Will bitcoin be used to support terrorists?

[jerowacik]

The use of bitcoin is very easy and also anonymous. This is what makes bitcoin very much in demand, including terrorists who want their identities unknown. Sometimes I also think that in addition to the benefits of bitcoin can also lead to crime. So it all depends on ourselves and also how we use bitcoin appropriately.

[Cazkys]

Regarding Bitcoin supporting terrorists, for me its possible since after surfing online reading some articles about using Bitcoins to buy guns and other explosives similar to what the terrorists are using then it’s highly possible that there are people using Bitcoin to support and fund terrorists. Since Bitcoins are also harder to track when transacting it doesn’t leave enough trails to trace where its been sent and to who its been sent to. I just hope that people will be aware to use this new technology to help and improve the lives of people and not to destroy lives.

[Gerharde]

Supporting terrorists using bitcoin, for me its possible since after searching online reading some news about some people using bitcoin to buy guns similar to what some terrorist groups are using then it’s highly possible that there are people using bitcoin to support and fund terrorists. Bitcoin are also much harder to trace when using it doesn’t leave enough trails to trace where its been sent and to who its been sent to. I am hoping that the people will be aware to use this new technology to help and improve the lives of people.

[datodota002]

bitcoin is neutral when the user is use bitcoin for good it's going to be good, but when user using itu to something bad so it's gonna be bad thing, it's happen to fiat money too, but the difference is bitcoin is untraceable

[chichan13]

On March 8th, Cheollima Civil Defense(CCD) released a video on its website claiming:” Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, and two other family members were met quickly and relocated to safety. “ And they receive bitcoin for financial support. http://news.8btc.com/bitcoin-plays-a-role-in-humanitarian-assistance This is something nice to do. But what if bitcoin be used to support some bad organizations, even terrorists? Is this already happening?  What i am worrying is if bitcoin be widely used for bad things, negative news would be all over and bitcoin price will drop. It will lead to tougher regulation. Do u think world leaders are willing to kill btc to make sure they can fight terrirists?

To quote my favorite author Rick Riordan's House of Hades, "Magic is neither good nor evil. It is a tool, like a knife. Is a knife evil? Only if the wielder is evil.", which is just similar to bitcoins. We know that the use of bitcoins promotes anonymity, so it's hard to know where do people spend bitcoins to. I think it's already happening and we are not aware of it because the usual bad side of the use bitcoins circles only to drugs and other illegal stuff. All we can do is to hope that terrorists don't use it often.

[KingOfWinterfell01]

Thia doesn't change the fact that bitcoins are useful in itself. Somr people will eventually use it to buy drugs or get hookers. It's just the same as when you use paper money to support terrorists. There will always be people who will take advantage of bitcoins.

[n0ne]

For large volume transactions bitcoin has got more usage over the entire system. Based on this, bitcoin along with the anonymous feature has made illegal transactions as well other forms of money laundering easier. So terrorists making use of bitcoin. Let's have hope that good things happen.

[mylalaworld]

It doesn't support terrorists per se but definitely of course it can help fund illegal activities which can be capitalized by terrorists

[smokeydog]

A better question is "why wouldn't bitcoin be used to support terrorists?".

Any unit of value gold/silver/platinum/bitcoin or commodity along with weapon, drugs which any 2 parties see as having value are now and will always be used by legal and illegal entities.   If a terrorist can transfer funds with anonymity being provided by cryptography of course they will use it.  The use cash and gold, why wouldn't the use bitcoin?

[Rotsor]

Bitcoin will be used by anybody on the planet. It is a permissionless network which means anyone can join. But you seem to forget the bankers that commit financial terrorism.

[brickafterbrickwalldpt]

Even if the story is true or not, it doesn't matter. Everybody is free to use bitcoin, no matter their intent. Currency as a whole wasn't made so good prevails, it's just there to preserve order and be a commodity that people can use to buy stuff, that in turn fuels the economy and lets the human civilization grow, advance and develop. Money makes the world go round. The only thing is that those kinds of organizations would rather prefer using normal currency rather than cryptocurrency, as it's currently more convinient and faster, but who knows how that'll be in the future.

[Hydrogen]

Here's an old article detailing connections between banks like HSBC and their money laundering connections to terrorists, drug cartels and shady russians.

HSBC Helped Terrorists, Iran, Mexican Drug Cartels Launder Money, Senate Report Says

A Senate report released ahead of the embargo time revealed that HSBC’s lax anti-money laundering policies allowed Mexican drug money, Iranian terrorist money, and even suspicious Russian money to enter the U.S. and gain access to U.S. dollar liquidity over the last couple of years.

The report, released late on Monday despite a 10 PM embargo time, was prepared by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and counted with the support of Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn.

In a year-long investigation, the Subcommittee found that HSBC violated several rules, exposing the U.S. financial system to “a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing.”  According to the report, HSBC’s Mexican affiliate channeled $7 billion into the U.S. between 2007 and 2008 which possibly included “proceeds from illegal drug sales in the United States.”

UPDATE: In a statement, HSBC acknowledged that "in the past, we have sometimes failed to meet the standards that regulators and customers expect."  Vowing to improve their oversight and compliance with the law, they committed to fixing what is wrong, taking the opportunity to learn from previous mistakes.

HSBC actively circumvented rules designed to “block transactions involving terrorists, drug lords, and rogue regimes.”  In one case, “two HSBC affiliates sent nearly 25,000 transactions involving $19.4 billion through their HBUS [HSBC’s U.S. affiliate] accounts over seven years without disclosing the transactions’ links to Iran.”

They provided U.S. dollar financing and services to banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh that were tied to terrorist organizations, while also clearing $290 million in “obviously suspicious travelers cheques” that benefitted Russians “who claimed to be in the used car business.”

Furthermore, the investigation showed how the bank’s regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) failed to take a single enforcement action against HSBC despite numerous violations by the international bank.  Among them, failing to monitor $60 trillion in wire transfer and account activity, a backlog of 17,000 unreviewed account alerts regarding potentially suspicious activity, and a failure to conduct anti-money laundering due diligence before opening accounts for HSBC affiliates.

Senator Levin, whose scolding of Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein during a hearing on collaterized debt obligations made him a well-known face in Wall Street, was hard on both HSBC and their regulator:

Due to poor AML [anti-money laundering] controls, HBUS exposed the United States to Mexican drug money, suspicious travelers cheques, bearer share corporations, and rogue jurisdictions.  The bank’s federal bank regulator, the OCC, tolerated HSBC’s weak AML system for years.  If an international bank won’t police its own affiliates to stop illicit money, the regulatory agencies should consider whether to revoke the charter of the U.S. bank being used to aid and abet that illicit money.

The Senate’s Subcommittee will reveal its findings on Tuesday during a Congressional hearing that will include testimony by HSBC officials and federal regulators.  This report is the latest in a string of embarrassments for the world’s major banks.  Only a few days ago, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon finally revealed further details on the so-called London Whale trades (which reportedly cost the bank more than $5 billion), while the on-going Libor manipulation scandal sparked a series of lawsuits that could be difficult to swallow for Barclays and other institutions involved.

HSBC’s New York-traded shares fell in post-market trading, as the report was leaked.  After a 0.3% decline during the trading session, the stock dropped 2.5% to $42.50 by the end of aftermarket trading.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/07/16/hsbc-helped-terrorists-iran-mexican-drug-cartels-launder-money-senate-report-says/

There are many cases where american weapons shipments are mysteriously "lost" and miraculously fall into the hands of drug cartels or terrorist groups. Billions of dollars being moved across borders are known to disappear and end up in the hands of ISIS and other illicit organizations.

Banks too are known to launder money for criminal organizations. Unfortunately the media doesn't publicize this & as far as I know banks like HSBC are still laundering money for drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

There's no need for terrorists to use bitcoin. They already have everything they could need or hope for with the support they receive from banks.

[NorvsGanda]

I  hope and I wish that it should not. Lets not get the bitcoin attached or involve in any crime and illegal doings. We should not ruin the name of the bitcoin. Yes it helps us a lot but do not abuse it, to the point that the bitcoin is being used to support their programs towards crime or illegal doings. There are a lot of people who only rely on bitcoin.

[Ammad1999]

That doesn't related that if they mate or something They done, It doesn't decreases the value of Bitcoin Currency. Bitcoin is just a currency  

[zollyharvan]

Bitcoin is anonymous so that it can be used unlimited by anyone including terrorists, the possibility of the current terrorist transactions will be directed to bitcoin so it is not traced.

[TWW]

Anyone can use bitcoin..bitcoin just like real money except it doesnt have real form...and terorist also using real money...so is that make real money bad too?we even can still using it til now without any problem..so it doesnt matter about if terrorist use bitcoin

[DoublerHunter]

Bitcoin is anonymous so that it can be used unlimited by anyone including terrorists, the possibility of the current terrorist transactions will be directed to bitcoin so it is not traced.

I believe the same thing like you, the terrorists are using bitcoin to transact money into other of their team so they can fund the things that they need like firearms and any other things. Bitcoin anonymity is sometimes a disadvantage like for example is the terrorist who using it for a bad purpose so it also damages the image of bitcoin.

[Lalafell]

On March 8th, Cheollima Civil Defense(CCD) released a video on its website claiming:” Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, and two other family members were met quickly and relocated to safety. “ And they receive bitcoin for financial support. http://news.8btc.com/bitcoin-plays-a-role-in-humanitarian-assistance This is something nice to do. But what if bitcoin be used to support some bad organizations, even terrorists? Is this already happening?  What i am worrying is if bitcoin be widely used for bad things, negative news would be all over and bitcoin price will drop. It will lead to tougher regulation. Do u think world leaders are willing to kill btc to make sure they can fight terrirists?

Why would blame bitcoins? It is a form of currency and whether terrorists use it for their favor, the crypto doesn't have anything for it. That is the essence of this kind of payment method. It is not regulated by the government so it wouldn't be impossible that terrorist are using it. They might already dealing with bitcoins and we wouldn't know about it until now because of the anonymity of bitcoins.

[salihno71]

On March 8th, Cheollima Civil Defense(CCD) released a video on its website claiming:” Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, and two other family members were met quickly and relocated to safety. “ And they receive bitcoin for financial support. http://news.8btc.com/bitcoin-plays-a-role-in-humanitarian-assistance This is something nice to do. But what if bitcoin be used to support some bad organizations, even terrorists? Is this already happening?  What i am worrying is if bitcoin be widely used for bad things, negative news would be all over and bitcoin price will drop. It will lead to tougher regulation. Do u think world leaders are willing to kill btc to make sure they can fight terrirists?

Yes, it probably is used also for such purposes. But i would say in much smaller extent than USD. Yes i don't see anyone saying - dollar is a criminal money, it should be banned...

[yoonah]

Bitcoin is not created to support terrorists or anything that is against the law, its about the person who uses bitcoin on how he use it. We can avoid that to happen if someone wants to use bitcoin for his criminal actions and besides even USD or any Fiats is used to this kind of actions.