How Much Do You Think Crime Affects BTC?

[WakaWakaWaka]

So, I just got done reading this article here: http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/02/technology/silk-road-shut-down/index.html
I got to thinking, drug dealers, thieves and other miscreants must be using Bitcoin a lot. Now, I really wonder about those HUGE transactions I see, like one a few hours back that was BTC10,000!

How much do you think that big illegal activity affects the value of Bitcoin, given the anonymity of the currency?

[mindfulmojo]

It's not anonymous... you can trace the bitcoin, that's why the government isn't outlawing it.

Silk Road drug dealers must be shitting bricks right now, I feel bad for them. No sarcasm.. I hate the drug war.

It can be a bit anonymous but you really have to work for it,

most people in the early days didn't take the necessary precautions.

[WakaWakaWaka]

It's not anonymous... you can trace the bitcoin, that's why the government isn't outlawing it.

Silk Road drug dealers must be shitting bricks right now, I feel bad for them. No sarcasm.. I hate the drug war.

It can be a bit anonymous but you really have to work for it,

most people in the early days didn't take the necessary precautions.

You seem to be contradicting yourself... If I was a drug lord, I think I'd 'Go the extra mile' to keep a few million USD in bitcoin!

[laris2]

Transparent on the other side does not mean that the money is traceable.
Money mixing services, and other obfuscation tools exist that do not allow for easy tracing the money.

[Dial595]

silkroad 2.0 is just coming up slowly
so it has no mentionable btc traffic

cant speak for other black market activities though

[zagerfish]

because bitcoin currently sucks as a currency (unstable prices, difficult to get, exchange rate fees, lack of vendors)

the only reason to use bitcoin is:

a) a speculative investment (betting that the value of bitcoin will increase)
b) buy drugs.

One might by tempted to list money laundering, but I don't think bitcoin is good for that at all.
The difficulty in obtaining bitcoins makes using it to launder unpractical.

Which means, most people are interested in bitcoin because they think it will increase in value, which in turn means these people think bitcoin will be useful as currency one day in the future, even if it is not now.

[zagerfish]

Australia started off as a prison colony.

Today it is a beautiful country.

But it was founded by prisoners.

If one day crypto currency rules the Earth, we'll look back in same fashion maybe. 

[vadoff]

Nowadays probably less than 1%.
Before Silk Road was closed down, and before there were that many BTC vendors, maybe over 50%.

[prizz]

because bitcoin currently sucks as a currency (unstable prices, difficult to get, exchange rate fees, lack of vendors)

the only reason to use bitcoin is:

a) a speculative investment (betting that the value of bitcoin will increase)
b) buy drugs.

One might by tempted to list money laundering, but I don't think bitcoin is good for that at all.
The difficulty in obtaining bitcoins makes using it to launder unpractical.

Which means, most people are interested in bitcoin because they think it will increase in value, which in turn means these people think bitcoin will be useful as currency one day in the future, even if it is not now.

i think i agree with wakawhatever.

bitcoin is unregulated, and with all of the bitcoins that got taken with that whole black market thing I think we know that btc isnt what it seems. even if the feds saw that the money had been transferred to soandso address, they cant trace who the address belongs to. but there are other ways of using bitcoins that i doubt most people even know of. drug guys are freaking rich, atleast the higher ups, andd the bottom line is that they know shit we dont.

and i dont see how bitcoins are hard to obtain, you just buy them

[WakaWakaWaka]

Nowadays probably less than 1%.
Before Silk Road was closed down, and before there were that many BTC vendors, maybe over 50%.

Yeah, but really, do you think that just because one site was shut down that ALL of those rich-ass drug dealers, hitmen, and addicts all said in harmony "Aww, well, I guess I'll have to go back to my 9-5 job. It was fun while it lasted."?

Edit: @Prizz, I know!!! Everyone just thinks that Bitcoin, VPNs, and everything that is untraceable is just used by the common man. It's just not so.

[undeadbitcoiner]

It's not anonymous... you can trace the bitcoin, that's why the government isn't outlawing it.

Silk Road drug dealers must be shitting bricks right now, I feel bad for them. No sarcasm.. I hate the drug war.

It can be a bit anonymous but you really have to work for it,

most people in the early days didn't take the necessary precautions.

You seem to be contradicting yourself... If I was a drug lord, I think I'd 'Go the extra mile' to keep a few million USD in bitcoin!

Waka Its not completly anonymus be sure about that and can you describe how you will put few million $ in bitcoin? Do you think all this exchanges are going to allow you to buy Bitcoin in fucking illigally? Its Global Currency not a Illigal Currency.

[WakaWakaWaka]

Waka Its not completly anonymus be sure about that and can you describe how you will put few million $ in bitcoin? Do you think all this exchanges are going to allow you to buy Bitcoin in fucking illigally? Its Global Currency not a Illigal Currency.

I'm saying that it can be made to be anonymous. Just like normal currency can, how else do you think drug people make their cash?

And you make it by selling drugs. I'm not saying that these fuckers are marching their way to Mt Gox to put in an order of 10,000 bitcoins!

[undeadbitcoiner]

Waka Its not completly anonymus be sure about that and can you describe how you will put few million $ in bitcoin? Do you think all this exchanges are going to allow you to buy Bitcoin in fucking illigally? Its Global Currency not a Illigal Currency.

I'm saying that it can be made to be anonymous. Just like normal currency can, how else do you think drug people make their cash?

And you make it by selling drugs. I'm not saying that these fuckers are marching their way to Mt Gox to put in an order of 10,000 bitcoins!

I know they are not going to Gox but what ever way there always could be trackable as much as money trackable.
One thing is if GOV is not supportive then money laundring could cause but if GOV is supportive it will be more harder to pul illigal million to bitcoin
to put illigal million to bitcoin atleast some need to get that million and sell you bitcoin rite? so money always is trackable and that trackable money will track bitcoin.

[Ramcoin]

At this point I think Bitcoin is established enough that people know it isn't just tied to silkroad and crime. However before people knew what it was I think a lot of people thought that was all it was used for.

[WakaWakaWaka]

I know they are not going to Gox but what ever way there always could be trackable as much as money trackable.
One thing is if GOV is not supportive then money laundring could cause but if GOV is supportive it will be more harder to pul illigal million to bitcoin
to put illigal million to bitcoin atleast some need to get that million and sell you bitcoin rite? so money always is trackable and that trackable money will track bitcoin.

I'm sorry but I can't read your post, do you think you could reword it?

Btw, is English your native language?

At this point I think Bitcoin is established enough that people know it isn't just tied to silkroad and crime. However before people knew what it was I think a lot of people thought that was all it was used for.

I don't think that's all it's used for. Bitcoin definitely will be more, but I'm asking how much you guys think that the world of crime contributes to that.

[hyunsookmom]

CNN is a horrible mouthpiece for certain establishment groups. can't be trusted at all, it's almost crusade against Ron Paul was bordering on ridiculous. the seem to love a good war too.


Anyway the whole bitcoin crime story has been beaten to death by those who want it to be stopped? It's not difficult to connect the dots when you have major media outlets owned by large financial interests and banks.



The thing is Cash is far more anonymous for drug dealing. But the bigger question is do you outlaw a currency if some people happen to use it for crime. If so say goodbye to every major currency in the world...


Even big banks like HSBC have knowingly been involved in drug money and laundering....They just get fines while some poor kid working from home will probably get jail time.

[wonderfulcoin]

lucky guy

[R0yalAir]

People think crime stories are about Bitcoin because they don't know the origin

[BTC-TK]

People need to get out of that mindset, you don't see suites talking about how much crime affects wall street on wall street forums, it seems to me that the reason governments point out the bad uses of BTC and other crypto since it doesn't belong to any government, no one will look in their own yard.

[bitconnect]

Crime can also be done with government currency.