Bitcoin Forum

Is the Islamic State Really Using Bitcoin?

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/is-the-islamic-state-really-using-bitcoin

answer to topic question:
someone or more then one in every country is using bitcoin, but the ISIS bitcoin propaganda only began by words of a single blogger writing a paragraph on a website. not provable words or speeches of a militia

No, they've just decided to use Realcoin as it fits better into their ideology.

By the way the media is repeating this supposed call by ISIS to use btc, I'd say its suspicious.  They have had no problem operating thus far without BTC so to me it seems like a way to demonize BTC as it begins to gain acceptance.  The media picks and chooses which stories to blow up, and this is definitely one they picked for a reason to spread everywhere.

i agree
the mainstream media is going to associate bitcoin users with isis and try to kill bitcoin that way

I wonder if it is just propoganda? Is the blog 100% a genuine ISIS affiliated site? Anyone can create a blog or website and start peddling their fud. IT wouldn't surprise me if this was just someone with an agenda against bitcoin.

As ISIS never gave any info on this one can only guess are they using it or not. All anyone has on this subject is one blog post....how convinient isn't it?

No.  They have real banks and real currencies.  Sure US and Western Europe might not take their money but the other 150+ countries in the world will.

email the media and inform them of the truth. make a video informing people how media is exaggerating about a simple blog post of a single person.

Speculation passes for hard news these days and weak hands buy right into it. Frankly is doesn't make a lot of sense for a terrorist organization to use bit coin. They would have to convert it to bit coin in order to buy most things and that exposes them to detection. They can use fiat currency pretty anonymously so why even bother with bit coin?

Isn't ISIS an extremely fanatic subset of Muslims? I think that would make them too conservative to use Bitcoin.

Exactly.  Thats really more or less all this is, but its presented as cold hard facts.  Just like the supposed gas attacks in Syria this past fall which the US govt along with the media presented as FACT, when other investigations showed evidence that was contrary to what the US govt was saying.  Yet did they retract their staements and let people know their info may be wrong?  No.  All that matters is that they blast the news to as many people as possible.

Thats what they are doing with anti-bitcoin propaganda.  As long as most people see the "bad" news, thats all they care about, whether its factual or not.

And they will just timple ignore you because that is not interesting to Joe Simple + would they really want to admit to general public that they made a mistake? Doubt it.

The Sun said the leader of Isis has one billion in the bank. So if anything it sounds like some Middle Eastern bank is helping fund it.

I couldn't find the article but I did find this:
"Jihadis Loot $429m from City's Central Bank to Make Isis......"
"500 billion Iraqi dinars - the equivalent of $429m (£256m)"

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5516/14596953966_b5fabc3ffd_s.jpg
Isis uses Bitcoins.

no ISIS are not a brand name of a fanatic group. no fanatics, militants of citizens call themselves ISIS.. unlike al-qaeda who name themselves as such ISIS is an american word/invention which stands for

ISLAMIC STATE of IRAQ and SYRIA

this means simply living in the countries of Iraq and Syria, your part of ISIS (in American governments eyes). the key words that needs to be added is 'militia' or 'militants'

dont be afraid of Iraqi's and Syrians, be wary of militants

It doesn't really matter.

I didn't read the whole thing as I don't hold vice in the highest esteem when it comes to matters that require more thought than "Look at this cool thing we're filming". This sensationalism on their part is probably not malicious.

Given enough pressure they'll correct themselves.

Bitcoin is one of those things that are so beneficial to the many that cannot be stopped by a little bad publicity. From when I started using it I can't imagine myself going through all the trouble of banks to do most of my online stuff.

Probably not, but what they should do is buy and hold. That way they will loose everything, and the war ends. I have it directly from K

You joke but if anything is actually going to be used to fund terrorism...

We want it to be used for everyhing, wertfrei, just like we want the terrorists to use linux.

So far there has been no real evidence that ISIS was responsible for that blog post as far as I know. Most people on reddit dismissed it as the work of someone attempting to case a scare in the bitcoin world. Lucky for us the effect has been minimal at best.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines
Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no"

Seems to me that pretty much all of ISIS funding is in dollars......time for a ban, maybe?

no , i don't think so :/

A lot of these cunts hide out in remote places, mountains, trees, clouds...you get the point.

Radical Islamic fear is still very strong in the USA, so the chances of this story being BS propaganda are extremely high.

Like: "Did a Tweet Just Raise $165,000 for the Alleged Silk Road Kingpin's Legal Fund?" http://motherboard.vice.com/read/did-a-tweet-just-raise-165000-for-the-alleged-silk-road-kingpins-legal-fund

No! a tweet didn't... Roger Ver may have.. ;)

Whether they are or arent using it is irrelevant. There's plenty of other fiat money transmitter services they could and probably have been using. I suspect this will be one more avenue people use to attack btc though.

Don't believe everything you read. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2a581y/the_isis_terrorist_bitcoin_piece_is_phony/

People write things for different reasons : Some get paid to discredit bitcoin for obvious reasons. Unfortunately the opposite is true too.

Just use your common sense, in most of these articles.

Did we just now not discuss this?  :)

It is next to impossible for them to exchange Bitcoin to fiat, as there are too few Bitcoin users in Central Iraq and Syria.  Even if they amass thousands of Bitcoins, how will they exchange it for arms and ammo?

Exactly.  This proves that the post that is being blown up by the media is probably not true at all, and in fact it probably was planted and a planned attack on bitcoins credibility.

Not to mention, they would have to get the BTC in the first place, leaving more of a digtal trace.  How insane is it to think they would go out of their way, acquire BTC, then use that to buy weapons, ammo etc?  It doesnt make any sense at all!!