Bitcoin Forum

How stupid..

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-28/pedophiles-nabbed-as-banks-join-cops-to-follow-the-money-trail.html

"" While credit-card payments for child porn on the public Internet have plummeted, huge amounts of material have moved underground, and are often paid for using anonymous wire transfers and the bitcoin virtual currency. ""

I love how they make general sweeping statements like this. Really good PR for us... sigh.

It just sucks because we don't have a 20 billion dollar news media(or whatever the heck it is) giving us good PR. You know? So I guess we gotta do all we can, grass roots movement with some financial backing and believers. CoinDesk is helpful for sure, but sometimes a little off putting for my tastes. I feel like CoinDesk talks at a higher level so a normal person wouldn't really want to read anything there. I was off put by CoinDesk in the beginning days of my discovering Bitcoin because I didn't really understand anything I was reading there. It is fine we got technical details and blah there, but they need some more Joe Schmo dumbing down of articles for the (dumb)masses. lol.

Nothing new. Do peadophiles even need to actually pay for cp anyway? I imagine there's places on the darknet that host it for free. I'm also sure they buy this sort of stuff with paypal and other payment processors too.

Bloomberg are pillars of the ponzi bankster architecture
Negative slant not really a shocker tbh

Disappointing, especially after the hype generated when they added the Bitcoin ticker to their system. But that said, Bitcoin doesn't need any support from Bloomberg to get popular.

The mainstream media will always discredit Bitcoin and technology that disrupts the'old lifestyle' untill they can not deny it

the article is about western union. so not news worthy, althogh i do find it funny that people do try to grab any small thread or glimmer of mentioning money tothen turn it into a big deal about bitcoin..

even the OP is doing it, not only media..

summary, after reading the words western union 5 times you realise that its not a big bitcoin story..

I do not approve, but (supposedly) hard core kiddie porn is very popular among the top-level ruling class.

Agreed that it's not a BIG Bitcoin bad story but why the heck would they throw anything in there about Bitcoin?  Man the mass media is so into fear mongering.  Whatever sells...like you ever see the local news, every story is a negative/scary one.

Much of the negative focus is intentional:
Scared and "hopeless" people are a lot easier to control.

Although usually I agree with you, I do not agree with you saying "I am turning it into a big deal about bitcoin". The Article is not just about Western Union, and it more points the finger at BTC if you look closely.

Quotes from the Article.

""Virtual Currencies

The task force has recommended that governments regulate virtual currencies and apply anti-money laundering rules to transactions using them. It called for limits on privacy and anonymity on services such as Tor. And it suggested police do more to use existing laws on currency transfers to investigate suspected child sexual abuse.

In April, Britain took steps to adhere to some of those guidelines. The Crown Prosecution Service allowed the Internet Watch Foundation to actively seek out and search online for child pornography, as opposed to simply acting on tips from the public as it had done in the past. The group is the only non-police organization worldwide with such powers, according to InHope, a network of 51 child abuse hot lines in 45 countries. ""

And Bitcoin is also referenced twice by name.

""While credit-card payments for child porn on the public Internet have plummeted, huge amounts of material have moved underground, and are often paid for using anonymous wire transfers and the bitcoin virtual currency.""

"The delegates discussed the flourishing trade on sites with names such as PedoEmpire, Lolita City, Jail Bait and The Love Zone. Together those sites have hundreds of thousands of members, who pay for access with bitcoins, prepaid cards, and anonymous wire-transfer services. "

I do agree on this. The thing that bothers me is that we need to be on the defensive STILL.

I have no issue constantly defending something I beleive in, but it gets tiresome. I was more trying to draw some people there to help comment about how people want to blame bitcoin for everything bad. Some articles I read never get any support from people who really understand bitcoin and the media spreads their stupid bs. I usually comment on something with a few short sentences and a link to info on what bitcoin really is in those cases.

It just sucks because we don't have a 20 billion dollar news media giving us good PR. You know? So I guess we gotta do all we can, grass roots movement really. CoinDesk is helpful but sometimes a little off putting for my tastes.

This isn't a big deal whatsoever and this thread is obsolete to Bitcoin.

There was a talk on this by Andreas Antonopoulos just recently. Usually when a revolutionary technology comes along the majority of people fail to see it..
This happened with the telegram, the telephone, the internet and now with bitcoin.

Their stance on Bitcoin has actually changed in many ways already! It used to be pretty bad, but now they actually do report positive things about it! Let's see what happens when the next wave of adoption comes rolling in!

Forbes and Time (?) magazine had important, mostly positive articles shortly before the huge May/June 2011 rally.
The occasional & repeated mainstream media positive 'hype' of Bitcoin is amazing and sometimes "a little strange".

For example take a good look at this USA TODAY logo:
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bitcoin-USA-Today.png

Yeah, that really blew my mind when that happened! I mean it's a major newspaper. Maybe not the best out there, but hey who cares? It's about the exposure of Bitcoin! And you see how it transcends even into those mainstream newspapers. It's awesome!

this is why BTC needs some proper marketing and PR teams working on getting joe soap to hear the good stuff about BTC. They onyl hear this type of thing so far and this will make it easy for governing bodies to regulate the crap out of it (or any other way to keep it restrained). If there were larger amounts of public adoption they would find it harder to do that.

We should have a kickstarter to fund a commercial campaign for the TV and papers and radio or similar. Get these media machines under the thumb of BTC like their other sponsors. Then well see how many peodo references there are to BTC... and at the same time it encourages wider mass adoption:)

also, lets try to get this viral, pls spam everyone with it:
http://youtu.be/cW3fM95L7RU
(Pheeva wallet commercial)

It is actually the task of the Bitcoin Foundation to lobby for Bitcoin and come up with clever ways of advertising it. They do get in the media, but aren't exactly successful in portraying Bitcoin from its brightest and positive sides, if you know what I mean  :P

That's the crazy thing about top level people and governments too, they like to pass and enforce laws that they themselves break.

I just went to USAtoday.com and now the blue symbol is a telephone, not a BTC

Yeah, it was already some time ago! They do keep changing their logo constantly, I guess. Much like Google does to commemorate some special event or person!

How often? Show us the data please.

Oh I forgot, you don't have any data because it is almost impossible to collect data about this "industry" without doing something highly illegal.

actually bloomberg ist very positive on bitcoin since months (matt miller , thx!)

??? I am quoting the article man. I am not typing that.

Sources say Bloomberg is popular among pedos.

True! I didnt see any output from them in the media, do u have an example? It must have passed me by.

However, in the spirit of P2P and decentralization etc I think more community efforts could be made on this front. Its in everyones benefit (well, most of us) to get the word out and relying on one company / organisation is probably not our best hope. IMHO the problem is that BTC world is filled with people that understand it already and are generally tech savvy, and dont really appreciate that the avg person will/does not get whats going on and the potentials. So a bridge needs to be made, and we need some regular bridge builders for that (ie normal evil marketing and PR types). THis slow education word of mouth thing will only take us so far and I dont think we have time (I suspect many places will go the way of Ecuador before slow education will work).
Anyway, I think I'll start to lobby someone with some money / good BTC product to start a kickstarter and get the ball rolling. If PR is coming, then a public friendly app needs to go with it...

they probably use cash more than btc.. just a thought

I have cone to terms with the fact that news companies will always find something to make news on even if it means slating something especially on slow news days. Are they able to show you stats proving that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are being used more frequently for these kind of transactions or is it just want they say has been found? I don't deny that virtual currencies are may be being used for this however only pointing out the negatives gives bad reputation especially when there is a lot of good can come from using virtual currency.

The magic thing about bitcoin on the other hand is that no single entity has to spread the word or take care about it taking off. It is the task of every single being invested in the technology to push it forward, in order to profit from a higher price. Ingenious, Satoshi, ingenious!

Yes, he understands.

Same FUD different day. Mention bit coin along with child porn/terrorism/organized crime, scare a few people, rinse repeat ad nauseum.

I am not so sure about that. I feel like most people do absolutely nothing to spread BTC.

i don't get what you guys are upset about, at least with this issue. it's probably true, and you can't deny it; bitcoin makes it easier for pedophiles to do their shit, but that doesn't mean bitcoin's development should have to stop just because of that.

Sources say iluvpie60 is popular among pedos.  ;D

I guess you would know....

Aw c'mon. I was being nice. I was pointing out that at least somebody like you.

time for me to chime in..
1. the article mentions western union 8 times
2. the article mentions Xoom 5 times
3. the article mentions credit cards a couple times
4. the article mentions wire transfer a couple times
5. the article mentions bitcoin .... a couple times

to me. it tells me
1. western union is being negatively used 4 times as much
2. Xoom is being negatively used atleast  twice as much
3. bitcoin is used the same as credit cards and wire transfer

in short the article is pointing out ALL payment systems, thus it is not a direct bitcoin attack. so dont make a big deal out of it. nasty people will use any type of money they can, you cant stop that.

if you cant talk a sicko into getting a girlfriend his own age, you wont be able to talk him into staying away from bitcoins

you do know virtual currencies includes paypal, xoom.. right? so its not a direct attack, calm down.

by you posting it and making it into a issue, is highlighting a non-issue to become something directly affecting bitcoin. your own actions is adding more public awareness to the sexual predators and creeps and making those reading this forum realise that bitcoin is being linked to that gross crap. thus you are causing more FUD and more negativity about bitcoins legitimacy for average joe.

take for instance silk road. compared to the streets of detroit with paper money, silk road is a drop in the ocean. so whenever its mentioned most people here dont scream to the heavens that its being mentioned. they just brush it off as just another media story where the editor doesnt know the facts. those reading it no longer post forum messages about silk road, as its just unwanted attention.

so chill out have a coffee and relax i dont see that article as being a big nasty attack directed toward bitcoin specifically. and it wasnt worth my time even writing this to correct you. but i did. out of respect.

in short, this guy said it best

have a nice day.

Governments will need to educate themselves as to why Bitcoin and other such currencies came about first before they think about regulating it. If they do insist on regulation chances are another form of currency will pop up and we will be right back where we are now. Those engaged in child porn will always find ways to get what they want so from credit cards to money transfer to cryptocurrencies. The next avenue for payments is not known but they will find ways.

if there is legislation or restrictions on bitcoins, it won't be specifically for BTC.. but cryptocurrencies as a whole though.

I was going to say that.. Do you have any links to support your theory?

As far as I know most of the pedo rings are in Russia and occasionally in the U.S., I very much doubt that the vast majority of pedo stuff is financed by Bitcoin since we all know organized crime is mostly profiting from that and they are about as intelligent as the cartels in regards to BTC use.

So no, not on this plane nor on any plane does Bitcoin endorse crime. They are afraid of looking like complete tools claiming that most of drugs are being sold using Bitcoin so they move to the next best thing.

the thing about pedo rings is that they are ultrasecretive, so there's no way of really knowing much about their activities, unless you are NSA/CIA who are spying on them.

Many politicians and powerful men are pedos, so I certainly believe that being an average joe you could encounter or expose one by posing as a little girl for example rather easily. It's a whole grey area of shitstorm but I think it's either the following or the combination of the following:
A) The police is bought by powerful pedos.
B) Powerful pedos are wealthy thus they are never stopped/harassed by the police an never exposed.
C) The police is horribly bad at catching pedos, probably just as bad as in their war against drugs.
In any case pedos are pedos, they tend to have lower IQs, think with their cocks and generally not too hard to fool.

Bitcoin is maths, it can't endorse anything, it just operates regardless of the input of humans, this is something that people are completely misunderstanding about the whole network.

Poor choice of words, allow perhaps? Help facilitate more efficiently?

I would have thought the Vatican, no? 

It's fluid. Whatever is supposed to be the current monster according to your politician.