoin or any other currencies whether they are centralized or not, crimes that are happening is already pretty common, and government doesn't have the rights to stop someone from using that, instead they can prohibit the usage since they are the ones controlling the law and rules on that country. Imagine them chasing and criticizing cryptocurrencies while right under their noses, corruption, smuggling and so many illegal activities happened in a broad daylight and at the same time using their own centralized currency.

The blockchain technology has always been a public ledger that is open for anyone that is looking, and many people use centralized exchanges for their trading, which requires them to submit compulsory kyc, so many people who use BTC have lost their privacy because of that, and many addresses can be traced to real identities. Though criminals are very smart and they make sure they keep their identity secret by not using platforms that farm data. As long as there is a currency, it must be used by criminals, there is no way to stop criminals from using BTC, and that is surely not the concern of BTC developers.
Most crypto businesses have KYC and AML policies, because without it you cannot operate in many jurisdictions, but that was not a rule implemented by the BTC community, it is government policy. BTC is a censorship resistant and permissionless currency, there is no way to do what you are suggesting without breaking what BTC stands for, that is why there would always be decentralized exchanges for people who want to trade BTC in the right way.

We need more people with responsible usage of bitcoin in our society and in my estimation, it begins with us. We start by showing  that despite all the ills that have been told about how bitcoin facilitates illegal activity(the silk road), there's still some good it does such as international money transfer and investments. I on my part think that the government is to be blamed partially for the criminal activities committed with bitcoin. If from the onset they had set out to understand rather than bastardize it, it they had set out to find a away it could co-exist with our fiat rather than cancel it, then criminal actors wouldn't hijack it for nefarious activities but then again so it is with the dollar, pounds, euro, yuan etc.

It's not the only tool used for criminal activity, but you're right, since governments don't have full control over it, they will press charges against it. And fiat is always involved in the corruption schemes, which we occasionally hear about, but no one talks about the shortcomings of this system.

There are many things that can be used for both good deeds and criminal activities, but in this case the problem is not in the tool itself, but in the people who commit crime.

Anonymity and also privacy protection are one of the advantages of bitcoin which is indeed attractive to criminals to make bitcoin a means of money laundering, and that is why many of the world's governments refuse to legalize it because it will make the criminals tracks disappear, I think with the decentralized nature of bitcoin seems to be difficult to stop crimes from happening unless the government implements strict regulations on bitcoin and even then it does not guarantee that money laundering will no longer occur, but to be honest, there are actually many ways that criminals can launder money and it is not appropriate blame bitcoin completely.

The complete transparency of the bitcoin blockchain makes the work of fraudsters more difficult than it might seem. When they know that the fiat system is controlled by the state, they can simply use nominees to run their schemes and then it will be difficult to prove anything, and the fiat system is much more common and familiar than bitcoin. So it is obvious that scammers use fiat much more often and it is not very profitable for them to switch to bitcoin.

There is no anonymity in a public ledger. You want anonymity? You deal with fiat. Cold hard cash. Thats anonymity.

Bitcoin is literally less anonymous than paper money. This comical rumor of Bitcoin being untraceable is a myth which is perpetrated by anti coiners who want to see BTC fail (It won't). As soon as you connect your identity to the exchange where you buy your Bitcoin, any Bitcoin transaction you make can be traced to you. So obviously its a misunderstanding. A lot of dark web drug dealers have been busted because they did not understand this. Also, ironically this is the reason why monero is now the golden standard for dark web criminal dealings.

It is true that many people get scammed by Bitcoin or cryptocurrency.  But I will not blame Bitcoin or cryptocurrency here.  Those, who do not manage bitcoins and cryptocurrencies properly.  Improperly used, or handled.  It is important to take action against them.  Bitcoin and cryptocurrency clause to stop illegal activities.  The Identify and Verify options are mandatory and very important

You know what? We have knives that we use for cutting fruits, vegetables, and many other useful things; well, some use it to kill others as well. Should knives be illegal? Who/which is the risky one here? The knife or the user? Make some sense dude when you say it's Bitcoin that is helping drugs, sex trafficking, etc. you acknowledged how fiat is helping all these more than how Bitcoin is.

Bitcoin transactions are transparent, not private. You can track most txs if you put effort and investment. There are a lot of on-chain analysis services. While the chance of tracking fiat is very much less than Bitcoin.

No one is in good faith arguing that Bitcoin is more complicit in criminal activity. I've quite literally only see government officials use this argument. Not even the private entities that were victim of crypto scams will blame Bitcoin for their loss. Almost always its lack of cyber security or human negligence.

Interestingly enough, Bitcoin is the easiest asset to track compared to paper cash, presumably why the government is so interested in limiting its use and push digitalized tokens instead. Criminals don't use legitimate accounts to store money, they'll launder under the guise of legitimate investments/assets.

The issue of illegal use of Bitcoin is indeed a challenge that the cryptocurrency community faces, and it's essential to address it to ensure wider adoption and legitimacy of Bitcoin. One possible solution to this problem is using blockchain analytics tools that can help track illicit transactions and identify the individuals involved. The second possible solution could be developing decentralized exchanges with robust KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) procedures in place. But his should be taken seriously.

The illegal use of the dollar is just too much.
Lets outlaw the $ 

Instead of doctoring on symptoms we should eradicate the disease

Once you use the KYC process, it is never called decentralized, and we don't need to come up with any solution in this case. Why are people always afraid about bitcoin being used by criminals will make bitcoin bad or not good? Don't forget that before bitcoin was born, criminals used fiat money, gold... all other assets for their crimes. Why don't we find a solution to those things but blame bitcoin? If you want that to stop, you don't need to find a solution for bitcoin, instead, tell the government to find a way to kill the criminals because it's their responsibility.

Because the government wants to control everything, and the appeal to fight crime is just a convenient rationale for a campaign to increase control over anything. Demonize bitcoin by saying that it can be used by criminals and keep quiet about how a small percentage of criminal money chooses to use bitcoin over fiat currencies. And that's it, you can ban and restrict bitcoin, increasing control over everything.

True. As long as the government is against bitcoin, it will always be a bad currency for them, even involving bitcoin indirectly in criminal activities and scams which I think fiat is also not free about it. I guess no matter what currency it is, as long as it create conflict on fiat, then it will always be the bad one. So the thing is, we just have to get used about it, as negative criticisms will only make bitcoin more popular and will never lessen its effectivity, though global adoption might also being threaten about it.

Honestly, it’s even safer to use bitcoin knowing it’s decentralized and the anonymity is high, unlike using centralized fiat that you are often monitored by the government. But with regards to bitcoin as a source of crimes, I don’t think it’s highly possible since fiat is the one that is abused by majority and people do commit crimes most particularly for the sake of fiat.

I think one solution to this problem is the global regulation that gives governments control over the data of all addresses and transactions, but this action doesn't look recommended for most of the Bitcoin community, because it hurts the privacy and anonymity that gives Bitcoin and other crypto currencies the advantage. If Bitcoin was regulated globally, it would look like any other payment system throughout the world. Indeed, some exchanges like Coinbase and Binance are forced to share their data with the American government. This facilitated the seizing of stolen money in some cases.
Another solution, the biggest players in crypto collaborate and organize a protocol that gets rid of illegal activities, and at the same time protects the privacy of users. However, we can't imagine a full disappearance of illegal activities in which crypto is used as a means of payment, because the thieves or scammers can move to using technologies like Monero or Zcash.