[2020-01-30] Bitcoin Has Lost Steam. But Criminals Still Love It.

[bbc.reporter]

I was disappointed when some people were annoyed when I said that we should embrace bitcoin's importance as a tool that we can use for transactions that the regulators do not want us to do. Ignoring this is also ignoring one of its most important applications and value gaining properties.

Good news. No one can stop this.



The last few months have not been good for Bitcoin. The value of the digital tokens has steadily dropped. Bitcoin trading on cryptocurrency exchanges has slowed. And using Bitcoin to buy legal items? That has also dropped.

But one corner of the Bitcoin economy is still going strong: the sale of illegal drugs and other types of lawbreaking.

The amount of cryptocurrency spent on so-called dark net markets, where stolen credit card information and a wide array of illegal drugs can be purchased with Bitcoin, rose 60 percent to reach a new high of $601 million in the last three months of 2019, according to data released Tuesday by Chainalysis, a firm that tracks every Bitcoin transaction and serves as an adviser to an array of government authorities.

Read in full https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/technology/bitcoin-black-market.html

[goxed]

Really, 2011 called again?

96BTC ransomware bounty was identified at Bitfinex yesterday.

http://jpkoning.blogspot.com/2020/01/what-happens-when-96-bitcoin-ransom.html

[cr1776]

...

The last few months have not been good for Bitcoin. The value of the digital tokens has steadily dropped.
...

Typical fake nonsense news from the NYT.  They can't even get the facts correct.

[Lucius]

bbc.reporter, why do you post such stupid news? "Bitcoin Has Lost Steam" is an incredibly stupid title given that it has increased its price by almost $3000 in the last month and a half (around $6500 in December 2019), and all this with some alleged research based on first three months of 2019?

The journalist who wrote the article is clearly on a mission to portray Bitocin as something only criminals use, so are we all criminals in this forum because of the fact that we use BTC? It's really amazing that they portray us as criminals, and as environmental destroyers when it is so far from the truth.

[mohdk52]

Criminals love money, which is why they prefer bitcoin

[stomachgrowls]

Criminals love money, which is why they prefer bitcoin

There were already some alternatives when we do talk about privacy like Monero but people on dark market wont still forget on how this market works since from the beginning
and the currency its been using.

The journalist who wrote the article is clearly on a mission to portray Bitocin as something only criminals use, so are we all criminals in this forum because of the fact that we use BTC? It's really amazing that they portray us as criminals, and as environmental destroyers when it is so far from the truth.

As always and its no surprise that media outlets or mediums would publish out crappy bitcoin news - Journalism at its finest!

[1Referee]

They can't even get the facts correct.

They can but don't want to. It's pretty obvious that every outlet reports about Bitcoin the way the owner wants news about Bitcoin to be reported. Considering that most traditional bobos don't like Bitcoin, they let their outlets spew this type of nonsense. The same pretty much happens around election time. It's just what the owners want/allow you to read.

Dark web is just part of the economy, whether it's the fiat or crypto economy, it doesn't really matter. Anyone blaming Bitcoin for being used by criminals should also stop using their fiat currency. Fiat and Bitcoin are nothing but tools you can use or abuse. It's the authorities' job to chase after the criminals on top of the food chain. These criminals tend to be found abusing fiat way more so than Bitcoin.

It's incredibly hard to get money out of this ecosystem so what's better than to continue dealing with fiat?

[bbc.reporter]

bbc.reporter, why do you post such stupid news? "Bitcoin Has Lost Steam" is an incredibly stupid title given that it has increased its price by almost $3000 in the last month and a half (around $6500 in December 2019), and all this with some alleged research based on first three months of 2019?

The journalist who wrote the article is clearly on a mission to portray Bitocin as something only criminals use, so are we all criminals in this forum because of the fact that we use BTC? It's really amazing that they portray us as criminals, and as environmental destroyers when it is so far from the truth.

Agreed on the price. He should say last 2 years, however that is not the main story.

I disagree that he was on a mission to portray bitcoin as a criminal's coin. He based his article on data from Chainalysis.

https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/darknet-markets-cryptocurrency-2019

Also, I reckon that it should be embraced no matter how they portray it. Unregulated transactions is where bitcoin gets part of its value.

[malevolent]

bbc.reporter, why do you post such stupid news? "Bitcoin Has Lost Steam" is an incredibly stupid title given that it has increased its price by almost $3000 in the last month and a half (around $6500 in December 2019), and all this with some alleged research based on first three months of 2019?

The journalist who wrote the article is clearly on a mission to portray Bitocin as something only criminals use, so are we all criminals in this forum because of the fact that we use BTC? It's really amazing that they portray us as criminals, and as environmental destroyers when it is so far from the truth.

The article is an exaggeration, but less than 6 weeks ago the price was as low as it was back in May 2019. It still hasn't recovered after it dived after the bull run from $3k to $13.8k. It's too early to be unusually optimistic.

[Lucius]

I disagree that he was on a mission to portray bitcoin as a criminal's coin. He based his article on data from Chainalysis.
Also, I reckon that it should be embraced no matter how they portray it. Unregulated transactions is where bitcoin gets part of its value.

What is this company doing except always gives material to so-called journalists who use it for articles like this? All these "unregulated transactions" are just a drop in the sea of the world black market. Criminals still prefer fiat, and based on this article from 2018 What is the black market worth — and how much of it is crypto total world black market was worth $ 1.63 trillion, and all crypto involved in that is only $1.5 billion.

If it's true that criminals love BTC, then why don't they use it more?

[hv_]

Nothing is where it should be. Neither journalism nor exchanges have gone regulated and 'free' of crime / crap

Only by having micro-payments we will reduce the FUD in press

Only with transparent and regulated processing we will reduce crime.


All the anonymity and anarcho crap does not good for Press and Bitcoin

[Vishnu.Reang]

In 2019, multiple studies were published in the mainstream media, which claimed that the proportion of transactions linked to illegal businesses (such as drugs) accounted for somewhere between 1% to 2% of all the transactions. And why should we embrace this 1%, there by destroying the reputation of the entire community? Neither Bitcoin nor its users are going to gain anything from such stupidity.

[bbc.reporter]

@ETFbitcoin. The cryptospace's transactions not in the darknet increased more. Also consider that cryptocoins included are BAT, BCH, BNB, BTC, CRO, CRPT, DAI, ETH, GNO, GUSD, HT, LEO, LINK, LTC, MCO, MKR, MLN, OMG, PAX, TUSD, USDC, USDT, WETH, ZIL, ZRZ. Those transactions might be high volume coming from and to exchanges.

.04% to .08% is an increase of 100% with total revenue increased to all time high of $790m.

@Lucius. Criminals love fiat also, however, what is the percentage of criminal transactions from the whole? I reckon smaller than regular transactions.

@Vishnu.Reang. Are you telling everyone that bitcoin should be censored for certain transactions that the community does not like because it might stop it to go to the moon?

[Lucius]

@Lucius. Criminals love fiat also, however, what is the percentage of criminal transactions from the whole? I reckon smaller than regular transactions.

I don't understand what you mean exactly, are you asking what is a percentage of regular BTC transaction compared to ones which allegedly involve illegal activities? We have data for first 3 months 2019 ($601 million dark/black market) and we have data for 2018 (in total $1.5 billion) - and based on this article Bitcoin on-chain transaction for 2019 was $673 billion.

If the research of Chainalysis is true, then based on the first 3 months of 2019 we can say some $2 billion in the worst case, can be classified as illegal transactions. The numbers tell the true truth, it is a literally insignificant sum that is repeatedly tried to be displayed as a label "Bitcoin is the money of criminals".

[cr1776]

“ Bitcoin is the money of criminals”

I also have to ask who is defining what is criminal?  If it was the US a century ago alcohol would be illegal and pre 1914 cocaine was legal.

In some places drugs are legal, in others illegal. In some places purchasing an ad to attack the monarch or Muhammad is illegal, in others who cares. The bunny ranch is legal some places, illegal others. Homosexuality is legal some places and illegal others. In some places it is illegal to own a gun, in others not. 

At some point and some time pretty much every use of fiat or bitcoin would’ve been illegal, but control freaks like to control others thinking that other people are unable to think for themselves.  Yet paradoxically these same people are competent to vote in people to control everyone else.

[buwaytress]

I like a good bit of journalism too and Popper's at least a lot more comprehensible than others but even he's got to understand why the reactions on his Twitter to this... drivel.

Surprisingly, instead of conceding that he went all sensationalist, he's responded with this Tweet: "These #'s start to provide a picture of why we write about this. It is not just because the black market stuff is sensational. It is also one of the most steadily growing and interesting experiments in how BTC can be used in the real world."

Come on, of course it's because black market stuff is sensational. Even if analytics prove "black market stuff" actually doesn't prefer BTC (as Lucius shares 2 posts above), you'll still write otherwise.

[BitHodler]

Come on, of course it's because black market stuff is sensational. Even if analytics prove "black market stuff" actually doesn't prefer BTC (as Lucius shares 2 posts above), you'll still write otherwise.

It's a business model that's built to extract the most value out of anything that makes people click.

I however find that people should be able to post whatever they consider a worthy read, no matter how non-worthy others might find these articles. If you don't like an article, then ignore it and move to something that does interest you.

I find the discussions these articles spark quite worthy to read on their own, and it also shows how people here think about this subject and how their opinion has changed or not changed throughout the more recent years.

[coolcoinz]

bbc.reporter, why do you post such stupid news? "Bitcoin Has Lost Steam" is an incredibly stupid title given that it has increased its price by almost $3000 in the last month and a half (around $6500 in December 2019), and all this with some alleged research based on first three months of 2019?

The journalist who wrote the article is clearly on a mission to portray Bitocin as something only criminals use, so are we all criminals in this forum because of the fact that we use BTC? It's really amazing that they portray us as criminals, and as environmental destroyers when it is so far from the truth.

The article is an exaggeration, but less than 6 weeks ago the price was as low as it was back in May 2019. It still hasn't recovered after it dived after the bull run from $3k to $13.8k. It's too early to be unusually optimistic.

They aren't focusing on the price when they say it has slowed down, but on use and adoption. In 2017 the progress was much faster and it really looked like Bitcoin was on its way to 100k USD. more than 2 years later it's still below 10k.  
As for the 14k run up it was an overextension. It was there just for a few hours and immediately went back to 10k. 10k was real top, or we could say it was where the value lied.

[bbc.reporter]

@Lucius. Criminals love fiat also, however, what is the percentage of criminal transactions from the whole? I reckon smaller than regular transactions.

I don't understand what you mean exactly, are you asking what is a percentage of regular BTC transaction compared to ones which allegedly involve illegal activities? We have data for first 3 months 2019 ($601 million dark/black market) and we have data for 2018 (in total $1.5 billion) - and based on this article Bitcoin on-chain transaction for 2019 was $673 billion.

If the research of Chainalysis is true, then based on the first 3 months of 2019 we can say some $2 billion in the worst case, can be classified as illegal transactions. The numbers tell the true truth, it is a literally insignificant sum that is repeatedly tried to be displayed as a label "Bitcoin is the money of criminals".

I was only showing the similarities of how small criminal transactions are compared to regular transactions in the cryptospace and the ratio of illegal transactions and regular transactions in the fiatspace. Similar.

The article did not say bitcoin is money for criminals, similar to fiat, they love to use it.

[Slow death]

The continuing growth of illegal transactions underscores the difficulties that Bitcoin has had in moving past its reputation as a refuge for scoundrels

He is expressing his opinion and as we are in a free world Is his right to say what he wants 

More articles of Nathaniel Popper:

After the Bust, Are Bitcoins More Like Tulip Mania or the Internet?

Terrorists Turn to Bitcoin for Funding, and They’re Learning Fast

clearly he Is a guy who has problems with bitcoin