Bitcoin, Dark Web, Drugs and Government.

[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

[Indrawan77]

This has been one of the largest concern when we talk about bitcoin, unfortunately the news is right most of the people in dark web used bitcoin to do transaction, I think the government need to do something to prevent this, bitcoin is only tools the one that is wrong is the users and btc is not totally anonymous

[rdluffy]

This is a sad thing about cryptos, but remember that criminals always find ways to bipass security, no matter what
They were doing this since...ever 

Here in Brazil exchanges will need to inform governments about every transaction, but in P2P there´s no way to track illegal activities

[richminded]

Not just in the Philippines for sure because many countries are concern about the transactions on cryptocurrency because it can really use for this purpose and for the purpose of terrorism. Well, I hope that it cannot affect the on-going applications of many cryptoexchanges there.

[xvids]

This issue isn't new in fact this kind of act has been around for so long .
It is the reason why Bitcoin has been famous from the very beginning,
SilkRoad is one of the early market that make a big noise for Bitcoin and drugs.
Criminals are taking advantage of anonymity that is why it is pretty famous in Dark web to keep their track clean.
That is why most people see Bitcoin as something illegal because of those acts.

[bbc.reporter]

@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.

[tweetbit]

Bitcoin isn’t made for this and Nakamoto doesn’t want this to happen to his creation but criminal minded individuals won’t stop using any financial processes to they’re advantage. Bank been used before, remittances also and especially cash basis.

So as bitcoin and other altcoin.

My thoughts:

Do we have stop using cryptocurrency for this reason?

• No and I will not.

Do government have to regulate it?

•No at this point in time. Soon maybe if they can craft the best law that is fair and square to both the investors and the law enforcers.

[vladimirhf]

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

[Duzter]

Bitcoin usage into dark web, particularly in drugs were very high. At the same time this isn't the major transaction medium for drug, hawala funds gets transacted for the drug exchange in large scale. Governments major indications to restrict usage of bitcoin were the usage on darkweb and illegal transactions.

[Artemis3]

Bitcoin is a poor choice for these activities, as it leaves traces. Even more traces than fiat...

Sure you could mine some yourself, then maybe buy with them one of the fancy altcoins that promise anonymity, and then try with that, but then you could have mined that coin to begin with...

[leonair]

This was very long overdue and the government of the Philippines only acts now   but at least they are trying to resolve it and starting to invest with their 30 people to train with the South Korean government, I'm looking forward to a much knowledgeable government people in the future that can resolve syndicated groups operating in the deepweb using cryptocurrency.

If criminals can think of a much smarter way to do their bad deeds then the authority must think twice as much, it's hard to be an anti-drug force in the Philippines because even you do a good job the naysayers still say something about them so I salute them for not giving up no matter the cost.

[pooya87]

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!

[electronicash]

i hope this will not trigger the president to make some regulations like banning btc. i'm from philippines, i'm not sure if those people in the media even understood how crypto works and if they make this more of an issue against the president's drug war, it could trigger the things we filipino btc users fear most. the media in the philippines is the most ignorant of all in the entire world. you can never trust them as they are involve in corruption.

[Broly46]

There’s much privacy orientated cryptos to serve this purpose, but they decided to go against it. May be trust is a big deal, they rather trust using bitcoin as a payment than other new more centralized privacy coins.

[CryptoBry]

It would be a sad day if instead of going against the crux of the problem, the government will instead zero in on its focus with bitcoin or any cryptocurrency for that matter. We are wishing that level-headed minds will prevail. When drug syndicates and dealers are using the fiat money, nobody in his own right mind will think to do something about the money -- the same treatment should also be accorded to bitcoin. What should be done then? The same solutions, of course, but this time implemented more strictly and much tighter than before. Strict monitoring and strong KYC requirements must be done by platforms into bitcoin business. And the Philippines has already many laws that can counter these problems, it is just a matter of no let-up implementation.

[nasipadang]

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

Something like this had happened before this, only that the government was rather constrained to trace this syndicate. OK, on ​​the other hand or news like that makes the negative side of bitcoin more feared by the public and I'm sure people who don't really understand about cryptocurrency will be afraid, even though the wrong one is the user himself not a tool . bitcoin still has big obstacles to become a legal currency, maybe with developments in the future it will make it easier for blockchain technology to be a better use.

[electronicash]

It would be a sad day if instead of going against the crux of the problem, the government will instead zero in on its focus with bitcoin or any cryptocurrency for that matter. We are wishing that level-headed minds will prevail. When drug syndicates and dealers are using the fiat money, nobody in his own right mind will think to do something about the money -- the same treatment should also be accorded to bitcoin. What should be done then? The same solutions, of course, but this time implemented more strictly and much tighter than before. Strict monitoring and strong KYC requirements must be done by platforms into bitcoin business. And the Philippines has already many laws that can counter these problems, it is just a matter of no let-up implementation.

should we see the PDEA soon will be checking personalities in coins.ph with transactions very suspicious? i can already assume they are already doing it.

bwck when i was 16 i did terrible mistakes, i was caught with a bag of marijuana. if they find my name in the coins.ph database. i'd be someone they'd try to watch out.same for those other guys out there.

[Slow death]

there are two things you need to fix:

First Is the title: "  Bitcoin, Dark Web, Drugs and Government. "

it seems that bitcoin is being widely used by drug traffickers, when according to the article it is not any of that

second thing is this:

Philippines war on drugs entered a new phase as drug Syndicates are now using bitcoin to transact and avoid detection from the government.

this is the only passage that talks about bitcoin:

He also revealed that one of the local drug personalities known to have extensively used dark web and bitcoin was John Steven Pasion, who died in March in an encounter with PDEA agents at the parking lot of Amaia Skies Condominium in Sta. Cruz in Manila.

are not saying that bitcoin has become the favorite mean used by drug traffickers ... the authorities were talking about that criminal, and in describing the criminal, the authorities mentioned about bitcoin, dark web and how he died

these kinds of articles that draw conclusions from things that authorities speak and post many biased titles are articles that bring nothing good to society.

Look at this:

Aquino said drug traders had already abandoned transacting with buyers through Facebook

But in the title does not mention anything about facebook, why?

[jhonjhon]

Drug traffickers will always find a way on how they can transact from one client to another and with bitcoin's increasing popularity it is not impossible for them to also study what they can do using bitcoin's technology and in this case they use it in processing payment since they can do it anonymously. However, the technology is still new and a lot needs to be improved, hopefully in the future they will be able to improved it better and minimize these types of wrong doings.

[acroman08]

there are two things you need to fix:

First Is the title: "  Bitcoin, Dark Web, Drugs and Government. "

it seems that bitcoin is being widely used by drug traffickers, when according to the article it is not any of that

second thing is this:

Philippines war on drugs entered a new phase as drug Syndicates are now using bitcoin to transact and avoid detection from the government.

this is the only passage that talks about bitcoin:

He also revealed that one of the local drug personalities known to have extensively used dark web and bitcoin was John Steven Pasion, who died in March in an encounter with PDEA agents at the parking lot of Amaia Skies Condominium in Sta. Cruz in Manila.

are not saying that bitcoin has become the favorite mean used by drug traffickers ... the authorities were talking about that criminal, and in describing the criminal, the authorities mentioned about bitcoin, dark web and how he died

these kinds of articles that draw conclusions from things that authorities speak and post many biased titles are articles that bring nothing good to society.

Look at this:

Aquino said drug traders had already abandoned transacting with buyers through Facebook

But in the title does not mention anything about facebook, why?

it does sounds like that but the title is universal and not just for a specified government although the article is.

also if you read again "one of the local drug personalities" as we all know drug syndicates share/find information if it can make their transaction faster and safer for them and there are a lot of drug syndicates in the Philippines. who's to say that he is the only one who has knowledge in the dark web and bitcoin.

as you can see "abandoned" and I didn't see the need to include it since bitcoin is what I am interested at. also they abandoned Facebook transaction because PDEA agents have been known to use it to trap drug dealers. although there are still who use it to deal drugs but not as many like before.