Bitcoin used to do money laundering - will it become a huge problem?

[onlinedragon]

Money is laundered with bitcoins and with all kind of money, this is one problem difficult to solve. You can use prepaid phone cards, amazon cards, or dollar notes to launder your money. Its a problem that existed before bitcoin.

Your right even when BTC didn't exist they always find a way for money laundering. Never ending story ridiculous people don't understand that.

[bargainbin]

Money is laundered with bitcoins and with all kind of money, this is one problem difficult to solve. You can use prepaid phone cards, amazon cards, or dollar notes to launder your money. Its a problem that existed before bitcoin.

Your right even when BTC didn't exist they always find a way for money laundering. Never ending story ridiculous people don't understand that.

Right. You can kill a man with a fluffy pillow if you don't have a Kalashnikov. It's a bit *easier* with a Kalashnikov, that's all.
Oddly, there are places on earth which try to regulate AK47s, while any child can go into a store & buy pillows.

[Wapinter]

Money is a tool.Bitcoin is money.You can use the money to buy poison or nectar.It doesn't makes bitcoin bad if it is put to bad use just like you dont stop using fiat despite a it is also used to buy weapons etc

[bargainbin]

Money is a tool.Bitcoin is money.You can use the money to buy poison or nectar.It doesn't makes bitcoin bad if it is put to bad use just like you dont stop using fiat despite a it is also used to buy weapons etc

Sure. Money is a tool. As is an AK47. You can use an AK to dig a nice garden, and I'm sure it's been used as a spade many times. But it's much better suited for killing people. A fluffy pillow is also a tool, which has been used to smother people many times. And yet it lends itself so much better to being a headrest, so it's not tightly regulated.
This is analogous to Bitcoin and fiat: Fiat, while a percentage of it is used to buy shitty oily meth & nugs with comically-oversized magazines, is also used to build hospitals, and roads, and baby formula, and toilet paper. Bitcoin? well, it's used to hold hospital databases for ransom, which would be darn impractical, albeit not altogether impossible, with plain old fiat.

Ransomeware, kidnappings, illegal internet gambling, ponzi schemes, phony investment schemes,  DNMs -- these are Bitcoin's unique use case scenarios. Tell me why you think governments/ordinary people should welcome it.

[Coaxme]

The problem is mostly the negative publicity associated with it IMO.. It's just an excuse for the media to talk bad about it because they are scared of it..

The people who swallow this "negative publicity" BS are mostly ignorant regular joes who largely hold no value.

Let the media talk, people with large pockets looking for a secure way to hide their wealth might notice and figure out there might be something for them in Bitcoin 

Spot on! This is what i'm hoping for

This is exactly what i have in mind

[bitbaby]

The problem is mostly the negative publicity associated with it IMO.. It's just an excuse for the media to talk bad about it because they are scared of it..

The people who swallow this "negative publicity" BS are mostly ignorant regular joes who largely hold no value.

Let the media talk, people with large pockets looking for a secure way to hide their wealth might notice and figure out there might be something for them in Bitcoin 

Spot on! This is what i'm hoping for

This is exactly what i have in mind

They won't, they wouldn't want to hold their life savings (black or white) with something as volatile as Bitcoin.

Money is a tool.Bitcoin is money.You can use the money to buy poison or nectar.It doesn't makes bitcoin bad if it is put to bad use just like you dont stop using fiat despite a it is also used to buy weapons etc

Sure. Money is a tool. As is an AK47. You can use an AK to dig a nice garden, and I'm sure it's been used as a spade many times. But it's much better suited for killing people. A fluffy pillow is also a tool, which has been used to smother people many times. And yet it lends itself so much better to being a headrest, so it's not tightly regulated.
This is analogous to Bitcoin and fiat: Fiat, while a percentage of it is used to buy shitty oily meth & nugs with comically-oversized magazines, is also used to build hospitals, and roads, and baby formula, and toilet paper. Bitcoin? well, it's used to hold hospital databases for ransom, which would be darn impractical, albeit not altogether impossible, with plain old fiat.

Ransomeware, kidnappings, illegal internet gambling, ponzi schemes, phony investment schemes,  DNMs -- these are Bitcoin's unique use case scenarios. Tell me why you think governments/ordinary people should welcome it.

Ultimately, bitcoin would have to lose its anonymity and become much regulated to be accepted by common people/governments and it has already started, nations will either ban its use/buy/sell and/or make it so one has to declare and provide credentials every-time one buys/sells for that is the part they can control.

[BoeserKeller]

We all know bitcoin is a perfect way to launder money... It sucks that criminals are using such a good tool as bitcoin for this use. Whenever a criminal gets caught laundering money, the media is all over it
Just so they can write negative stuff about bitcoin, which could lead to decrease in demand.

[classicsucks]

I think criminals prefer to don't waste the time waiting the 'complicated" bitcoin transactions and confirmations, it's more simple and easy for them to use fiat and cash and they used this currencies already

This. Bitcoin is good for transferring funds a long distance, I don't think it's convenient for laundering funds.

[EdenHazard]

Whats your thought on this?

For a lot of criminals Bitcoins are the perfect tool to launder money or not? Almost no trace but still they have to explain how they got the money once they convert it back into dollars....
Will this become (or already is) a problem? I'm thinking that the anonymity will be a problem for a lot of governments once BTC becomes a well know payment method.

i hear some people and article talk about bitcoin decide become payment method or investement,its will be decided,lest wait. i think its will prevent from money laundering or etc.

[Jet Cash]

BREAKING NEWS - I've just heard that people are using the US dollar for money laundering and the funding of terrorism. Should we have controls over the dollar, or maybe even ban it?

[jonathgb25]

Yes if your government has a poor tracking ability to trace what's going on block chain. I knew a friend that has a transaction in deep web and he still have the btc he earned right now without having worries.

[Amph]

BREAKING NEWS - I've just heard that people are using the US dollar for money laundering and the funding of terrorism. Should we have controls over the dollar, or maybe even ban it?

they are banning the "500 euro" cash because of this check the news, so apparently somethign is moving on fiat territory too, at least this is not just a double standard...

[goinmerry]

Whats your thought on this?

For a lot of criminals Bitcoins are the perfect tool to launder money or not? Almost no trace but still they have to explain how they got the money once they convert it back into dollars....
Will this become (or already is) a problem? I'm thinking that the anonymity will be a problem for a lot of governments once BTC becomes a well know payment method.

Good topic here. This should really be discussed carefully. If I would be the criminal I wouldnt exchange it for fiats at the day bitcoin was sent. I would let it be there for a month or two and maybe circulate it to different wallets so traces will really be minimized.

This is really a problem now and from the past since bitcoin had been knew for that kind of transactions.

[Altynbekova]

Yeah many people use it for money laundering. But they are very smart if they will do that, because the bank sees nothing.
But many people use Bitcoin for them self. They see it as bonus. I like it for the fun and I just have a daily job.

[Karartma1]

My question is why if cash is used to launder money no one says anything while if BTC is used for it it becomes a problem?
Money has always been laundered so it should surprise that any mean which gives that possibility is used for it.

[upsidedown75]

Money is laundered with bitcoins and with all kind of money, this is one problem difficult to solve. You can use prepaid phone cards, amazon cards, or dollar notes to launder your money. Its a problem that existed before bitcoin.

You are right we should not have to blame bitcoin for money laundering, as it is a problem which is existed from long ago, and the people involved in money laundering are inventing different methods to use the money for crimes, we all should have to work to stop them, and should not have to blame any currency or transaction method for it.

[nanonymousx]

I don't think bitcoin in general is good for money laundry at least without using a mixer, the bitcoins will always be linked to there origin and therefore should not be clean in anyway, even mixers are not the best option to clean them since these too are mostly unclean coins.

[blackbird307]

People have always laundered money. I don't think it'll be the first time, or stop with bitcoin. One way or another money laundering will remain here.

[bargainbin]

My question is why if cash is used to launder money no one says anything while if BTC is used for it it becomes a problem?
Money has always been laundered so it should surprise that any mean which gives that possibility is used for it.

Dear Karartma1:
Cash is seldom used to launder money, because cash seldom *needs* to be laundered. No one *ever* checks the serial #s on the 10 & 20s I spend. Ever.
One of the few cases where cash would have to be laundered is if it was stolen in a circa 70s bank robbery, and a die pack went off.
The point of laundering money is to make money you made by selling shitty crank & kiddy porn appear legitimate.
And that's where bitcoin comes in.
So now you know

[classicsucks]

Cash is seldom used to launder money, because cash seldom *needs* to be laundered. No one *ever* checks the serial #s on the 10 & 20s I spend.

I think some people are getting confused. From wiki:

Money laundering is the process of transforming the proceeds of crime into ostensibly legitimate money or other assets


So, money laundering is done to hide the ORIGIN of profits because they're coming from illegal activities. Of course cash has to be laundered sometimes - if somebody made $million$ selling drugs, they probably hope to put it in a bank so they don't get robbed, and they can spend it without looking too suspicious.

Of course there are probably plenty of criminals with suitcases full of cash out there as well.

Bitcoin could be used to launder money - likely by paying for non-existent goods and services to obscure the source of illegal profits.