Criminality and Bitcoin

[freeyourmind]

Why they are only looking at the possibility of bitcoin being used for criminality or any related violence funding? Criminality acts are even existing bitcoin is not yet created. And they are only taking advantage bitcoin for it's anonymity so they found a way for supporting their criminality.

What do you mean "only" for bitcoin and criminal activity?

It is seen as a whole bunch of things, like a way of transferring money, making payments for purchases, store of value, investment, etc.

It's meant to provide an alternative to the traditional banking system, so if it's used for criminal activity, know that the criminal activity that has utilized Bitcoin is partly responsible for the increase in demand and price.

Read the OP and you will understand why I said "only". Let's say they are one of the reason to make the demand higher, but if they are using bitcoin for such filthy crimes, I'm not going to consider that as helpful to the economy. This is the disadvantage of bitcoin and almost everything has disadvantage when money is involved.

What do you consider to be helpful to the economy?  For the government to say what you should and should not do?  And everyone obeys what the government wants?  Government knows best?  People aren't supposed to serve the government.  Government is here to serve the people.  If you are harming someone else with criminal activity, in that there is a victim, of course that needs to be understood and minimized.  But Bitcoin doesn't really support too much of that type of crime.  It supports crime in the form of trading products or services that are simply prohibited by the government, but at the same time, have no victim.  Understanding that the government doesn't care at all about your life or health, tell me why these prohibitions or lack of freedom exists?

Here it is necessary to decide whether you want to live in a law-based state or not. The point is perhaps better to renounce any citizenship And thus you will save yourself from paying taxes. Therefore, you will use your Bitcoin at your discretion and not think about what someone will tell you to pay tax. But a stateless person loses some liberties as a citizen.

I don't have a problems with laws, and I think most people would agree.  I do have a problem with laws that benefit a very small group at the expense of society as a whole.  Any law that prohibits a so-called "crime" that has no victim, is infringing on people's freedom, when there is no harm being done to anyone.  Examples would be gambling, prostitution and certain classes of drugs that aren't prescribed by doctors and not supported by the pharmaceutical industry.  Although these are prohibited, they all continue and will continue indefinitely, while wasting resources in its control and putting people that did no harm to anyone into the category of being a criminal.  No good for society to operate this way.

As for renouncing citizenship...I don't think this can be done in a practical way.  Would you be able to own or rent property?  Would you be able to travel without a passport?  Can you work or have a bank account without a social insurance number?  Not really sure if this lifestyle can be lived without running into constant issues.

[fanita]

If it's talk about money all will be eager to work even though it is a crime. We are managing humans wanting more and more, so keep eye with peeled for crypto scammers.

[Mirror, Mirror, on the Wa]

Some criminals and people use BTC for illegal purposes and that's something unavoidable, not because of the decentralization and anonymity of bitcoin, but because it is a currency. every single currency is used for illegal purposes one way or another, because crime is a part of some human's nature. That's not the fault of bitcoins.

[Takuul]

Bitcoins is so high class that the criminals using it are mostly from Europe or USA, which are highly organized, and even in those cases, using bitcoins is hard even as a method to launder money as everything is recorded and the same issue would arise as USD.

There are also criminal websites like in the darkweb, these are using btc and monero but law enforcement regularly reach and close them.

[Shenzou]

As some poeple might not know bitcoin is the main currency that is being used for transactions on the black market and that is due to the fact that bitcoin is annonymous, it does not require you any identification, so that makes it the perfect cover to use money to do some illeagal actions, but the thing is this not the case only with bitcoin but it has been the case with regular money, every thing may seem bad when people use it the wrong way

[wxa7115]

For the issue of bitcoin with criminals can be seen in many countries which is in the spotlight is indonesia.

a few months ago, indonesia was attacked by a hacker called virus wanna cry, the criminals asked some money to bitcoin for exchange of existing data.

A lot of these cases because it is unfortunate for such problems to be damaged both the company's name and the bitcoin itself.

It is unfortunate . . . 

That was not only in Indonesia, the whole world was affected by that virus, is unfortunate but the truth is that it is impossible to stop criminals from using bitcoin, fortunately most people that are in bitcoin are honest persons that will not even think of using bitcoin that way.

[Reid]

Some criminals and people use BTC for illegal purposes and that's something unavoidable, not because of the decentralization and anonymity of bitcoin, but because it is a currency. every single currency is used for illegal purposes one way or another, because crime is a part of some human's nature. That's not the fault of bitcoins.

I will have to agree with that.
The problem is they made bitcoin be the face of this crimes to make other currency look clean in the eyes of tye people.
Now it have been planted in their minds that they should not use bitcoin because of that.
For me, it is still USD which is the most used currency for illegal transactions. They are too popular not to be used.

[fathur.aza]

So much I see about the bitcoin crime on drugs and terrorism. There is channeling the anonymity of bitcoins to do the illegal things freely.

[DevilSlayer]

This is one of the reason why many people have negative perception to the bitcoin. Some people used the bitcoin in the bad way, some of them are selling and buying drugs by using bitcoin this one of the reason why the some of the government didn't accept the bitcoin.

[bongiu]

i doubt it.
criminal activities were happening even before bitcoin. for example the ransomware that everyone is talking about these days have been around a very long time before bitcoin was created!

and besides since bitcoin doesn't offer real anonymity it can not really help the criminals as much as things like hard cash helps them.

Completely agree. They are just trying to blame bitcoin because it is a technology they still don't understand and don't know how to cope with it.

[xypos]

i doubt it.
criminal activities were happening even before bitcoin. for example the ransomware that everyone is talking about these days have been around a very long time before bitcoin was created!

and besides since bitcoin doesn't offer real anonymity it can not really help the criminals as much as things like hard cash helps them.

Completely agree. They are just trying to blame bitcoin because it is a technology they still don't understand and don't know how to cope with it.

I disagree even though I love bitcoin.

Bitcoin is definitely going to offer new incentive for people to start selling illegal things because it is way cheaper now and more secure for them to transact with bitcoin. This was something that can't be done before. And they know that their savings in bitcoins are safe as opposed to liberty reserve because it can't just get seized by a government like LR.

Bitcoin has its advantages and disadvantages, fueling the criminal economy is one disadvantage. But it's no different to cash, so it's really no use blaming bitcoin for it.

[favila]

Bitcoin has been used for illegal activities ever since the first iteration of silk road came out. Its anonymity and irreversibility guarantees it will always be lucrative for illegal trade and criminals to use.

Some see this as an advantage rather than disadvantage but I guess it depends on what situation you are in, for example if you get robbed or hacked its a huge disadvantage.

[Rishabh riyz]

Bitcoin has been used for illegal activities ever since the first iteration of silk road came out. Its anonymity and irreversibility guarantees it will always be lucrative for illegal trade and criminals to use.

Some see this as an advantage rather than disadvantage but I guess it depends on what situation you are in, for example if you get robbed or hacked its a huge disadvantage.

Bitcoins is a digital currency everyone has access to it
Good and evil are the two side of Same coin , where their is good it has to be nullifyed by evil so to make the thing in equilibrium ,
It's same in the case of bitcoins:-
Many people use it for trading for business purposes for investment and many more things it has many great advantages as a digital currency and people use it to its full potential
While there are many people who use bitcoins to buy drugs and also supply weapons as no one can see their identity all we can see is an wallet address
They are using one of the advantages of Bitcoin transaction
For their are no rules for using bitcoins we can't say it is ileegal on digital scale ,
But yes when we see the consequences and the things they are buying it is illegal and this is one of the reason that many countries are not accepting bitcoins

[snowcrashed]

https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/01/23/bitcoin-playing-an-increased-role-in-crime-europol-says/

Would you believe that the existence of bitcoin has increased the number of criminality in  some countries in the world. This is the issue that was being thrown by the EuroPol and the UK Metropolitan Police. According to them bitcoin has played a huge role on the increasing criminality in their area. They added that a huge number of cybercriminals were using bitcoins in their activities.

This just shows that as bitcoin develops both advantages and disadvantages will tag along.

i know, in the beginning of Bitcoin when it first started to be noticed, there were a lot of articles online that said Bitcoin can enable criminals to raise up because of abilities of sending money online and anonymously so that it was (and is) suitable for them

[Adelajda]

I think this criminal activities using a bitcoin has been predicted by many people especially big names and the government, but with the popularity of bitcoin, I think they can't stop people from using them, and the fact that it also helps their country to develop their economy.

It is not a big thing to predict how criminals will evolve with advancement in technology,they will always evolve and that is nothing strange,but the fact is it is always transparent and if the exchanges feel or the authorities feel that the coins coming to the exchanges have any illegality then they will block those and with all the KYC and stuff it is not easy to get around .

[Dicedmoon]

Bitcoin is a currency used in the cyber world and like any currency in the world it is used for some illegal activity, there is no exception among currencies for that, as no country is absolutely free from crime and the criminals would use that currency, The controlling effort should focus on the actual criminals, not the coin which is just money neither good or bad.

[Bionicgalaxy]

https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/01/23/bitcoin-playing-an-increased-role-in-crime-europol-says/

Would you believe that the existence of bitcoin has increased the number of criminality in  some countries in the world. This is the issue that was being thrown by the EuroPol and the UK Metropolitan Police. According to them bitcoin has played a huge role on the increasing criminality in their area. They added that a huge number of cybercriminals were using bitcoins in their activities.

This just shows that as bitcoin develops both advantages and disadvantages will tag along.

This is what i am afraid for, involving bitcoin in illegal activities this is why the government could not accept bitcoin as a legal payment because they are afraid to use bitcoin in illegal activities like selling drugs. As much as possible bitcoin should be use to earn money not using it in a wrong way.

[iv4n]

Do anyone really think that because of the bitcoin we has increased the number of criminality in  some countries in the world? This is the issue that was being thrown by idiots and people who wish to make bitcoin to look dirty. Criminality is in rise because of the poverty, because of the social differences, because rich people are just richer, bitcoin has nothing with that, society is made long before bitcoins, and criminal activities are at rise in last 100 years, to be more clear since Al Capone. Blaming bitcoin for this is just moving attention from the main reasons, don't fall for this, when ever you can stand up and defend bitcoin, there is always a nice way to explain all this to your close friends.

[wxa7115]

Some criminals and people use BTC for illegal purposes and that's something unavoidable, not because of the decentralization and anonymity of bitcoin, but because it is a currency. every single currency is used for illegal purposes one way or another, because crime is a part of some human's nature. That's not the fault of bitcoins.

I will have to agree with that.
The problem is they made bitcoin be the face of this crimes to make other currency look clean in the eyes of tye people.
Now it have been planted in their minds that they should not use bitcoin because of that.
For me, it is still USD which is the most used currency for illegal transactions. They are too popular not to be used.

Criminals will use the tool they think will be better for the job, but I think the media is also using this to try to demonize bitcoin in the eyes of the population, but at the end of the day they are going to fail, bitcoin will become too useful for the average person to not have some.

[Smarty14392]

The same was in my mind, i thought a lot about posting it but i didnt.
Yes, you are rigjt. Bitcoin has increased a lot of criminal activities like selling drugs, illelegal electronics, guns, Hiring Hitman, hacker, etc. I saw a mivie named "Deep Web" and searched about it on google. As bitcoin cant expose the identity even after recieving it, many terorists, criminals are using it to trade on deep web. Deep web is operated via TOR browser so it cant be traced. Something should be done for such criminal activities.