Bitcoin Forum

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/05/04/department-defense-to-study-bitcoin-as-terrorist-threat/

Ultimately they'll try to relate it to Money Laundering, Hawala/Hundi... But the more important thing is to stop those they first need to ban CASH.

1% wants cheap coins

Fox have no more ideas lol... This is thin! Bad or good still got bitcoin out there

Lets see, the Treasury Dept. probe finds no evidence whatsoever, but focus in on the key interest for our wonderful US Gov.
"Bitcoins, according to the business site, can allow illegal operations with the speed of the Internet, but with the secrecy of a cash deal"

 This must be truly fascinating for intelligence agencies (ha ha?) to continue the Fast and Furious programs all over the world including Benghazi. Excuse me while I adjust my foil hat now!

Fast, sell Android, buy iPhones, LOL

so the government has been laughed at for all the false publicity and lies that bitcoin drug lords surpass fiat drug lords, so now they move onto terrorism..

after all their investigations they will come to the universal phrase:
'bitcoin dont kill people.. people do'

and we will laugh again

hypocracy makes me laugh,
if they dont want people shooting people, ban guns
if they dont want people funding murder, ban money

bitcoin is not a bomb or a gun.. and so why even bother with this latest saga of propaganda

and the summary of millions of dollars worth of DoD research is this

bitcoins is not in government control. it cant be banned.

"Some high-profile cases have highlighted bitcoin’s vulnerability, including Silk Road, the digital black market shut down in October by the FBI. Silk Road accepted only bitcoin for payments. The site’s founder was charged with drug trafficking and money laundering."

They are saying BTC might be a threat, but...
Remember!
It is also vulnerable and clearly tied to drugs.  :o
Fox News: Fair and balanced...

There will be a hell of a fight in the future as crypto-currencies threaten the established finance system.  One HELL of a fight.

anyone out there wanna sell me a nuclear device for 1 BTC?? $435 for a nuclear suitcase bomb... as soon as it's detonated your 1 BTC may go to the moon in value...

Sorry...All I have are "F" boms.

Remember that most people who tune into Fox News are old and cranky:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2550377/The-average-age-Fox-Viewers-68-majority-politically-conservative-white.html

That said, they are the richest demographic sub-section in the US, and the ones who are most likely to invest in Bitcoin (in the future). That said, no one caught the fact that the poll was taken during the day, when normal people are at work, and the retirees are at home, answering their phone. This is a typical skewed media poll.

So people are actually using foxnews to learn about news ?!

I always considered it as comedy channel.

All the mainstream US news channels are comedy channels. That includes the MSNBC, CNBC and the CNN. I trust only non-EU/US channels such as Russia Today and Al Jazeera.

These DoD call to actions are common. What it basically does is says that the DoD is willing to fund contractors that will give them information on the topic they are asking about.

Usually someone with an inside connection to the reviewing agency will put together a contract with all of the wording that the agency is looking for.

Then the key is to know what the agency wants the results to look like. Then you do some pseudo scientific research and analysis and come up with the answer they want. You put it together in some big briefing or product with the idea that you need more funding to move to the next phase (for bitcoin the next phase would be a program to monitor and help fight the terrorists using bitcoin) which brings in the big money.

The person who used to be in charge of the whole thing (some Colonel or General) eventually retires and gets hired by the same company that he funded for the big project and makes bank sitting on his ass getting more contracts using his inside connections. And the cycle continues.

Keyword possible. I'd be surprised if they weren’t going to or already haven’t investigated it in some capacity. They need to know if it's a tool that can be used against them. I think Bitcoin has certain aspects that can be taken advantage of nefariously, but then so does cash. It'll be interesting to see what they deduce.

That's true. However it's comedy that is not funny at all, because it aims at influencing people's mindset (and often succeeds).


I don't trust these sources neither. They're just media influenced by different political forces.

I prefer to trust only what I can verify, regardless of the source.

It's so strange to see people use a super left wing website to report on the viewership of Fox News. You would not be able to back this up with real information, as the true fact is; the people that listen to Fox News are just as politically, socially and racially diverse as those that read other news.

You often shoot the messenger? <LOL> shaking head

LOL, Fox "news"

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt201/Pilikia_photos/mediadumbass.jpg

http://lollegends.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/oNHBfJO1.jpg

Lol, Fox News is the most biased news channel there is. No one should watch Fox.

Daily Mail?  Left wing?  You must be new to this planet.

You know what they are trying to associate everything bad with bitcoin I'm kind of sick of the media take advantage of this.

For those who don't like Foxnews, read this and weep:

http://www.coindesk.com/department-defense-office-investigate-bitcoins-terrorism-potential/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CoinDesk+%28CoinDesk+-+The+Voice+of+Digital+Currency%29

"An office within the US Department of Defense is conducting a study into bitcoin and other technologies as a potential terrorist threat, according to news reports.

The move is part of the Combatting Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO) programme aimed to assist the military in understanding if and how various new technologies might be used to threaten US national security.

The news first appeared on investment consultant Bruce Fenton’s blog on Friday, with a link to CTTSO’s request for vendors to apply as information sources.

Before bitcoin fans get too alarmed, however, the CTTSO’s list of technology keywords is over 250 lines long and includes Android, Motorola, social media and virtual reality.
Familiar concept

Users on reddit mocked the idea, suggesting myriad other things that could be facilitating terrorist operations. They included food, shoes, US dollars and even the Department of Defense itself.

Bitcoin as a terrorist aid is a familiar trope in regulatory circles by now, to the point where it is mentioned almost as casually as ‘Silk Road’ in reports wishing to highlight digital currency’s downsides.

The idea of an instantaneous, almost-anonymous and difficult-to-trace payment network is bound to get attention from any government that uses payment surveillance as a crime-fighting tool.

The strict KYC and AML (know your customer and anti-money laundering) rules governing the world’s financial institutions, and attempts to stamp out other near-anonymous transfer systems such as hawala, are proof that comprehensive international payment tracking is something the authorities value highly.
Treasury investigations

The Department of Defense is also not the first US government branch to take an interest in how terrorists might use digital currencies. The Department of the Treasury has conducted its own investigations into bitcoin, but downplayed any threat both in November and March.

Bitcoin, it said, was too volatile in value and limited in utility to be of use to terrorists, who generally preferred ‘real’ money anyway.

Since these factors are also a barrier to widespread bitcoin adoption in the mainstream economy, governments will likely be watching digital currency developments for some time to come."

Bruce Fenton's blog, the first to report this:

http://www.fentonreport.com/news/us-government-terrorism-agency-lists-bitcoin-dark-web-and-virtual-currencies-in-research-bid-topics

"US Government Terrorism Agency Lists “Bitcoin”, Dark Web and Virtual Currencies in Research Bid Topics"

"The Combatting Terrorism Technical Support Office CTTSO (http://www.cttso.gov) has listed Bitcoin among it’s topics for research and mission critical analysis related to terrorism “at home and abroad”.

The original bid notice appeared on the government contracting website FedBizOps:

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=dde16c3287e01f9c4e23cef3e1593b83&tab=core&_cview=1

Below is a screenshot of the CTTSO homepage as well as the bid page and section mentioning Bitcoin.

The CTTSO works under the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations.

Since there are no details about what the prospective research would entail one can only speculate as to the purpose other than knowing for certain that the US Government does intend to use taxpayer dollars to research Bitcoin and virtual currencies in some way.

What do you think? Have any insight, ideas, thoughts or comments?

Please share.

Update: Bitcoin Magazine had also come across the same bid — they cover it (starting a few paragraphs down) and include a link to a PowerPoint which is part of the process. http://bitcoinmagazine.com/12517/u-s-navy-preparing-bitcoin-battalion/

Here are few more messengers for you to try to behead!

My $.02.

;)

I stopped at "US Government Terrorism Agency" and thought to myself....how true that is.  Freedom of thought is on the verge of being declared terrorism. 

Why should we weep?
Foxnews has a bad reputation, and they deserve it, correct?
To be fair and balanced:
Some of the Fox News people are better than the competition, imo.

I wouldn't sweat too much about it. Fox News has pretty much lost 100% credibility in my mind. Remember their reaction to the original Mass Effect?

I think it is a bit short sighted to have said they already laughed at us and attacked us. The attacking has not really yet begun, just the ridicule has.
When Bitcoin and Cryptos start affecting the banking system en mass, expect false flag attacks "funded" in bitcoin to suddenly surface. Expect paper wallets
to be planted and people set up to make it look like bitcoin was involved. The way intelligence agencies are going to attack bitcoin
and cryptos (and not governments per say) is going to shock people. And since these psychopaths own the failing news agencies, they will get
the word out (if anyone is still watching LOL).

The intelligence agencies are basically extensions of privately held wealth and they will try their hardest to corrupt and destroy
bitcoin as it relates to the freedoms they bring. They will try to co-opt it and restrict its use to stop "terrorism" (which yes, if you haven't noticed
is generally state sponsored - on itself.) But, before they do this, they will let it grow, then when the threat is apparent a terror
attack will be blamed (or rather set up) that used bitcoin. I just can't see these psychopaths letting a chance slip by.

If you think this sounds crazy, just look to recent history. We can have obviously falsified information being the reason for invading a country
like Iraq and killing 1,000,000 people and no one went to jail for it. On the bright side though, they didn't get Syria.

But we have a chance as we are not in this alone. Figure that one out...  ;)
Its about sharing

Thanks Dutchman for the resources.

FTFY, author's political bias removed.

Too much truth in this post.

You are more than welcome!

From time to time as I find things of interest to the community, I will post them up!

My $.02.

;)

LOL, these guys are going to have a heart attack when Zerocoin comes out!

That was the next expected step that the government would take when the propaganda about it being a safe haven for money laundering, and illicit goods didn't really stick...

Yeah, they may...which is when the ban hammer starts coming out which is less than good.

I first read about Zerocoin a long time ago.
When is it supposed to finally be released?

All altcoins are shitcoins, Bitcoin will assimilate you (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZEJ4OJTgg8).

Can you name a single industry with only one company?
How about a single popular product with only one company offering consumers a chance to buy?
The world has 1000's of niches and there is room for a decent number of alt coins to thrive.

Exactly so.

My $.02.

;)

Is there any American news channel which is not biased? Faux News, MSNBC, CNN - all are the same. Add BBC of England to this bunch. Compare these channels to the German, Russian and other European channels and you'll see the difference.

Fox used to be the most obvious, then some of the others lowered their "standards".

Terrorist is in the eye of the beholder. It's a term that has been used to. Bitcoin is in fact not anonymous. The entire ledger of every transaction ever made since its inception is publicly replicated online, it's probably the least anonymous system ever created and used.

blaa blaa keep trotting this tired and untrue lie like a parrot. bitcoin can be very anonymous, and will only get more so as we make the tools more user friendly. this propaganda is spoonfed to people on a plate of bitcoin legitimisation and acceptance. you are being manipulated for some group's own ends.

anonymous is not the word as it does involve someone to have publicly linked their username or business to an address for it to be transparent. so anonymity is 'possible'.

but the word that should be used is trackable.

bank notes have a serial number and when you hand it to another person it is not instantly logged as 'changing hands'. it is only logged when it reaches a bank deposit, whereby it may have changed hundreds of hands inbetween.

but each changing of hands of bitcoin is tracked...

Russian are rather monopolitic, same as fox news actually.

I just cant wait to learn about it from Daily Show :P