[2018-08-07] Bitcoin Speculators, Not Drug Dealers, Dominate Crypto Use Now

[bbc.reporter]

I agree, criminals before has a lot of room to work using bitcoin but now different agencies find ways to track those criminals through blockchain analysis. And we all know that bitcoin is not really anonymous and criminals recognized this the hard way. Maybe some of them are still using crypto to hide their illegal activity, but sooner or later the full hands of the law will be knocking at their doors.

Criminals have moved on to privacy coins like Monero, although if you take extortion schemes like ransomware, Bitcoin is still used because it's more likely that the victims will pay with it rather than some privacy coin, because it's harder to buy the latter. This has contributed to decrease of the percentage of criminal transactions, but the biggest factor is that other uses cases have increased. What would be actually interesting is the absolute values of illegal transactions per day in early days and today.

Criminals shifting from bitcoin to monero still means that the whole cryptocurrency still dominates the means of transactions especially in the darkweb. Privacy coins should not be encouraged and should be removed in the blockchain system.

If you truly believe that, then you are missing the whole point of Bitcoin: it was started so people can do whatever they want with their money, without anyone else interfering. There's no such thing as "blockchain system", there are peer-to-peer networks that can not be taken down. You can ask exchanges to delist privacy coins, you can ask government to ban them, but you'll never be able to stop them.

I reckon we should also ask the banks not to accept dollars and euros, and also ask the government to ban them hehehe. They are the most used currencies in the criminal underworld.

Also, why should we stop there? We can ask the goverment to ban carpentry and gardening tools because they can be used for killing people hehehe.

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[Aikidoka]

but ask anybody on the street and they will tell you that crypto is used by criminals mostly.

That is because people, in general, have this stereotypical idea that will never get removed easily, but only through time. It is a fact that crypto was used by criminal in the dark web. So, if they were taught about that, they should also be taught that crypto is used for good purposes too.

There are also people who do not know what crypto is.  If you introduce it to them and they take a guess, they will say "Maybe criminal use it to avoid getting tracked. Therefore, it is all about getting these people educated.

[BitHodler]

It is a fact that crypto was used by criminal in the dark web. So, if they were taught about that, they should also be taught that crypto is used for good purposes too.

It depends on what you consider to be criminals. I doubt the ratio of usage back in the days was heavily biased towards criminals. It's something people just assume because of the term dark web.

I don't consider people to be a criminal if they want to buy weed or other natural forms of drugs. If that's what they want, and it doesn't bother or hurt anyone around them, then let them buy it. Why should we even care?

People need go grow a thicker skin and start to accept others as they are. Why do we have to call someone a criminal just because the law criminalizes certain practices? It makes no sense.

[Betwrong]

but ask anybody on the street and they will tell you that crypto is used by criminals mostly.

That is because people, in general, have this stereotypical idea that will never get removed easily, but only through time. It is a fact that crypto was used by criminal in the dark web. So, if they were taught about that, they should also be taught that crypto is used for good purposes too.

There are also people who do not know what crypto is.  If you introduce it to them and they take a guess, they will say "Maybe criminal use it to avoid getting tracked. Therefore, it is all about getting these people educated.

That's right. People remember facts from the past and stick with them while there's new information, like from the OP for example, which is saying the opposite to what they are thinking. I personally like the fact that dozens of news sites (I just checked) have reported the news, so there's a hope that eventually, maybe in couple of months, everybody will be familiar with the fact that the use of Bitcoin in illegal activities has shrunk to 10% from 90% previously(around 5 years ago).

[FXTradingPro]

This is probably more important an event than it is being reported. The acknowledgment could be an indication that the government will take a more favorable view of BTC and cryptocurrencies. When law enforcement makes this type of announcement it gives guidance to regulators direction on how to move next. Yes, there might be some form of coordination on the part of the government but don't be surprised if we have positive moves towards regulation in the near future.

[Sutters Mill]

I imagine this is similar with most technologies as they become more popular. They say that criminals are always the first people to adopt new technology as they see the potential in things and it was probably the case for swords, guns, cars, computers, the internet, cell phones and so on. I'm sure governments were all afraid of those things at first but you can't stop a good idea. Eventually technology catches on with the general public but of course this takes time. Not every body had a portable phone or computer overnight and initially they were only really available to the rich or business men but now pretty much everyone has one now. Bitcoin could be the same, just give it time and keep spreading the word and at least you can be one of those to say you were one of the early investors and saw the potential when nobody else did.

Criminals shifting from bitcoin to monero still means that the whole cryptocurrency still dominates the means of transactions especially in the darkweb. Privacy coins should not be encouraged and should be removed in the blockchain system.

This is silly. People should be free to use them if they wish. Plus, there's no way you can remove things from the 'blockchain system'. I think this is one of the whole points of having a decentralized currency in the first place in that someone who doesn't like something or the powers that be can't just vote to have it removed. If you don't like them they you are free to use them but they will have their genuine uses such as when governments want to silence people or seize their assets unjustly.

[timerland]

With all the regulations that are here at the moment within the crypto space, whether on ICO investments, exchanges, even on P2P trading platforms, it's no surprise that this is the case.

We have here a case where the media is always trying to portray bitcoin as some kind of underworld currency, which it really isn't. Bitcoin is used by mostly just average Joes sitting behind their laptops and transacting or investing in the currency. Sure, it does have some illegal uses, but that's with every currency - including fiat itself, issued by the government. You can't blame the currency for people's actions using it.

It's very interesting news, though. Even though this clears up a lot of the misconceptions people had about BTC, it shows another issue of over speculation on bitcoin. More adoption is definitely needed for bitcoin to be considered widely to actually be a viable global currency, and i have full belief that it's only a matter of time this happens.