Secret Service Agent: Digital Currencies Fueling Cybercrime

[ajareselde]

http://www.coindesk.com/secret-service-digital-currencies-cybercrime/

"In his talks, Jarrow highlighted past examples of illicit services enabled by digital currency, including the now-defunct payment processor Liberty Reserve and black market Silk Road, which he alleged could not have been enabled by companies like PayPal."

Im concerned that they compare bitcoins with liberty reserve and SR, even with all this development we had over last months , they still see no difference ..
Its good to know that they cant "take down" bitcoin the way they did with these two, but its still anoying..
Liberty reserve existed until it was taken down in 2013, with all of the client money seized, including my 300$ 

What do u think, is this all just another scare story, or are they planing on making a move in the future ?

[Meuh6879]

resume = honey pot ... and grab.


like scam process.

[PolarPoint]

They are blaming digital currency because it makes it harder for them to catch criminals. Drugs and arms dealers uses fiat currency and the financial system for illicit trades too, they are equally difficult to track and catch.

[pedrog]

All the blame goes to the Internet!

Eventually bitcoin will prove it's usefulness and those kind of arguments will go away.

[MicroGuy]

What do u think, is this all just another scare story, or are they planing on making a move in the future ?

This is probably what this guy honestly believes, "that bitcoin is bad".

It escapes me how they could possibly stop this train now. I think it's just going to take more time for people like this to accept the coming change. I would look at the core developer(s) as 10X greater risk than any outside government agency.

Hopefully Bitcoin doesn't manage to attract a suicidal co-pilot. 

[ajareselde]

What do u think, is this all just another scare story, or are they planing on making a move in the future ?

This is probably what this guy honestly believes, "that bitcoin is bad".

It escapes me how they could possibly stop this train now. I think it's just going to take more time for people like this to accept the coming change. I would look at the core developer(s) as 10X greater risk than any outside government agency.

Yes i know it does look like theyre just blowing off steam, but its how the liberty reserve thing started to fall apart aswell, but unlike them i also dont know how could they fight against bitcoin since it is decentralised.
Maybe the developers are going to be forced to resign or pressured to leave.. its all cooking up, and with good and valid reasons, heres another issue that makes their point :
http://cointelegraph.com/news/113806/warning-kaspersky-alerts-users-of-malware-and-blockchain-abuse

things are not looking good

[majeis]

The title should be changed to: "Crimes are committed for money."

Now it's even more shocking. 

[Chef Ramsay]

Much of the bitcoin transfers and traffic are trackable so this guy is either dumb or just doesn't like the ease of the flow of resources through the blockchain. These agents and co have busted the LR and SR already so they should be confident in this marketplace by now. These allegedly top notch agents typically are briefed in detail on what they're dealing with so they should have a bigger handle on this whole issue. These guys are typically intelligent but are short on time to investigate things on a personal level and thus have an understanding gap.

[jjacob]

One of the factors which helped in convicting Ulbricht was that it was possible to prove that bitcoins on his computer were obtained from SilkRoad. It is time crime investigators woke up to block chain evidence.  

[vrm86]

All the blame goes to the Internet!

Yeah. Like the fiat money is not being used for criminal purposes  Cash is even harder to controll than cryptos, and bitcoin especially as it is not 100% anonymous. Authorities just dont like internet and related themes, as a "techy-sketchy things for kids trying to cheat us".

[HI-TEC99]

What do u think, is this all just another scare story, or are they planing on making a move in the future ?

This is probably what this guy honestly believes, "that bitcoin is bad".

It escapes me how they could possibly stop this train now. I think it's just going to take more time for people like this to accept the coming change. I would look at the core developer(s) as 10X greater risk than any outside government agency.

Yes i know it does look like theyre just blowing off steam, but its how the liberty reserve thing started to fall apart aswell, but unlike them i also dont know how could they fight against bitcoin since it is decentralised.
Maybe the developers are going to be forced to resign or pressured to leave.. its all cooking up, and with good and valid reasons, heres another issue that makes their point :
http://cointelegraph.com/news/113806/warning-kaspersky-alerts-users-of-malware-and-blockchain-abuse

things are not looking good

The truecrypt developers suddenly decided to stop developing it and recommended a Microsoft product when Snowden started recommending it. I bet someone put pressure on them to stop. If they put the same kind of pressure on the bitcoin core developers they could quit too.

[--Encrypted--]

Eventually bitcoin will prove it's usefulness and those kind of arguments will go away.

I'm afraid you might be wrong there. Bitcoin has already proved its usefulness numerous times in the past, and it will do so again.
but these kind of arguments will always appears as long as anyone who uses it for illegal activity exists.

[countryfree]

without digital currencies, "cybercrime would be much more difficult"

Quite true, but there was crime before digital currencies, they're only a medium. People buying drugs on Evolution (or other markets) were buying drugs on the street before, so you can say digital currencies are a good thing because they helped moving drug dealers out of the streets.

[Lauda]

I wouldn't be surprised if the US starts funding terrorists via Bitcoin and then blaming Bitcoin. We've had this. The government is stupid. They can't control Bitcoin, they can't take it down. That's their problem. This is something completely new that they have no power on.

What do u think, is this all just another scare story, or are they planing on making a move in the future ?

This is probably what this guy honestly believes, "that bitcoin is bad".
It escapes me how they could possibly stop this train now. I think it's just going to take more time for people like this to accept the coming change. I would look at the core developer(s) as 10X greater risk than any outside government agency.
Hopefully Bitcoin doesn't manage to attract a suicidal co-pilot. 

I hardly doubt that there is anything that they could do. As long as the Bitcoin community stands united with the developers and miners. If something goes wrong we would just fix it and revert back. Sure this would be a small step back, but we would still survive it and come back stronger than ever.

[dhimasnk]

Bitcoin is very different with Liberty Reserve. Bitcoin will be better because it is decentralized, in contrast to the E-Payment centralized as LR

[dickpeterjohnson]

Governments and their corporate Gestapo Agents aka police et al are irrelevant in the world of crypto. As much as they think that they can, they can not control the creation nor distribution of crypto.

In the future crypto will be the only game in town and the government controlled / monitored ones will be a competitor. An irrelevant one at that. They can only control you if you allow them to.

Fuck the Secret Service Agent.

[OrientA]

All the blame goes to the Internet!

Eventually bitcoin will prove it's usefulness and those kind of arguments will go away.

Without internet，we do not have many kinds of problem，but we do not ban internet。

[pedrog]

All the blame goes to the Internet!

Eventually bitcoin will prove it's usefulness and those kind of arguments will go away.

Without internet，we do not have many kinds of problem，but we do not ban internet。

Not anymore, in the first years there were the same arguments, 'it will be used by criminals', 'it will be used by pedophiles', 'terrorists will use it', well, sure they will use it, everybody will use it!

Eventually bitcoin will prove it's usefulness and those kind of arguments will go away.

I'm afraid you might be wrong there. Bitcoin has already proved its usefulness numerous times in the past, and it will do so again.
but these kind of arguments will always appears as long as anyone who uses it for illegal activity exists.

I don't think so, adoption is still very low, if tomorrow there's no more bitcoin nobody will notice, except for VCs who already spent quite a few millions in it.

[fancy_pants]

Because it's impossible to counterfeit, Bitcoin is very much a competitive threat to the original mission of the secret service.  Of course they hate it!

From the Secret Service website:
The Secret Service was established in 1865, solely to suppress the counterfeiting of U.S. currency. Today, the agency is mandated by Congress to carry out dual missions: protection of national and visiting foreign leaders, and criminal investigations.

[shogdite]

without digital currencies, "cybercrime would be much more difficult"

Quite true, but there was crime before digital currencies, they're only a medium. People buying drugs on Evolution (or other markets) were buying drugs on the street before, so you can say digital currencies are a good thing because they helped moving drug dealers out of the streets.

Exactly, the marketplaces have taken away the risk and stigma of buying drugs from street corners and into the safety and comfort of your own home. How many people's careers and reputation have been destroyed by getting caught buying a small bag of weed?