Bitcoin used by Criminals to sophisticate their footprints

[oktana]

I am an advocate for Bitcoin and It pleases me to tell people about Bitcoin. But there are issues we need to attend to. Bitcoin was created as a means of payment, and some people are using it for that purpose. Unfortunately, this includes criminals. The rate at which criminals use Bitcoins to enhance their operation and make their footsteps sophisticated is just increasing! Haven't you heard that "Bitcoin is a scam"? This phrase only comes up because people have been seeing Bitcoin used for such purposes. Bitcoin is available to everyone, so how can we stop/reduce the misuse of cryptocurrency? Considering that KYC is not involved because I and some people prefer being discreet about our identity. So, how can we stop this, and I'd still have my secrecy? This is already rubbing dirt on us and needs to be attended to.

[ranochigo]

Bitcoin was created as a means of payment, and some people are using it for that purpose. Unfortunately, this includes criminals. The rate at which criminals use Bitcoins to enhance their operation and make their footsteps sophisticated is just increasing!

Yet, fiat is known to be one of the largest untraceable currency that is most commonly used in illicit transactions. Heck, even Standard Chartered laundered billions of dollars. If you want the government to stop snooping in your daily lives, it comes at a cost and that cost is that it's attractive to criminals as well.

Haven't you heard that "Bitcoin is a scam"? This phrase only comes up because people have been seeing Bitcoin used for such purposes. Bitcoin is available to everyone, so how can we stop/reduce the misuse of cryptocurrency? Considering that KYC is not involved because I and some people prefer being discreet about our identity. So, how can we stop this, and I'd still have my secrecy? This is already rubbing dirt on us and needs to be attended to.

Only? Is the term being alluded to Bitcoin facilitating illegal activities or is the term used because most governments do not recognise Bitcoin as a legal tender? I'm pretty sure it's the latter; it's not a scam even if illegal activities are happening on it (why don't people call your fiat currency a scam???) . You cannot stop or reduce the misuse without compromising your own privacy. I don't think it's an issue at all. If you want to address it, you have to address the prevalence of illicit money involving of the most widely known and untraceable currency which is your fiat.

[mk4]

Haven't you heard that "Bitcoin is a scam"? This phrase only comes up because people have been seeing Bitcoin used for such purposes.

Nope. People aren't calling bitcoin a scam just because criminals could use it. People mostly call bitcoin a scam because they don't understand it, without them being able to conceptualize a non-physical asset being worth something.

Bitcoin is available to everyone, so how can we stop/reduce the misuse of cryptocurrency? Considering that KYC is not involved because I and some people prefer being discreet about our identity. So, how can we stop this, and I'd still have my secrecy? This is already rubbing dirt on us and needs to be attended to.

Pretty much nothing as Bitcoin is free to use for literally everyone. The same way how criminals are also able to use cash for criminal purposes. It's literally the downside of every single technology— it will always be usable for nefarious purposes.

[Charles-Tim]

Haven't you heard that "Bitcoin is a scam"? This phrase only comes up because people have been seeing Bitcoin used for such purposes.

No, there are many ignorant reasons ignorant people said bitcoin is a scam. Some ignorant people thought bitcoin was a Ponzi, some thought you can invest and lose. These are the main reasons but the first reason is completely wrong while the second reason is not completely valid if they understand about bitcoin. Fiats that have been always subjected to depreciation is not called scam, while bitcoin never a ponzi, that is obvious for people that properly know about bitcoin. People lose to forex trading but not also calling fiat a scam after it has been subjected to devaluation over time. Bitcoin is money and a payment method, that is why scammers will make use of it. Also, fiat are more used in criminal activities, which means all these should not be the reasons why bitcoin to be called scam.

Bitcoin is available to everyone, so how can we stop/reduce the misuse of cryptocurrency?

By educating people about scam. But this will not work as it is the work of the government and they are not taking any action about it. All governments wants is to compromise privacy, and making online not safe for people. They are using their old failed ways to tackle criminals, but criminals are still on the rise. People needs education but they are not getting it the kind of education we are exposed to on this forum.

Considering that KYC is not involved because I and some people prefer being discreet about our identity. So, how can we stop this, and I'd still have my secrecy? This is already rubbing dirt on us and needs to be attended to.

Educating people, the work of the governments about scam that they are not doing in order to avoid or prevent scam not when the scam has happened and finding solutions.

[oktana]

Nope. People aren't calling bitcoin a scam just because criminals could use it.

Yea, I meant to say 'sometimes'.

I don't think it's an issue at all. If you want to address it, you have to address the prevalence of illicit money involving of the most widely known and untraceable currency which is your fiat.

Pretty much nothing as Bitcoin is free to use for literally everyone. The same way how criminals are also able to use cash for criminal purposes. It's literally the downside of every single technology— it will always be usable for nefarious purposes.

But guys, we all know that fiat is used for illegal activities too. However, that of Bitcoin is rapidly increasing as it offers criminals a better position. If you deposit a huge amount of money in your bank account, the financial agency may investigate on how the money was made. But if you own 2000 bitcoin, no one knows who you are to question you. For this and some other reasons, Bitcoin is preferred for their criminal activities.

[cabron]

The idea about this dirt rubbed on users I think will changed soon because most government and big companies particularly the finance sector who already are treating BTC as digital asset. Its the users and bad actors who are to blame here not Bitcoin. They are criminals they are not dumb to understand Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency and if any of us can use cryptcurrency so can they, its free to anyone whichever the purpose they have.

Its the regulations I think that will be their most cruel enemy here, it will stop from from painting bad to crypto.

[ranochigo]

If you deposit a huge amount of money in your bank account, the financial agency may investigate on how the money was made.

Yes. It's probably because they want to catch you off-guard and want to seize your funds. But why would you use a bank account? Cold, hard cash is completely untraceable and no one would probably find out if you hide it well enough.

But if you own 2000 bitcoin, no one knows who you are to question you. For this and some other reasons, Bitcoin is preferred for their criminal activities.

Problem arises when you're trying to use it. Can the big criminal organisation utilise Bitcoin? Sure they can and I'm sure that it's good for them. Does the fact that they're using it for criminal activities undermine what Bitcoin is for? No. I need to reiterate. Fiat is the only currency in the world that is the most suitable for criminal activities.

If you want to use Bitcoin, the liquidity and the low adoption rate is a good enough deterrence for large scale operations. I think it'll be good if you can eliminate them completely of course. You NEED to have some central authority tracing each and every transaction, manually do a background check on everyone and block transactions if necessary. Sounds familiar? That's Paypal for you.

Fact is, Bitcoin is designed to be decentralised and pseudonymous. I don't think anyone should change that at all and I definitely don't think having criminal activities on Bitcoin is a problem that is serious enough to ruin the whole idea why Bitcoin was invented in the first place.

[msarro]

Bitcoin is available to everyone, so how can we stop/reduce the misuse of cryptocurrency? Considering that KYC is not involved because I and some people prefer being discreet about our identity. So, how can we stop this, and I'd still have my secrecy? This is already rubbing dirt on us and needs to be attended to.

Honestly we can't do nothing about that no matter what we do there will always people who will use Bitcoin in illegal ways either to money launder or to purchase illegal things or services online. I can't really think of a way to reduce it or to avoid this one.

[so98nn]

I am an advocate for Bitcoin and It pleases me to tell people about Bitcoin. But there are issues we need to attend to. Bitcoin was created as a means of payment, and some people are using it for that purpose. Unfortunately, this includes criminals.

Obviously, when Mr. Satoshi conceptualised the idea of blockchain he never would have thought that bitcoin might be used as money laundering stuff. When you say criminals use it, then I recall movies like Pablo Escobar, where millions of stashed into backyard only in our scenario it's in the form of bitcoin.

Honestly, I find it difficult to picture this. If that kinda money is in criminals hand then it's probably coming from higher authority, whose using a criminal for its devil use.

For example, a rich person who wants to buy drugs? may be a government official ordering group of criminals to end someone for internal politics and paying in bitcoin form ?

This could literally go on and we will never know whose exactly behind this. The flow of money has to be from normal rich people to criminals and not the other way round of course.

So it's thinkable, how you can manage the complexity of its use?

The rate at which criminals use Bitcoins to enhance their operation and make their footsteps sophisticated is just increasing! Haven't you heard that "Bitcoin is a scam"? This phrase only comes up because people have been seeing Bitcoin used for such purposes.

And who do you think call it scam? May be those who use it themselves for such reasons OR someone whose too down line and unable to buy a bit today due to its huge pricing. You never know what bad kinda politics is being played.

Yes, it could be just criminal using it, but my concern is from where does the money coming ? A criminal doesn't pay another one, actually guys with needs do.

Bitcoin is available to everyone, so how can we stop/reduce the misuse of cryptocurrency? Considering that KYC is not involved because I and some people prefer being discreet about our identity. So, how can we stop this, and I'd still have my secrecy? This is already rubbing dirt on us and needs to be attended to.

The KYC is for those services which includes trading, exchangers etc. If you just wanna send money from one wallet to another, or just want to hold then you are good to go without any KYC.

Of course you can option out for kyc anytime, I don't see any interference of criminals using the bitcoin and you doing your kyc out of thousands people over an exchanger.

[taufik123]

-snip-
But guys, we all know that fiat is used for illegal activities too. However, that of Bitcoin is rapidly increasing as it offers criminals a better position. If you deposit a huge amount of money in your bank account, the financial agency may investigate on how the money was made. But if you own 2000 bitcoin, no one knows who you are to question you. For this and some other reasons, Bitcoin is preferred for their criminal activities.

Each technology has its own advantages and disadvantages. Fiat currency is also used by criminals for illegal activities and it is very easy to trace it.

However, the hacking can also stop because the system owned by the bank can be hacked by professional hackers who aim to erase their tracks.

In contrast to bitcoin, which indeed provides more room for criminals not to be detected because of anonymous transactions that are made.

But do you know that transactions carried out on bitcoin use blockchain technology that can not be deleted by anyone and transaction history that can be seen by anyone. this will be an opening for the police to track down where the transaction ends. To be sure, the transaction will still go to the criminal's bank account even though it is done in thousands of transactions though.

Blockchain technology will make it easier for the authorities to carry out investigations, so no one can hiding even though using bitcoin.

[pankowri]

Isn't it very normal that criminals will use it where there has less risk to trace them?
-- That is the main fact to use Bitcoin as a payment rather it was created to pay easily as it is also mentioned by op.

I also believe that technology itself has some advantage and disadvantage too. So it can be used for illegal purposes but it is not scam or illegal.
 

[witcher_sense]

Honestly we can't do nothing about that no matter what we do there will always people who will use Bitcoin in illegal ways either to money launder or to purchase illegal things or services online. I can't really think of a way to reduce it or to avoid this one.

It is well possible to find a solution to this problem. But first, we need to find out why criminals have chosen bitcoin to facilitate their nefarious activities in the first place, why they keep using it despite the transparent design and open nature of bitcoin. I think the main reason they are using bitcoin is that other, non-criminal, people are always ready to accept bitcoin as money. Both criminals and non-criminals recognize bitcoin as money due to its valuable characteristics. It has all useful properties inherent to good money, and therefore people have no choice but to use it in exchanges. In order to prevent criminals from using bitcoin, we should make bitcoin worthless by depriving it of all useful properties.

[carlisle1]

I am an advocate for Bitcoin and It pleases me to tell people about Bitcoin. But there are issues we need to attend to. Bitcoin was created as a means of payment, and some people are using it for that purpose. Unfortunately, this includes criminals.

Your Rank tells us that you are here long enough but why still now being affected of these issue?Criminal will use everything for their operation it's just happen that they cross bitcoin now and find it suitable.

Even without Bitcoin they will find every way,so Just focus on your life.

The rate at which criminals use Bitcoins to enhance their operation and make their footsteps sophisticated is just increasing! Haven't you heard that "Bitcoin is a scam"?

Seriously?you still find these question appropriate? even Noob knows about that question and i did not expect to be coming from high rank like you

This phrase only comes up because people have been seeing Bitcoin used for such purposes. Bitcoin is available to everyone, so how can we stop/reduce the misuse of cryptocurrency? Considering that KYC is not involved because I and some people prefer being discreet about our identity. So, how can we stop this, and I'd still have my secrecy? This is already rubbing dirt on us and needs to be attended to.

What about Fiat,This is the main use of criminal so we need to stop Fiat also?Man be mature let it be,you are not superhero to face everything.

[Shallow]

Let me start with the aspect of calling Bitcoin a scam; people called or calling Bitcoin a scam is because they are yet to understand it and everything about it, you can't possibly call fiat a scam because you know how it works, you can't the internet a scam because you know how it works, but when you start lacking the right knowledge about something, you can call it whatever you want just to justify your ignorance of that thing or technology.
Secondly, about Bitcoin being used by criminals, there is nothing anyone can do about it, to better understand this, before Bitcoin, haven't criminals been using fiat? What was done about it? Nothing, rather the government keeps trying their best to curtail it. Also, since criminals are using  fiat, does it mean fiat is bad, No; this case scenario of fiat, is the same with Bitcoin.
Money be it fiat or Bitcoin is being used by people for whatever purpose they want, where some will use it for bad, others will use it for good, hence it is all about mindset and the individual in particular, thus wrong to judge the usage of Bitcoin just because of some fraudulent people. Lastly, if Bitcoin is not worth it, I don't think big organisations will be adopting it.

[Carlton Banks]

So, how can we stop this, and I'd still have my secrecy?

we can't

either everyone has permissionless privacy, or nobody does. And that's the way it should be: banning tools (or commodities) has been shown time and time again to be ineffective as a means to stopping people using those tools in a dangerous or unethical way. All that happens is that the richest/most powerful corrupt those running the system, and abuse that position to continue to make money from whatever ban, but now the rewards are higher because the ban has pushed up the price of the whatever it is that's been banned.

it's like this for drugs, guns/weapons, banned trade, banned bank account secrecy etc etc. None of this ever worked, because rich and powerful continued to do it in spite of the ban.


Bitcoin was designed to make everyone equally capable of using private money with incontrovertable ownership, so that none of these things mattered any more.

so sorry @otkana, but the issue here is that you're applying 20th century values to a 21st century tool, not realizing that the way we used to think about these issues was causing the problem. You're still arguing about what to do about wolves around the campfire _after_ someone invented steel pointy sticks

[lovesmayfamilis]

Well, not everything is as gloomy as the OP describes. And this topic has already been raised several times. Yesterday's news reported that the use of illegal bitcoins has dropped significantly.

https://www.elliptic.co/blog/13-bitcoin-crime-laundered-through-privacy-wallet

But Elliptic Research says the use of confidential wallets has increased.
This suggests that criminals are trying to keep up with the times. The use of decentralized exchanges, confidential wallets, makes it difficult to track funds. But the fact that all transactions are stored in the public ledger of the blockchain makes it much easier to track such transactions. And, accordingly, those transactions that are illegal are tracked

[sterle]

they use even more sophisticate footprints the fiat guys

[Reid]

It cannot be stopped. Everything that is created can be used for evil deeds. They just need to bend it a little.
USD, EURO, GOLD, Silver, or any other currencies and commodities that have value can be exchanged for drugs, guns, or any illegal works.

But you did find the right word. "Sophisticate"
They can still be traced, they are just making it hard for authorities.
It's just a matter of whoever has the right equipment to track them down.

[Wexnident]

Yea, I meant to say 'sometimes'.

And yet criminals use fiat money all the time to commit crimes and yet it still hasn't even been called a scam. My opinion here? Let's stop being stupid and stop blaming the currency for being a tool. We can use it, and we love it right now because it is a tool, and that's that. Anything can become dangerous in the hands of someone who knows how to turn it into one, so there's absolutely no need for us to do anything. For anyone blaming Bitcoin as a tool for criminals, just tell them to throw away everything they have since criminals also use those anyway.

[Wind_FURY]

OP, it doesn't matter who uses Bitcoin, and what for. It's a breakthrough that you can use solved Sudokus for buying heroine from the dark markets.