http://www.cio.com.au/article/524368/does_bitcoin_promote_illicit_ecommerce_/"The researchers credit Bitcoin for achieving, at a large scale, what no other payments system has been able to do: provide direct, trusted exchanges of currency over a distributed peer-to-peer network that keeps track of debits and credits."
"That absence of an intermediary to verify and process transactions could make Bitcoin a far more economical platform for global payments"
""On the other hand, Bitcoin's decentralized nature also presents opportunities for crime," they write. "The same qualities that make Bitcoin attractive as a payment system could also allow users to evade taxes, launder money and trade illicit goods.""
""[A]s a technology, Bitcoin is neither good nor bad; it is neutral. Paper dollar bills, like bitcoins, can be used in illicit transactions, yet we do not consider outlawing paper bills. We only prohibit their illicit use. Furthermore, there is only anecdotal evidence about the extent to which bitcoins are utilized in criminal transactions. It would be wise to put the criminal use of the technology in perspective alongside its legitimate uses. As the bitcoin economy grows, legitimate uses of bitcoins will likely dwarf criminal transactions, just as we see with paper dollar bills.""
