Bitcoin, Dark Web, Drugs and Government.

[bbc.reporter]

Drugs are often an excuse to make many other things illegal. They kill a lot to "save" people from this terrible menace.

They also mentioned that they were winning the drug war. This is false. The prohibition of drugs has only brought more money, guns and political power to the cartels.

The American government, the most powerful government in the world is already 5 decades into the drug war, however, nothing has changed. The amount of drug users has only grown in their country.

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[markgayamo]

I've heard this before and I believe that many countries some of the syndicate are in to using Dark Web, many people automatically associate bitcoin with the Dark Web, due to they may be more efficient to use or more stable than government backed currencies. They know to to make the transactions faster and easier without noticing by the police or other government institutions. The government maybe blind to this actions but sooner they will know how to capture this syndicate.

[naufals4]

Indeed, many use bitcoin as a transaction in illegal purchases such as buying illegal weapons and illegal drugs. they use bitcoin because it is hard to track because the transaction is anonymous. so it's not only in the Philippines that uses it, even in the whole world it uses it

[bitbunnny]

If you remember at the very begininig Bitcoin was almost always connected to illegal activities. Some people tend to do that even today, Bitcoin is for many still something unknown and shady. At the begininig Bitcoin was much more anonimous and transactions were much harder to trace so in a way it was logical that Bitcoin was used by criminals.
It's true that Bitcoin is also being used for illegal stuff, especially online but this is just one tiny side of it and fiat money is misused too. It's a complex situation and should be considered as such. Governments should find the way how to regulate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to divide legal from illegal, that would be easier for all.

[aad140386]

I read an article in which it was written that monero is very successfully used for drug trafficking and in dark net. In any case, the facts cited in the article seemed to me rather convincing. Drug barons found a rather convenient way to avoid unnecessary attention and protect their money from the police and tax authorities. The Philippines is not the only country in which drug trafficking problems are acute, but we must pay tribute, the country's leadership has been struggling hard against drug trafficking in the past 5 years.

[Schirer]

Philippines war on drugs entered a new phase as drug Syndicates are now using bitcoin to transact and avoid detection from the government. PDEA(Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) recently found out that most organized Drug syndicate are using the dark web to transact to each other. It's clear that some countries are slower at adopting new technologies and these drug syndicate took the opportunity to make their transactions much easier without being detected by the government. here is the link for more details: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/06/11/1925535/pdea-drug-syndicates-use-dark-web-bitcoin

This is just a myth. If the government is so concerned and surprised by criminals using BTC, they haven't cough up with the technologies. Every crypto transaction end up exchanged to fiat sooner or later. Also nowadays there already are technologies  which easily track crypto transactions and can evaluate the where it started and where the transaction ended up, it includes dark web addresses.

[pushups44]

@acroman08. I shake my head to these people who use bitcoin for the darknet. Someone should advice the leaders of those drug syndicates in your country to use Monero or they will be sorry.

You hit the nail on the head: bitcoin transactions are transparent and pseudonymous, not anonymous. Once authorities discover the bitcoin addresses of the drug traffickers, they will be able to grasp the full scope of their operations. Sooner or later the authorities will learn how to use the blockchain to track the flow of funds.

[pushups44]

Drugs are often an excuse to make many other things illegal. They kill a lot to "save" people from this terrible menace.

They also mentioned that they were winning the drug war. This is false. The prohibition of drugs has only brought more money, guns and political power to the cartels.

The American government, the most powerful government in the world is already 5 decades into the drug war, however, nothing has changed. The amount of drug users has only grown in their country.

Yet for many years Big Pharma was given carte blanche to produce unlimited amounts of opiates and other controlled substances to corner the U.S. market. It wasn't until recently, with large chunks of the country hooked on opiate pills and switching to heroin as they become more scarce, that the government has been holding these large corporations accountable.

The Drug War has been a massive failure and has contributed to the U.S. leading the world in per capita incarceration rates.

[Caladonian]

This is not only in the Philippines because for sure it is also an issue on the other country maybe the government does not paying attention to it because it is really hard to track it. That would be the issue that the crypto must solve in the future.

It's a known issue  way back and also the reason why there's still a lots of people who's doubting this chain, negative impressions comes first before people realize that it's really part of every industry, those negative things are also present even in the real fiat currency.

The government should act accordingly regarding to this matter, if they seen this then they needed to have a good counter to avoid things to go bigger.

[Betwrong]

i am always having a hard time believing that there still are people who use "bitcoin" for their large scale illegal activities in 2019! in early years it could have made sense since people didn't know bitcoin isn't anonymous and the "myth" was still around but we already know that and it is clear. on top of that we now have lots of cryptocurrencies that were created focusing on being fully anonymous for these people to use for their criminal activities, for example Monero. so it is not like the option isn't there!

That's right. People should stop associating Bitcoin with criminal activity because it's not anonymous and thus isn't suitable for that. I think the main problem here is journalists who often have little idea on what they are writing. You are right, criminals have stopped using Bitcoin long time ago, but many journalists are not aware of that fact.

[enhu]

Philippines war on drugs entered a new phase as drug Syndicates are now using bitcoin to transact and avoid detection from the government. PDEA(Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) recently found out that most organized Drug syndicate are using the dark web to transact to each other. It's clear that some countries are slower at adopting new technologies and these drug syndicate took the opportunity to make their transactions much easier without being detected by the government. here is the link for more details: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/06/11/1925535/pdea-drug-syndicates-use-dark-web-bitcoin

This is just a myth. If the government is so concerned and surprised by criminals using BTC, they haven't cough up with the technologies. Every crypto transaction end up exchanged to fiat sooner or later. Also nowadays there already are technologies  which easily track crypto transactions and can evaluate the where it started and where the transaction ended up, it includes dark web addresses.

I don't believe it too.  I am from Philippines and I don't think there are hundreds of bitcoin users who does transact over drugs here. Most of the methheads here aren't that smart to learn about BTC at all. Philstar.com ain't the kind of paper that can be trusted. Proven in many articles they publish are politically aimed to ruined reputation of the sitting President. Just look how divided we are as a nation because of these fake news from a political party that can't accept the fact that they all lose. Philstar is full of shit.

[acroman08]

Philippines war on drugs entered a new phase as drug Syndicates are now using bitcoin to transact and avoid detection from the government. PDEA(Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) recently found out that most organized Drug syndicate are using the dark web to transact to each other. It's clear that some countries are slower at adopting new technologies and these drug syndicate took the opportunity to make their transactions much easier without being detected by the government. here is the link for more details: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/06/11/1925535/pdea-drug-syndicates-use-dark-web-bitcoin

This is just a myth. If the government is so concerned and surprised by criminals using BTC, they haven't cough up with the technologies. Every crypto transaction end up exchanged to fiat sooner or later. Also nowadays there already are technologies  which easily track crypto transactions and can evaluate the where it started and where the transaction ended up, it includes dark web addresses.

The government were not surprised that these criminals are using BTC they probably expected it, but only found out/confirmed recently.

PDEA doesn't have the capabilities (not sure why) at the moment and these syndicates took advantage of that.

also there is a news about the Philippine central bank warned the risk of growing cryptocurrency use in the country. although they are not against cryptocurrency they are worried about the technology's potential use in funding of terrorism.

for those who don't know there are several terrorist groups in the country of the Philippines and one of them has ties on ISIS.

[Eraldo Coil]

I think they must do regulations regarding this. Not because it could affect bitcoin's value or integrity. But just simply eradicate crimes. Even though drug pushers or syndicates are now using this technology, fiat is still involve in this drug issues. This is going to be bad for bitcoin if the government can't watch over these guys who chose to use bitcoin, and dark web to transact illegal actions.

[uray]

Philippines war on drugs entered a new phase as drug Syndicates are now using bitcoin to transact and avoid detection from the government. PDEA(Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) recently found out that most organized Drug syndicate are using the dark web to transact to each other.

I am not convinced that these drug lords are using bitcoin to transact in the dark web when there are many anonymous coins in the market that will give privacy for their transaction, from what i understand is that they are blaming bitcoin for the illegal transactions and i am sure they understand the difference between bitcoin and the rest of the coins in the market. I support their hunt for illegal drugs distribution and violence but blaming bitcoin for everything is not the proper way to conduct things.

[yusupjatigumilar]

it must always be a bitcoin that is a scapegoat from a transaction that is considered unlawful, actually if we think well, bitcoin is just a tool or media that we use to facilitate our transactions, like a knife that will produce something good in the form of food if we use it for cooking but it will wreak havoc if we use it to hurt others. So actually it is not a bitcoin that is the source of the problem, but its unwise use will be a problem.

[bbc.reporter]

@yusupjatigumilar. There are reasons why the government in any country do what they do. They want to spread fear and then make themselves needed and available to "keep you safe" hehehe. However, it is really an illusion made to control their citizens.

[EdenHazard]

Need an understanding to be a journalist in order to not make a topic which is not relevant. This is one thing that should be know by everyone who which will make a topic about bitcoin. They are just consume a topic without knowing the fact, because there are a lot of cases which has been handled by a police about illegal transaction that use bitcoin.

Once again bitcoin is not fully anynomous, the transaction will be known by everyone because the system is really transparent. Hopefully, in the future the illegality that use bitcoin will be disappear because this information will make everyone afraid and have a negative thinking to bitcoin. It will be good for a journalist to write an article that stated bitcoin is not anynomous in order to the perpetrator aware that if he use bitcoin for their payment system will be known by a police.

[PDAngel]

I think this is one of the reason why some countries want to banned bitcoin because of the illegal transactions doing by bad people. They use bitcoin for their safety, bitcoin is a useful tool that can help society to improved and i feel so sad that some people use it for bad.

[maydna]

I think this is one of the reason why some countries want to banned bitcoin because of the illegal transactions doing by bad people. They use bitcoin for their safety, bitcoin is a useful tool that can help society to improved and i feel so sad that some people use it for bad.

That could be true because they don't want to see bitcoin will be used for illegal transaction although they know that bitcoin can do for whatever reason. The used of bitcoin itself will depend on the people, and I am sure that each people will have different purposes in using bitcoin.

Bitcoin can be a good thing or the bad thing, and we should use bitcoin for a good thing only so we can get the benefits of bitcoin and we don't have to break the law. But if we know that bitcoin has been used for the illegal transaction by our friends, perhaps, we need to remind them not to use bitcoin for that thing because there is a risk behind of the illegal transaction in the future and they don't know what exactly will happen to them.

[enhu]

Philippines war on drugs entered a new phase as drug Syndicates are now using bitcoin to transact and avoid detection from the government. PDEA(Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) recently found out that most organized Drug syndicate are using the dark web to transact to each other.

I am not convinced that these drug lords are using bitcoin to transact in the dark web when there are many anonymous coins in the market that will give privacy for their transaction, from what i understand is that they are blaming bitcoin for the illegal transactions and i am sure they understand the difference between bitcoin and the rest of the coins in the market. I support their hunt for illegal drugs distribution and violence but blaming bitcoin for everything is not the proper way to conduct things.

Its not about the news. Its about the media making the country's war on drugs program a failure because of drug syndicate using BTC.

Philstar are known to have spread malicious news to paint Duterte as the bad guy in this country. They publish news about the guys and his family dealing drugs and a member of Chinese triad and so on. The media and the liberal party in the Philippines are working together to bring down the current administration and when Duterte becomes critical to them they cry out oppression of press freedom.