Why criminals prefer cash (Fiat) on top of crypto?

[o_e_l_e_o]

For the truly paranoid, acquiring XMR in-person, interacting with the Monero blockchain using a VPN + TOR, and trading it via a decentralized exchange would be all you need to stay as private as possible.

I don't think so. Although what you've listed are good first steps, there are still plenty of other ways to be deanonymized. If you are doing all of that from any version of Windows, then you are not private. If you do anything else via the same Tor circuit which is at all linked to your real identity (log in to an email or other account, browse social media, etc.) then you are not private. Even doing things such as searching for goods or services in your geographical area or browsing the same sites which you do outside of Tor can be enough to narrow down a search.

Things would've been different if there was a privacy-oriented stablecoin, though.

Given that stablecoins are generally all centralized and can be created or frozen by their creators at will, they don't exactly lend themselves to a privacy orientated approach.

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[ReiMomo]

~snip~
I am not a criminal but I guess the reason is liquidity.

Exactly, this is the main reason why cryptocurrencies are prone to use in any criminal activity. Liquidity + privacy = successful cashout to fiat.

A nature of decentralized currency I guess may abuse from the others who want criminalities instead of using this in a good deeds. However, this is the reality and the fact that we must accept. Time to time, there are regulations of all wallet that associated to bitcoin user, I mean the costudial wallet should be monitored under by the government and once the Bitcoin address will reported as a scam all costudial wallet mark this a scam and anyone will linked to this will froze and investigate the account.

[Spaffin]

In order to fully use the cryptocurrency in your activities, you need to have certain knowledge and at the same time have a certain structure in a criminal organization that can control all of its cryptocurrency capital. One way or another, today criminals use cryptocurrencies, but not so massively as to prevail over fiat money. And if a drug dealer has his own regular customers who buy drugs, then there is a very small chance that these customers will be able to buy goods using cryptocurrency when the dealer switches from Fiat to cryptocurrency.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Physical cash is the only currency that is 100% anonymous. None of the other forms of currency (including anonymous cryptocurrencies) can match physical cash as far as anonymity is concerned. I have used anonymous coins such as Deep Onion, Monero and Veil. All of them have some vulnerability, which may make it possible to trace back the transaction. Even if that is not possible, at some point the holders need to convert their anonymous coins to fiat cash. And this is the most vulnerable phase.

[lixer]

Where have you been man? Have you been living under the rock? There are has been a lot of criminal activities that has taken place in the cryptocurrency space, but they were all caught. Cryptocurrencies are not privacy coins as some of you are made to believe , and it’s not a ticket for you to start committing crime using crypto and feeling that you’re very safe and no one would know.

It all depends on the level of crime you commit, no matter what you use, if the government is ready to track you down, they are going to do just that. They will trace you no matter what it takes until they get their hands on you. And by the way, there is a difference between physical cash and a money that was paid straight to your bank account; it will only draw suspicion when a money is paid into your bank account, but if the cash is given to you direct, no one knows about it.

[matchi2011]

In order to fully use the cryptocurrency in your activities, you need to have certain knowledge and at the same time have a certain structure in a criminal organization that can control all of its cryptocurrency capital. One way or another, today criminals use cryptocurrencies, but not so massively as to prevail over fiat money. And if a drug dealer has his own regular customers who buy drugs, then there is a very small chance that these customers will be able to buy goods using cryptocurrency when the dealer switches from Fiat to cryptocurrency.

Criminals do find comfortable venue to use for their illegal transactions, they prefer to use what's most used by people instead of
trying to work with crypto which the usages is not that popular yet than how fiat works.
Even there are people who already knew about this market criminals are still looking for much higher usages such as fiat and they
prefer to continue using it without having any major  concerns.

[Blackrain13]

Maybe those criminal's doesn't know yet about crypto or it is easy for them to use the fiat money which is used of all people in everyday lives instead of putting their time on learning in cryptocurrency. Also they prefer the money that they can easily spend without any transaction to make like in cryptocurrency.

[Mauser]

Maybe those criminal's doesn't know yet about crypto or it is easy for them to use the fiat money which is used of all people in everyday lives instead of putting their time on learning in cryptocurrency. Also they prefer the money that they can easily spend without any transaction to make like in cryptocurrency.

Yeah it might the case that cyber criminals love crypto currencies but for the average criminal the education in IT and internet issue is probably very low and they will not trust any cryptos. I would assume that they will value cash always the highest, because they can see and touch it. Also when paying with cash you are more independent. When paying with cprytos you need internet access and government might track you.

[rexxarofmoknathal]

I think people with a criminal mind ready to act on and undertake illegal activities don't care whether it is fiat or crypto as long as they can obtain them with minimal effort and get away with it.

That said, only crypto with less involved 'hacking' due to required expert knowledge would be at higher risk, while fiat would be at the top. We need to remember that for now crypto is still in its early days and it would take time until criminals would adopt crypto as their main strategy, like fiat is today, and there are plenty of articles written on exactly this.

[bryant.coleman]

Yeah it might the case that cyber criminals love crypto currencies but for the average criminal the education in IT and internet issue is probably very low and they will not trust any cryptos. I would assume that they will value cash always the highest, because they can see and touch it. Also when paying with cash you are more independent. When paying with cprytos you need internet access and government might track you.

That's right. Using cryptocurrency is one thing, and staying anonymous while using cryptocurrency is another. The ordinary criminals may jump in to use Bitcoin or Monero. But he may not be able to convert these cryptocurrencies to fiat or other physical assets. And he may not be able to keep his cryptocurrency transactions secure (i.e without any links that can be traced back).

[barbara44]

You are about 8 years too late to make this statement. Crypto has been favorite of illegal people for a decade now, obviously it is not considered money for the criminals anymore because it is a great financial instrument and people who bribe politicians are involved with crypto nowadays which is why they are not allowing governments to ban it, however this doesn't mean criminals just went away.

We all remember darknet and silkroad, dude made over 11k bitcoins thanks to being middle man for all the criminals and people who hired them. Mainly it was a drug thing, people basically bought drugs online thanks to silkroad. So, as you can see bitcoin and crypto in general was used for (and probably still is) for all the illegal stuff, it is not a brand new idea.

[meanwords]

That's right. Using cryptocurrency is one thing, and staying anonymous while using cryptocurrency is another. The ordinary criminals may jump in to use Bitcoin or Monero. But he may not be able to convert these cryptocurrencies to fiat or other physical assets. And he may not be able to keep his cryptocurrency transactions secure (i.e without any links that can be traced back).

Unless they use mixer which is a favorite thing to them. But yeah, I agree because most criminals prefer using fiat because banks can cover for them and they can use this dirty money to buy assets that will clean their money.

If by any means criminals start adopting crypto in mass (especially privacy coins), we could expect a full government crackdown on the entire industry. Which is why I think it's best for criminals to continue using Fiat for the sake of the crypto/Blockchain industry's growth worldwide. But we'll never know what will happen in the future. Thoughts?

They would have done it with banks if the government really has the means to fully crackdown criminal. I doubt they will have the resource and means to do it especially that cryptocurrencies are spreading and being adopted in different countries. It's inevitable to really stop criminal cases with cryptocurrencies and it will still grow because criminal sees opportunity with it. Fiat has just been around for the longest time which is why they have the most records of crime and launders.

[CODE200]

Fiat money or cash is easily and readily  accessible for those criminals and they do not certainly need of any other knowledge about it just execution of the plan on how they will run their criminal activities. On the other hand with crypto, they do still in need to learn and understand on how crypto works which can add more hassle to them on learning a new one and formulating new strategies on how they can carry out their momey once case become caught up unlike in fiat wherein they do already have escape plans not to get caught in transaction unlike in crypto that might be due to panic and pressure on handling how to escape can create mistake that will enable them to get in jail once traced. Simply, criminals find fiat a lot more easier to manipulate and handle compared to crypto which makes them more to prefer doing criminalities that involved fiat rather than crypto.

[int03h]

FIAT money is more supported by the real world and accepted by criminal organizations. Banks silently launder money to help criminals. The stability and anonymity of FIAT money are clear.
Anonymous money can still be tracked because it's just technology and there is always a way to follow, we can do it if we are talented enough.

[0t3p0t]

Maybe convenience. Less hassle of acquiring the funds instead of converting crypto to fiat which requires crypto exchange service and mandatory KYC or by means of P2P. There's also a mandatory KYC in fiat payment processors however these things shouldn't be a problem now for criminals as it was part of the system even way back.

Or maybe because Fiat has an easier learning curve than crypto?

No doubt, one of the reasons. Somehow, people need to know the basic technicalities first of how to use bitcoin in general.

And even for let's say they are familiar, still, they found the usual payment system is more user-friendly compare dealing in a bitcoin transaction.

I agree. Low profile criminals don't care about decentralization maybe because they find it hard to deal with Bitcoin and find it easy to use the usual payment system which is fiat. High profile criminals with high volume transactions find themselves in love with cryptocurrency to evade law and of course authority that keeps on tracking them. Humans keeps on finding ways to survive and that is the way it is.

[bryant.coleman]

That's right. Using cryptocurrency is one thing, and staying anonymous while using cryptocurrency is another. The ordinary criminals may jump in to use Bitcoin or Monero. But he may not be able to convert these cryptocurrencies to fiat or other physical assets. And he may not be able to keep his cryptocurrency transactions secure (i.e without any links that can be traced back).

Unless they use mixer which is a favorite thing to them. But yeah, I agree because most criminals prefer using fiat because banks can cover for them and they can use this dirty money to buy assets that will clean their money.

Finding a reliable cryptocurrency mixer is getting difficult nowadays. A number of them have been closed down by the authorities in the recent times. The most well known example is that of Bestmixer.io. It was taken down in 2018, by a combined team led by the Europol. Some of the other mixing services proved to be exit scams, while some others were having phishing links.

[exstasie]

Unless they use mixer which is a favorite thing to them. But yeah, I agree because most criminals prefer using fiat because banks can cover for them and they can use this dirty money to buy assets that will clean their money.

Finding a reliable cryptocurrency mixer is getting difficult nowadays. A number of them have been closed down by the authorities in the recent times. The most well known example is that of Bestmixer.io.

That's the only example of a mixer being taken down by the authorities. And it's a special case because Bestmixer advertised themselves as a money laundering service. Other mixers don't.

What's wrong with Chipmixer?

[qwertyup23]

If by any means criminals start adopting crypto in mass (especially privacy coins), we could expect a full government crackdown on the entire industry. Which is why I think it's best for criminals to continue using Fiat for the sake of the crypto/Blockchain industry's growth worldwide. But we'll never know what will happen in the future. Thoughts?

Like what you have mentioned, a learning curve in in cryptocurrency is required when you start using the said currency. Compared to fiat which has been the conventional payment that existed since time immemorial, the convenience and accessibility is already preset unlike in cryptocurrency. Although transactions are completely anonymous in the latter, one must still have to learn the fundamentals before they start transacting.

I think people with a criminal mind ready to act on and undertake illegal activities don't care whether it is fiat or crypto as long as they can obtain them with minimal effort and get away with it.

I also agree with this statement. When a criminal has already decided to commit a crime, regardless of the nature of payment it uses, as long as it achieves its goal then it would exercise all the means just to make it happen.

[damberg]

Using crypto for grey zone or even illegal activities does not grant such extent of anonymity as an old and simple cash does. Even Monero and other privacy coins are not straightforwardly anonymous since you may leave traces (entry points to XMR network, exit points when XMR is traded back to cash etc.) Dealing with cash is still much simpler.

[Ucy]

I'm starting to wonder why, since Fiat (physical cash) is not as anonymous as one thought it would be.

Wonder why you say so(assuming you mean physical currency, which are still quite anonymous as far as I can tell.)?

If by any means criminals start adopting crypto in mass (especially privacy coins), we could expect a full government crackdown on the entire industry. Which is why I think it's best for criminals to continue using Fiat for the sake of the crypto/Blockchain industry's growth worldwide. But we'll never know what will happen in the future. Thoughts?

Well, if that happens, a transparent/good cryptocurrency will be used legitimately without much problem if the users/community do things right. No Just government will go after good cryptocurrency networks because of the bad/non-transparent ones. By the way, members of a good Cryptocurrency Network should be willing to help or cooperate with any government that has reasonable issues with them, as long as the government respects the Community/Network cheerished values like decentralization, transparency, immutablity, privacy/anonymity, etc. You can't crackdown on things with no central control especially if they are good things. The so called crackdown should be directed at those abusing the good things.