Why hackers want to get paid/ransom in bitcoins?

[skorupi17]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

Why you want to follow their footsteps? Don't mind this, I'm just messing with you 

That is because they know that the blockchain is a complicated technology. Though every transactions are published on a public ledger where the public can see them, if you know how to cover your tracks then it will be difficult for any entity to pin point your location as well as your identity. These hackers are excellent in the digital world and can hide their identity at will. So Bitcoin is the very good medium for ransoms.

[lalabotax]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

yes, because they dont want to know money laundering. therefore many hackers manipulate it. I dont know too much about hackers, but that's what I know a bit of money laundering.

[stompix]

Bitcoin involves no government issueing of money and hackers can easily launder bitcoins..if they were to accept fiat then they could be hunted down easily by government bodies.
Moreover Bitcoin is fast to transact.

Exactly. If I was in their place, I'd demand Dogecoin, just to be
funny and to bring the price up a bit. Imagine the news articles.

Yeah, too bad you won't get that many dogecoins.
A lot of the users affected by ransomware are not that techsavy and I've seen reports than less than 10% of the ones who are infected and want to pay the ransomware were able to buy coins and effectively pay it.

With dogecoin probably it's going to be much worse and since dogecoin it's not that heavely traded your moves will leave a lot of footprints so the authorities can track you.

[amacar2]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

There are lots of way to make tracking bitcoin transactions almost impossible so hackers and criminals also love to get paid in bitcoin or to move money between two countries.

They can get caught if they don't take proper precaution when exchanging those bitcoin to fiat. They will use Tumbler and mixing services to add anonymity when moving bitcoin between many of their addresses before finally cashing them out in fiat.

[affigne]

Well, not exactly bitcoins... more like Monero or Zcash that are harder to track than BTC...

[DewiKirana]

That's right, the reason hackers are asking for ransom to use bitcoins is so they can not be detected. Hackers choose bitcoin as a ransom as well because bitcoins are anonymous, decentralized.

[pucunghul]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

because of the secret and anonymous bitcoin properties. that's why many of the hackers use bitcoin media as money laundering. roughly like that, from a lot of news I read, and from movies about hackers.

[LuanX3]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

Because in theory it is hard to trace, but it is traceable with enough effort. It is anonymous if you exercise the precaution needed.
It is also highly valuable and can be exchanged in most countries. It just really boils down how careful the hackers are with exchanging it for fiat.

[bs9]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

Bitcoin is most wanted and high valuable coin.Its use now everwhere and any one easily can create an account and start bitcoin transaction.No Body can find identy who use this wallet.BItcoin wallet is high security but its one problem anybody can use its for black market and government canont find this who use this .So its a most cause of use bitcoin on black market or hacker.

[Koadharber]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

Knowing bitcoin is a decentralized and anonymous thing then these are the perfect recipes why hackers would demand bitcoin as a ransom knowing the transaction would really be instant and anonymous.No strings attached once funds are been transferred then you cant do anything to take it back and you wont able to trace those hackers too.

[Bay_Harbour_Butcher]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

I think of course the hackers want payment through bitcoin, because it is different from banks that need data themselves when creating a bank account, so can not be falsified. but bitcoin does not require it, it will be very difficult to trace

[AGD]

They do because they think, that Bitcoin makes them completely anonymous, which is wrong, just like most of the answers here.  

[monkeydominicorobin]

I'm still new to the bitcoin universe. I was wondering what are the advantages for an hacker to get ransom or get paid in bitcoins? Like the WannaCry guys did. Can't they be tracked ?

Instead of asking for fund transfer to this and that bank. Which is definitely stupid. Bitcoins are transparent period. But if you don't know the name and whereabouts of the owners it is quite useless to track the criminal like those who loves to use ransomware.

[DenGreen910]

I don't think the guys can be tracked. Bitcoin is high secured.  Also believe that project that can effect offline economy are more reliable and has big future. We all have admit that world economy will change soon if ICO wont be banned. So Confideal (contacts), Atlant (buildings), ADEX so on.