[17-04-2018] Report: Less Than 1% of Bitcoin Used for Illegal Purposes

[Guvn0r]

Cryptocurrencies are regularly accused of causing “deaths in a fairly direct way” (as Bill Gates put it). A report released by The Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that less than one percent of Bitcoin is used for illegal purposes.

Bitcoin Not as Criminal as Some Might Think

“the report demonstrates the transparency of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the analytical techniques that can be used by law enforcement to trace and apprehend cybercriminals, and by financial institutions to prevent the reintroduction of this dirty money into the mainstream financial system.”

Crime has existed long before Bitcoin and will continue to leverage new technologies to its own benefit.

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[buwaytress]

That's pretty old news... the days of Bitcoin being associated with the underworld have long, long gone. Any hype the media picks up and blows out of proportion is usually old, usually cyclical. The same analysts (Elliptic) have been putting out quite a bit of research on illegal use, and it was at least as far back as 2016 when Bitcoin stopped becoming the (crypto) currency of choice at least by dark market traders. Silk Road should have taught them all a lesson about how unsuited Bitcoin was for illegal purposes.

They'd moved on to Monero for specific trading, while scams, hyips all moved to small brother Ethereum. Much less than 10% of Bitcoin transactions then were illegal, so no surprise that it's shrinking. Carry on, then.

[bL4nkcode]

Of course, to those lawbreakers who doesn't know how to use this technology can't use it but to those big syndicates will do. But below 1% can't be right IMO as explained above Monero will be their best choice.

[Spaffin]

Attacks on illegal use in most cases are subjected to bitcoin. Therefore, this is quite interesting information, which can be countered by such attacks. And it does not matter that the criminals switched to the use of monero or other crypto currencies, which are more suitable for use for criminal purposes.

[yojodojo21]

The very known criminal case is scamming, they are not literally killing people, but they secretly kill people who are in debt who invested to some ponzi scheme.  That is why Monero is safer than bitcoin, it is because they can't just use monero as their item, while bitcoin can, and has the bigger amount to make money without sweating only by deceiving. If your going to dive into deep web most of the time they pay bitcoin instead of dollar for the sake of transparency. Black market does this thing illegal uses in incognito.

[gabbie2010]

It is a well known fact that before bitcoin there have been various ways by which terrorists and drug cartels laundered money illegally using western union money tranfer, moneygram, e.t.c of course because of the anonymity of bitcoin some scrupulous individuals had capitalize on that to perpetuate those crimes but the question is how do those involved exchanged those huge funds (btc) to fiat without suspicion from the authorities?

[nutildah]

That's pretty old news... the days of Bitcoin being associated with the underworld have long, long gone.

Actually they're really not, as evidenced by the latest story involving that Illinois women who thought she was hiring a contract killer for $10k in BTC from "La Cosa Nostra Online."

Even though you're right about Monero picking up steam as a go-to in the dark markets, a lot of people I know still won't consider touching bitcoin because of its association with the dark markets and otherwise illegal activity.

[squatter]

Even though you're right about Monero picking up steam as a go-to in the dark markets, a lot of people I know still won't consider touching bitcoin because of its association with the dark markets and otherwise illegal activity.

What would it take to change their minds? Bitcoin has CME futures markets and shitcoins get pumped on CNBC now -- if that's not endorsement from the establishment, I don't know what is. It seems pretty normal to own BTC as an investment if nothing else.

It's not like you could ever eliminate association between BTC and darknet markets. Censorship-resistant P2P money is perfect for them.

[Qartersa]

Cryptocurrencies are regularly accused of causing “deaths in a fairly direct way” (as Bill Gates put it). A report released by The Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that less than one percent of Bitcoin is used for illegal purposes.

Bitcoin Not as Criminal as Some Might Think

“the report demonstrates the transparency of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the analytical techniques that can be used by law enforcement to trace and apprehend cybercriminals, and by financial institutions to prevent the reintroduction of this dirty money into the mainstream financial system.”

Crime has existed long before Bitcoin and will continue to leverage new technologies to its own benefit.

Read More

Obviously those people that are too negative about Bitcoin would always find ways to say something that will lead others to the path they belong to, to begin with. I find it cynical though, and a one-way street- precisely because these people only want to hear things that are at par with their beliefs. Hence, should you express a different opinion as theirs, you will be shut down outright. Moving forward with the data they have, we can see how a small fraction of criminality can be attributed to Bitcoin as compared to other payment systems. And yes, there is no denying that criminality have long existed even in the absence of Bitcoin. Anyhow, regardless of whether Bitcoin adds up to the criminality that has been going on around or not, sound mind dictates we should not blame the object but the subject because it is the latter who has the ultimate power to decide.

[prehisto]

Cryptocurrencies are regularly accused of causing “deaths in a fairly direct way” (as Bill Gates put it). A report released by The Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that less than one percent of Bitcoin is used for illegal purposes.

Bitcoin Not as Criminal as Some Might Think

“the report demonstrates the transparency of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the analytical techniques that can be used by law enforcement to trace and apprehend cybercriminals, and by financial institutions to prevent the reintroduction of this dirty money into the mainstream financial system.”

Crime has existed long before Bitcoin and will continue to leverage new technologies to its own benefit.

Read More

 I am not the one to associate BTC exclusively with DRUG world and most certainly i am not saying that it has responsible for drug problems. I think BTC has made drug use for those who chose to use them, more safe.
But. I dont think it is easy to estimate the illegal part of BTC , thus dont believe 1% is a good estimate.

[imsotiredofmoviereboots]

If they are considering bitcoin as a tool for crimes then they should also include facebook too. Facebook has become the platform of many scams using fake identities or investments. And recently, a whistleblower exposed how Mark Zuckerberg sell our own private data.