Fake Crypto News Of The Day: "Why Neo-Nazis Love Bitcoin"

[Hydrogen]

For extremists, deregulated cryptocurrencies are a potent political statement as much as a means to fund their activities

The bitcoin battle is about to go up to a new level: the G20. Last week France and Germany announced that they would propose, at the March summit, a concerted clampdown on the cryptocurrency that is dividing the world.

In the global dispute about the future of the digital currency experiment some unlikely coalitions have taken shape: who would have thought that bankers and environmental activists would join forces one day? While the former seek to preserve the financial system, the latter want to protect the ecosystem. Even more obscure is the conglomerate of cryptocurrency enthusiasts fighting side by side to keep the bitcoin experiment alive: libertarians invest in their vision, speculators in their wallets, and criminals out of necessity.

As so often, when two quarrel a third rejoices: in the shadow of the bitcoin craze, extremist groups around the world have capitalised massively on the exponential rise in the value of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoins have enabled them to raise, transfer and spend money – “at a speed that I’ve never seen“, Heidi Beirich, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, told me. She has been monitoring more than 200 “alt-right” bitcoin wallets, finding that “some folks are getting straight off rich from their bitcoin accounts, which will fuel their ugly activities”.

Similarly, pro-Islamic State groups have managed to fund their activities from their bitcoin revenues. For example, a German jihadist Telegram channel that trains its members to carry out cyber-attacks, and was probably involved in the hacks of hundreds of US schools last November, was able to generate enough money to reward its “cyber-jihadists“. “We have exchanged parts of our bitcoins to equip the brothers who helped in our last missions with computers,” one of the group’s members wrote in their private chat group in December.

The high volatility of bitcoin may backfire in the long run, according to financial experts. Yet neo-Nazis, identitarians and jihadists aren’t short of incentives to invest: they share the anti-establishment sentiment with the libertarians, the desire to make quick money with the speculators, and the need to find alternative transaction routes with the criminals.

In the aftermath of the lethal white nationalist rally in Charlottesville last August, many extremists had their accounts removed from mainstream crowdsourcing platforms such as Patreon and GoFundMe, and their credit cards blocked by online payment providers such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay. This has triggered a mass migration by extremists to alternative crowdsourcing platforms such as Hatreon, and a shift to cryptocurrencies. “They are secure, instant and anonymous,” one user on the neo-Nazi platform Stormfront explained to me.

But extremists view the decentralised, deregulated currency as more than a means to make money. “It’s also a political statement,” believes John Bambenek, an American cybersecurity expert who built a neo-Nazi bitcoin transactions tracker. “If you believe the banks are part of the Jewish world conspiracy nonsense, well, then there are only two ways to make financial transactions: it’s either cash or it’s bitcoin.”

This explains why the use of bitcoins by extremists predates both the cryptocurrency hype and the crackdown on neo-Nazi accounts after Charlottesville. The American white nationalist Richard Spencer already called bitcoin the “currency of the alt right” before its boom. And the Black Hat hacker Weev wrote back in 2014: “I heartily encourage you to consider cryptocurrency, including bitcoin.”

Like most extremists, Weev stressed that he prefers Monero, “which best maintains our privacy”. A shift to Monero and other less transparent alt-coins could bring new challenges to cybersecurity and intelligence services. “As an intelligence analyst I love that extremists use bitcoins,” Bambenek tells me. The high level of transparency of the blockchain technology, which is the backbone of any bitcoin transaction, has allowed analysts to speed up their investigations.

However, even in the case of transparent digital currencies, merely watching extremists multiply their income and conduct their business is hardly satisfying. Some countries have taken crucial steps to regulate bitcoin: China plans to restrict bitcoin mining, South Korea wants to ban its trading, and Egypt’s grand mufti, Shawki Allam, even declared the digital currency haram. But can national bans, regulations or capitalisation requirements have any tangible impact?

Bitcoin is a bit like Marmite: you love it or you hate it, and even if some countries impose bans and regulations, they won’t be able to stop its production or its spread. Only joint action by the G20 countries, as proposed by France and Germany, could be enough to become a game changer. And yet detours through countries such as Russia – already looking at developing a “crypto-rouble“ – may always provide opportunities to circumvent international regulations.

Wherever the bitcoin bubble and battle are heading, the global cat-and-mouse game between extremists and intelligence agencies will continue: we need to become faster than extremists at identifying future loopholes that can be exploited to promote their activities.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/24/bitcoin-currency-far-right-neo-nazis-cryptocurrencies

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This would appear to hint @ bitcoin's latest downtrend as being politically motivated and orchestrated rather than a product of natural market mechanics.

Banks desire a centralized financial industry they control as it would give them the power to censor individuals and groups whose perspectives they disagree with. Centralized paradigms within finance, economics and politics have a tendency to be preferred for this reason. They offer greater control over populations and make it easier to force compulsory guidelines on everyone.

Whether people believe banks or any single authority having the power to punish or reward people for their beliefs, views or opinions is a positive for society is open for debate.

Perhaps its enough to acknowledge a power struggle is occurring @ the highest levels. The implications of which could have deep and long lasting effects.

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[dothebeats]

Lol, they are trying so hard to connect bitcoin to extremist groups, and to think that the anarchist and libertarian mindset of most bitcoiners are linked to neo-nazis is plain stupid and wrong. What do they know about bitcoin, or what do they even know about these ideologies? Anything that doesn't go within their society's norms, or anyone that deviates from the current societal standards are tagged negatively which, to me, doesn't sound fair at all.

But extremists view the decentralised, deregulated currency as more than a means to make money. “It’s also a political statement,” believes John Bambenek, an American cybersecurity expert who built a neo-Nazi bitcoin transactions tracker. “If you believe the banks are part of the Jewish world conspiracy nonsense, well, then there are only two ways to make financial transactions: it’s either cash or it’s bitcoin.”

So if bankers are Jewish, does that mean that anyone who does not use cash are neo-nazis? Nice analogy and great thinking.

[3acaga]

How much I am tired of this news about Bitcoin from the negative side.
Already everyone who can only lead the speculation on the Bitcoin course.
I think Bitcoin will soon be accused of natural disasters on earth.

P.S. Still, Bitcoin will withstand all attacks !!!

[kryptqnick]

I wouldn't be as bald as to call an article on theguardian fake. It does refer to some research and I believe in the information they are telling us. However, the conclusions from it are unjustified and I bet the full picture is not represented there. While Neo-Nazis can surely use bitcoin, it doesn't mean that bitcoin users are dominantly some terrorists and Nazis. Basically, that's what we need the regulations for. Authorities are supposed to track down the wallets that get money for some bad acitivities and keep track of the transactions to make sure these people will not be able to withdraw their money. Any money is used both for good and bad stuff. It's unfair to say that cryptos are specifically used for the latter.

[yangjiee]

Our fate being entangled with some dark characters is hardly news (or fake) in the crypto world. If anything Nazis moving in is a sign of increasing adoption. First you had sophisticated criminals, then run-of-the-mill crooks, and now we have just bad people who maybe aren't even criminals. It's happening.

[Carlton Banks]

I wouldn't be as bald as to call an article on theguardian fake.

Right, but The Guardian itself is fake, and the article is an execrable piece of anti-Bitcoin editorial bias (for which The Guardian is developing itself quite a reputation).


Anti war? The Guardian consistently makes the case for "humanitarian" wars that make corporate interests rich, then labels genuine anti-war advocates who criticise them as "conspiracy theorists"

Pro-human rights? The Guardian wants people to have rights, as long as they're chosen and delivered by institutions and corporations people don't even want to use.

Want to protect your own rights? The Guardian will call you a neo-nazi


Being tarred with the same brush as neo-nazis is kind of ironic, as The Guardian are probably the worst kind of authoritarian establishment mouthpieces: that which cloaks itself so cleverly in faux-righteous rhetoric that most people don't notice. When you're a corporation, and you work together with government to control people, there's a word for that

[Hydrogen]

It seems the main reason bitcoin is receiving criticism for this is because people are using it as a substitute for crowdfunding platforms like patreon, gofundme, etc.

Bitcoin allows them to avoid being completely banned by whatever centralized powers want to ban demographics with certain views and opinions.

Bitcoin isn't "bad" due to its technology or its userbase. Its deemed a negative as it can't be controlled by those with an agenda. It can't be controlled the way patreon, gofundme or paypal can. Where they can easily ban anyone who doesn't fit their narrative for the future and deny them what could be a basic right to having the type of financial freedom others enjoy.

At some point people will have to decide whether they should have the freedom to form their own thoughts and opinions or whether they should forfeit this right and allow others to do all of their thinking for them. There isn't much point in having a brain, if people won't bother using it.

[jseverson]

This would appear to hint @ bitcoin's latest downtrend as being politically motivated and orchestrated rather than a product of natural market mechanics.

FUD hasn't really affected the market significantly for a while now, so I don't think this piece specifically is a contributing factor to the downtrend. The market has been bearish for quite a while so I think it's more likely that the trend is simply continuing.

But yeah this article is ridiculous lmao. It doesn't really matter either way though, as Bitcoin doesn't discriminate on its usage; that's the point. Propaganda articles simply choose to focus on the negatives.

[hatshepsut93]

Being tarred with the same brush as neo-nazis is kind of ironic, as The Guardian are probably the worst kind of authoritarian establishment mouthpieces: that which cloaks itself so cleverly in faux-righteous rhetoric that most people don't notice. When you're a corporation, and you work together with government to control people, there's a word for that

"The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists."

This is just yet another example of an ideology becoming totalitarian and trying to paint the world as black and white - you are either with them or against them. And sadly, articles like this will be the main source of information about Bitcoin to some people, but I'm pleasant to say that I've never encountered anyone who called Bitcoin a neo-nazi tool in the wild. Most commonly you can see people repeating the "Bitcoin will kill the planet" narrative.

[mummybtc]

This is the reaction they are looking for, they want to generate raffic to their website, Mainstrem media need a sensational headlines and this thing abou this tactic is that bad headlines generate more views than the good ones and if you see the recent increase in serch for BTC on Google you understand better

[davis196]

Leftist liberal propaganda.For a leftist liberal,anyone who isn't a leftist liberal is most likely a neo-nazy,rasist and a retard.First there were islamic terrorists that love bitcoin,how the neo-nazys love bitcoins.I guess that,sooner or later,the church of satan will love bitcoin too.
Just ignore the socialist-liberals...

[Kakmakr]

We have been called worst things than that, like being pedophiles and money launderers and also drug dealers. The thing is, when you want to control people, you have to control their money and Banks and other financial organizations are working with governments to do that.

We saw perfect examples of that, when corrupt governments dipped into people's bank accounts and where credit card companies stopped making payments to Wikileaks. <In an attempt to prevent government corruption being plastered onto the internet for everyone to see>

Are we Neo-Nazis if we support a currency that allows for freedom of speech and also for a currency that protects people wealth and financial privacy? Well, they seem to think so. 

[Carlton Banks]

"The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists."

:/ and when political discourse devolves into all groups beginning to accuse the others of being fascists or neo-nazi, the situation will probably get worse before it gets better. It's sad, as I've just proved that even good faith use of such language (despite only implying it) really only feeds such a downward spiral. Maybe we could argue this is a necessary stage, but it's painful to live through nonetheless

[jjjfff]

I've noticed a concerted effort by several mass media outlets the past 10 days.

They've been dissing Bitcoin 24x7 which happened just before BTC soared almost 30% in a few days. Hmmmm.

They're trying to keep prices low so they keep buying moar!

[wuvdoll]

Neo-nazis love crypto currency and not bitcoin directly. That is something we can sort of call correct because crypto currency and ICO's are a way of them showing support to each other. They could build hate speech places all their own without the media or outside world showing who they are and how they are so they can build platforms for themselves by funding it themselves.

When they try to do it on facebook they are compromised and everyone who is not a neo-nazi sees them directly for who they are, thats same for youtube, twitter, instagram, reddit and many more places. Hence they go out and fund each other with some sort of ICO and open places for each other to be racist ignorant and only be around other racist people together. This is not a bitcoin deal, its a crypto deal and I see no problem with sending neo-nazis to a place where only they live and leave us alone online.

[BitHodler]

They're trying to keep prices low so they keep buying moar!

Not sure if that's what their intention is, but it doesn't work anyway. I'm sure it's more related to title matching sentiment type of business to squeeze out as much money as possible.

The very reason we're talking about articles with these titles proves that it pays off to keep doing it. The only way for these articles to become less financially rewarding is to have people ignore them as much as possible.

Honestly speaking, by reading the title I can't do more than conservatively smile because it's mildly hilarious. What's next, the KKK held a secret Bitcoin meeting? 

[Renaldi blackspadeteam]

political views always think negatively about bitcoin, they think bitcoin is only for making money, but in my opinion bitcoin is electronic money with good security and simplicity of payment, even though bitcoin is always attacked but bitcoin will still stand and win

[sarfield]

This is the politics that was created, indeed there are many people who want to replace the position of bitcoin but different circumstances. The struggle created provides many assumptions and Neo-Nazis will do that by attracting many investors and making ICOs build a platform, this way can be taken for its development. We can only see what they will do with bitcoin, and I think bitcoin will remain strong and more valuable.

[magneto]

This would appear to hint @ bitcoin's latest downtrend as being politically motivated and orchestrated rather than a product of natural market mechanics.

Banks desire a centralized financial industry they control as it would give them the power to censor individuals and groups whose perspectives they disagree with. Centralized paradigms within finance, economics and politics have a tendency to be preferred for this reason. They offer greater control over populations and make it easier to force compulsory guidelines on everyone.

Whether people believe banks or any single authority having the power to punish or reward people for their beliefs, views or opinions is a positive for society is open for debate.

Perhaps its enough to acknowledge a power struggle is occurring @ the highest levels. The implications of which could have deep and long lasting effects.

Classifying a currency based on who uses it is really not something that is smart at all.

It's like saying that fiat currency is the currency of criminals, because criminals accept it worldwide. Obviously that argument isn't valid, yet the same argument is being used against bitcoin to label it as some underworld currency.

Also, you raise interesting points about censorship and how the traditional banking system can be used to control what people get funded to talk about, and block funds that are going for a specific cause that central authorities may not agree with, or freeze individuals accounts. Note that I completely disagree with Neo-Nazi sentiment and do not agree with it at all. But since the bank who holds the customer's funds have all the ability to do this, the fungibility of fiat currencies stored in banks is indeed compromised (which really has nothing to do with Neo-nazism).

[hatshepsut93]

"The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists."

:/ and when political discourse devolves into all groups beginning to accuse the others of being fascists or neo-nazi, the situation will probably get worse before it gets better. It's sad, as I've just proved that even good faith use of such language (despite only implying it) really only feeds such a downward spiral. Maybe we could argue this is a necessary stage, but it's painful to live through nonetheless

Well, that quote, that gets attributed to Churchill without much evidence of him ever saying that, shouldn't be taken literally, it just means that some people who claim to fight fascism exhibit authoritarian features of their opponents. But you're right, considering how people tend to take things literally, it's better to avoid such charged words.

[amishmanish]

People in general suck at being decent and free from corruption. That is why we need control systems. All the control systems invented by our society have ended up suffering because of individual choices. The latest set of values that have gotten the most traction are Democracy and the liberal ideals. Spearheaded by Western consumerism, we are at a stage where culture and media shapes our political opinions in such a way that everything liberal is decent while everything conservative is dangerous.

The individual human failings have led to liberals becoming even more dangerous as they are zealously convinced of the righteousness of their rage against everything even remotely conservative. Decentralization of consensus is a challenge to the existing system with bitcoin being the most prominent working example. No wonder they want to imply that "Neo-Nazis love Bitcoin" ===> "Bitcoin lovers are Neo-Nazis"