Bitcoin, Crimes, and Terrorism

[Qartada]

Bitcoin allows privacy, and this can be used as the user decides.  All that it does is allow freedom on the Internet, while cash allows freedom in person.  What people forget is that currency is basically just for exchanging goods, I could equally send someone gold and no one would know why I did that (although they would know who I was sending it to).

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[Daniel91]

Recently, I heard report on national TV.
Police find some drug dealers and had interview with journalists.
They explained that it was very difficult to discover them because they bought drugs in the dark web and paid with bitcoin.
So, it's obvious that bitcoin is perfect tool for criminals.
No names, no bank or government control, it's very easy to exchange bitcoin to local currency etc.
I guess, it's the same for terrorists.
I don't know how to solve it.

[jtipt]

I think bitcoin being associated with crimes and terrorism has been discussed many times before, and it's no question that Bitcoin has a certain level of anonymity so it will always be considered for illegal activities. But from the current statistics a very less fraction of illegal activities are done with bitcoin while most of it is still done with cash.

[paul gatt]

That is something that countries around the world are concerned about, so some places have bitcoin laws, and they ban it, anyone using it illegally will be penalized, on the other hand, some The country legalizes it for easy management and brings tax revenue to the budget. In general, bitcoin has a lot of advantages to develop, but its downside is also exploited by criminals, because bitcoins are difficult to manage. This has been discussed a lot of times, but there is no method to solve it.

[Mohmdehab]

This is problem we can't slove, it's not even the real problem. The problem is with the human, human can use cash also, but do that mean we have to ban cash? Human can be a terrorist wirhout even money, do that mean spying on everyone? Or stop selling knives and axes? This is problem so much bigger than bitcoin, it's about human way of thinking.

[staggerpines]

Terrorism.. Lol...

[layoutph]

The sad thing is, bitcoin is being used by some corrupt government officials to secure their loots, thus without having to store their stolen money in the banks. This would make their crime anonymous. How can we prevent this?

[equator]

Bitcoin's anonymity is really a great characteristic. It enables users to use BTC in any transactions with nearly no traces. But is this really a good thing? Let us consider utilizing bitcoin in a negative way. Since bitcoin is considered currency, there is no doubt that a person that needs money will not reject bitcoin even if it involves unethical or illegal act.

Due to the anonymity of bitcoin, some uses bitcoin in a negative way [citation needed]. They can easily use bitcoin in paying others to commit crimes. They can even use bitcoin in bribery and/or money laundering. This characteristic of bitcoin are abused [citation needed] and it will never end well.

For the case of terrorism, terrorist can easily purchase weaponry from other country. With the use of transaction using bitcoin, authorities will have a hard time tracing that transaction thus, will give advantage to the side of terrorists.

This is not an impossible scenario. People can now use bitcoin in any way they want to. It's inevitable.

Ya it is true that each of the users have their own rights to use the bitcoin as they wish. So it depends on the bitcoin users how they are going to use the bitcoin, whether to use in illegal activities or use it as a online job income and do legal activities. But i have seen most of them are using bitcoin for gambling and porn activity.

[Mohmdehab]

The sad thing is, bitcoin is being used by some corrupt government officials to secure their loots, thus without having to store their stolen money in the banks. This would make their crime anonymous. How can we prevent this?

The government officials doesn't need bitcoin, if bitcoin doesn't exist they would use other ways (like swiss banks).
But I also belive that bitcoin should be more public, if you are not doing something wrong then why to hide your transactions? If you belive what is you doing you shouldn't be afraid from other knowning your transactions

[Marma Kalari]

Bitcoin's anonymity is really a great characteristic. It enables users to use BTC in any transactions with nearly no traces. But is this really a good thing? Let us consider utilizing bitcoin in a negative way. Since bitcoin is considered currency, there is no doubt that a person that needs money will not reject bitcoin even if it involves unethical or illegal act.
Due to the anonymity of bitcoin, some uses bitcoin in a negative way [citation needed]. They can easily use bitcoin in paying others to commit crimes. They can even use bitcoin in bribery and/or money laundering. This characteristic of bitcoin are abused [citation needed] and it will never end well.
For the case of terrorism, terrorist can easily purchase weaponry from other country. With the use of transaction using bitcoin, authorities will have a hard time tracing that transaction thus, will give advantage to the side of terrorists.
This is not an impossible scenario. People can now use bitcoin in any way they want to. It's inevitable.

Since this is a topic that has being asked many times i will make them short,bitcoin can give us the anonymity but it is traceable and if you are planning to move your coins to fiat currency you really need to verify your documents in most of the exchanges before proceeding .When it comes to money laundering and bribery it is not that different than fiat and do you think that there was no terrorism before bitcoin. People can user fiat any way they want and so is the case with bitcoin.

[SyGambler]

this card has been played many times by media but it just doesn't make sense , the US dollar is the #1 supporter of crime and terrorism
funny that I read an article that ISIS is using bitcoin in Syria in and Iraq , and for me as a Syrian I can tell you that over 99.999% of Syrians don't know what bitcoin is and I'm talking about educated Syrians not terrorists  ( I literally only know one guy that knows what bitcoin is )

bitcoin is much bigger than that , I find it shameful to mention that when we compare the positive of bitcoins with its negatives

[Aikonio]

The sad thing is, bitcoin is being used by some corrupt government officials to secure their loots, thus without having to store their stolen money in the banks. This would make their crime anonymous. How can we prevent this?

The government officials doesn't need bitcoin, if bitcoin doesn't exist they would use other ways (like swiss banks).
But I also belive that bitcoin should be more public, if you are not doing something wrong then why to hide your transactions? If you belive what is you doing you shouldn't be afraid from other knowning your transactions

People who have power and connections in the government realize illegal cases and with the help of crypto currency and with the help of dollars. It's just that the government wants to show that the crypto currency is dangerous and accentuates it with the help of terrorism

[taxmanmt5]

Bitcoin allows privacy, and this can be used as the user decides.  All that it does is allow freedom on the Internet, while cash allows freedom in person.  What people forget is that currency is basically just for exchanging goods, I could equally send someone gold and no one would know why I did that (although they would know who I was sending it to).

The Point here is not to send Bitcoins or gold to someone for what purpose, the point is that bitcoin send receive are anonymous and  we cannot track if the money is being used in terrorism or such stuff.

[Emoclaw]

Bitcoin's anonymity is really a great characteristic. It enables users to use BTC in any transactions with nearly no traces. But is this really a good thing? Let us consider utilizing bitcoin in a negative way. Since bitcoin is considered currency, there is no doubt that a person that needs money will not reject bitcoin even if it involves unethical or illegal act.

Due to the anonymity of bitcoin, some uses bitcoin in a negative way [citation needed]. They can easily use bitcoin in paying others to commit crimes. They can even use bitcoin in bribery and/or money laundering. This characteristic of bitcoin are abused [citation needed] and it will never end well.

For the case of terrorism, terrorist can easily purchase weaponry from other country. With the use of transaction using bitcoin, authorities will have a hard time tracing that transaction thus, will give advantage to the side of terrorists.

This is not an impossible scenario. People can now use bitcoin in any way they want to. It's inevitable.

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous. Every transaction is visible on the blockchain and can be traced. Authorities can easily trace the transactions.
No one is safe just because they're using Bitcoin.

Other altcoins such as Monero are a totally different story.

[cellard]

Bitcoin's anonymity is really a great characteristic. It enables users to use BTC in any transactions with nearly no traces. But is this really a good thing? Let us consider utilizing bitcoin in a negative way. Since bitcoin is considered currency, there is no doubt that a person that needs money will not reject bitcoin even if it involves unethical or illegal act.

Due to the anonymity of bitcoin, some uses bitcoin in a negative way [citation needed]. They can easily use bitcoin in paying others to commit crimes. They can even use bitcoin in bribery and/or money laundering. This characteristic of bitcoin are abused [citation needed] and it will never end well.

For the case of terrorism, terrorist can easily purchase weaponry from other country. With the use of transaction using bitcoin, authorities will have a hard time tracing that transaction thus, will give advantage to the side of terrorists.

This is not an impossible scenario. People can now use bitcoin in any way they want to. It's inevitable.

You have to choose. You want privacy, or you want the government to have full access to everything while trusting they will do a good job with the data?

That is the ultimate dilemma.  Some people trust governments and think their corruption is small compared to the damage they can prevent from happening, some thing terrorists having access to anonymous technology is not a problem compared to what governments do behind closed doors.

Who is right? who knows.

[QuestionAuthority]

Well, Amir Taaki has been using it for years and he's a terrorist. That doesn't seem to have hurt bitcoin so far.

[beafheart]

Well, Amir Taaki has been using it for years and he's a terrorist. That doesn't seem to have hurt bitcoin so far.

Bitcoin is just an instrument. And it can be used for good and for harm. It all depends on what hands he gets into. Bitcoin is not to blame for being used by some for drugs

[Marley_Gray_Microsoft]

Money is money, every currency should be banned if they are the cause of terrorism and crime

[pinkpanther03]

Bitcoin's anonymity is really a great characteristic. It enables users to use BTC in any transactions with nearly no traces. But is this really a good thing? Let us consider utilizing bitcoin in a negative way. Since bitcoin is considered currency, there is no doubt that a person that needs money will not reject bitcoin even if it involves unethical or illegal act.

Due to the anonymity of bitcoin, some uses bitcoin in a negative way [citation needed]. They can easily use bitcoin in paying others to commit crimes. They can even use bitcoin in bribery and/or money laundering. This characteristic of bitcoin are abused [citation needed] and it will never end well.

For the case of terrorism, terrorist can easily purchase weaponry from other country. With the use of transaction using bitcoin, authorities will have a hard time tracing that transaction thus, will give advantage to the side of terrorists.

This is not an impossible scenario. People can now use bitcoin in any way they want to. It's inevitable.

This is not a new thing topic, since bitcoin is an open source. which it can be really use for legal and illegal activities. And we cannot trace those people who will gonna do that things because of the anonymity it has. However, you are also correct that this was not impossible instead it is very much possible to be happen several times in any of the country's.

[BingoDog]

Unfortunately bitcoin is often used for illegal activities including terrorism and itt anonimity contributed great deal to that. That is the reason why bitcoin had bad reputation very long time, some even considered it as a criminal currency although every currency in the world could be used for crime.