Bitcoin assets cannot be blocked - is that helping terrorists?

[sana54210]

On top of that, Taliban and ISIS have regularly raided central banks and other financial institutions, taking vast reserves of fiat cash. Almost all of their dealings (ransom payments, purchase of weapons, sales of drugs.etc) are conducted using fiat currency. And yet, it is cryptocurrency which receives the blame. There are reasons why these terror groups prefer physical cash to cryptocurrency. First of all, cryptocurrency is not 100% anonymous since the transactions are recorded in Blockchain. And secondly, the liquidity will be an issue with larger amounts, especially in countries like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

That's right, using fiat currency is much more convenient for terrorists because, unlike Bitcoin, it's 100% anonymous. Blaming BTC is ridiculous, but if we think of it, since recently no serious person blames BTC in helping terrorists. It's ignorant journalists who don't know the difference between Monero, Zcash and the likes and Bitcoin write those foolish articles, and fortunately fewer and fewer people read them.

Whenever someone says "bitcoin allows bad people to do things" always remind them, were there no bad people before bitcoin was created? I mean even if they think that all those bad things are 100% fully crypto right now (which obviously is not, we all know that) even in that case before 2009 were there not any bad people? Terrorists, mafia, scammers?

I mean fiat is the number one thing they use, crypto is still not fully supported by bad people yet because they are not really aware of how to use it too much. Do you really think that ISIS invest into bitcoin much? Or Taliban? It is obvious that they use fiat and will keep on using fiat.

Plus, if those big nations really wanted to let those nations be good, they were good before Russia and USA came in and destroy the nation, Afghanistan was a great place before them, okay maybe not "great" for EU standards but still a good place, now it is a hellhole because big nations came in and destroyed everything.

[Sir Legend]

Many people think that bitcoin is used for illegal transactions from terrorists, I think this is difficult to prove, the fact until now is that many banks are willing to accept money even from illegal sources such as corruption, it has become a fact that corruptors in my country are very happy to use foreign banks to save money from corruption.

[ivankoh]

My point is why people always try to think negatively about bitcoin when people themselves are reusing bitcoin freely in any form legal or illegal it doesn't make any sense  chief.  And not to mention before bitcoin was born, do you think there was no other way of terrorism?  This is ironic and really unfair.  People are expecting perfection so much that they forget what bitcoin really means.  Bitcoin is not the only tool for potentially illegal activity.  Why is no one talking about illegal activities for fiat like corruption, bribery.  Bitcoin's essence is objective positivity

[jaberwock]

Bitcoin itself is not wrong. Bitcoin has the same attitude towards everyone. There is an error in this proposition. From another perspective, if the previous government uses digital currency, his funds will not be frozen, but I will consider, does the United States still protect the previous government? Everything is for profit, and there is no free lunch. For many countries that want to get rid of the dollar control. Will the US government not impose an economic blockade on them?

Yes, Bitcoin by design is not meant to assist terrorism or illegal activities but unfortunately, the decentralized nature is moulding it into such. Bitcoin was created to give people the power of transactions and disrupt the banking sector, but in doing so, ultimately wrongdoers are getting benefited.

People don't realize that terrorists can make their own coin and demand ransom in their own coin too. If they are using bitcoins for their illegal activities then it's not the right call to judge the purpose of bitcoins.

And to be honest, bitcoins can be tracked to an extent if some mixer or fresh addresses are not used. Now people might start questioning mixers but again they are designed for privacy but used for wrong activities.

[Silberman]

I think its funny to think that all the restrictions should be in place just becouse of terrorists.
Nato,Russia,China who all claim to be anti terror organised, could easily eliminate any threat.
Yet.
Isis drives Toyotas imported from US, Assault rifles made in Russia.
Taliban now has US Vehicles, aircraft ,weapons. Etc. 

On top of that, Taliban and ISIS have regularly raided central banks and other financial institutions, taking vast reserves of fiat cash. Almost all of their dealings (ransom payments, purchase of weapons, sales of drugs.etc) are conducted using fiat currency. And yet, it is cryptocurrency which receives the blame. There are reasons why these terror groups prefer physical cash to cryptocurrency. First of all, cryptocurrency is not 100% anonymous since the transactions are recorded in Blockchain. And secondly, the liquidity will be an issue with larger amounts, especially in countries like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Any thinking person can understand this but the media and the government keeps pushing this narrative because they want to create a negative image of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general among the population so when the time comes they do not adopt them and instead they decide to adopt the digital currencies they are creating already, do I think it will work? Yes but not to the extent they want as there is many smart people that can see through this and that will decide to enter this market anyway.

[fiulpro]

Obviously, this could not have happened if those assets were held in bitcoin or other crypto. It seems that not everything is good in self-sovereignty?

I assume those were federal reserve bonds that countries can hold? If so the same storage mechanism will probabky be used with bitcoin.

If bitcoin becomes like a gold would the US, EU and India not seem like trustworthy resources for housing nations' gold?
Terrorist organisations might get help from certain other countries also in storing gold securely so the same could still happen with that.

A system that allows people to block anyone gives the blocker too much power anyway imo.

It's not about power, it's about the regulation as well since bitcoins as a whole is tightly regulated and manipulated as well therefore storing it etc.. might now work out perfectly well. Terrorist organizations might not be just getting help but uncontrollable power as well if not done right.

My point is why people always try to think negatively about bitcoin when people themselves are reusing bitcoin freely in any form legal or illegal it doesn't make any sense  chief.  And not to mention before bitcoin was born, do you think there was no other way of terrorism?  This is ironic and really unfair.  People are expecting perfection so much that they forget what bitcoin really means.  Bitcoin is not the only tool for potentially illegal activity.  Why is no one talking about illegal activities for fiat like corruption, bribery.  Bitcoin's essence is objective positivity

It is but one cannot just deny the implications it comes with. Bitcoins is something strong and can be misused anytime anywhere as well. Therefore we have to believe in it and accept it. Make changes to improve it in the future. Making changes will start with realization and we have to understand that at some places and points bitcoins might give them an unnecessary advantage for sure. Virgin coins might be a disaster for us as well.

[doomloop]

Many people think that bitcoin is used for illegal transactions from terrorists, I think this is difficult to prove, the fact until now is that many banks are willing to accept money even from illegal sources such as corruption, it has become a fact that corruptors in my country are very happy to use foreign banks to save money from corruption.

I am not sure which centralized and regulated banks are allowing the deposit of illegally acquired funds. Yes some foreign banks are allowing the deposit of money without any paperwork but the truth is that you are still under their control and at any time they might leak your information and wealth to your local government.

Bitcoins are used for many wrong things and I know because I have seen them. Not sure whether terrorists use Bitcoins or not but a lot of other illegal things are associated with Bitcoins. Some of them are:

1- Underage gambling & Porn
2- Hackers asking for BTC
3- Money Laundering
4- Tax Evasion

[witcher_sense]

I am not sure which centralized and regulated banks are allowing the deposit of illegally acquired funds.

There are several banks that have been involved in criminal activity and money laundering. They are pretty small though, I don't think you have heard of them: JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon

Bitcoins are used for many wrong things and I know because I have seen them. Not sure whether terrorists use Bitcoins or not but a lot of other illegal things are associated with Bitcoins. Some of them are:

1- Underage gambling & Porn
2- Hackers asking for BTC
3- Money Laundering
4- Tax Evasion

Currently, bitcoin is used for precisely one purpose: the exchange of value, which is neither good nor bad. The illegal things you mentioned had existed for years before bitcoin was created, which means it has always been a problem of bad people, not "bad money."

[Barinekapaul]

Bitcoin is a help to the people, and as such are most times attributed to positive impacts.
And the statement of it helping terrorists is what cannot be said, or explained clearly.

[swiftbits]

Bitcoin resources will help terrorists but they will not be able to make real use of it because bitcoin is not in circulation in all countries of the world and needs to be converted into fiat currency. Bitcoin transfer all transactions in an anonymous way thus the use of bitcoin by criminals is actually more risky than conventional methods, such as cash in hand transfer. Believes that the bitcoin blockchain is now being monitored more closely for illegal transactions than the banking system but it is difficult to criminalize kyc terrorists.

I do relate to the statement. Restrictions are bigger if you are handling bigger funds, liquidating BTC to fiat is not efficient due to limitations. We've seen cases of losing account access just from a withdrawal from casino sites. Imagine these terrorists use it; detection is really possible. It could also be detrimental to the image of the coins and community. I do accept the fact that bitcoin is used illegally, but not on other bigger issues.

[Abiky]

But they can track it no? Though the effectiveness is still questionable since mixers are a thing, crypto assets could still plainly be seen as to where they would go, and the assets would still need to be converted to fiat since most businesses don't even know what Bitcoin is, let alone accept them. Besides in this case, the opposite could be said as well right? Having too much control over the assets of a country, being able to block them just by presenting the public a "reasonable" excuse, then they could freeze assets of various powers.

Well, Bitcoin transactions are publicly verifiable by anyone on the Blockchain. I don't think Bitcoin is going to help terrorists, since it's easy to track down suspicious transactions on an open ledger. Maybe a privacy coin like Monero or Zcash will do the trick. Bitcoin mixers may obfuscate transactions on the Blockchain, but most of them are centralized. Non-custodial mixers would be the only option, but not many terrorists are tech-savvy enough to use them for their own benefit.

A major hurdle one would have to face when using Bitcoin would be dealing with a centralized exchange to convert it to Fiat. Most (if not all) centralized exchanges require KYC, so it's easy enough for governments to restrict access to them at will. Countries which depend on Bitcoin to avoid sanctions have no choice but to trade Bitcoin in-person to get Fiat in return. If everything is done in a decentralized manner (no middleman involved in the process), then there would be no way to block Bitcoin transactions. Some countries have recognized Bitcoin's true benefits, adopting them as legal tender. El Salvador is the first country to make such a move, and others may follow as Fiat continues to lose traction in the mainstream world. If this keeps up, it may be impossible to prevent terrorists from using Bitcoin altogether. Just my thoughts

[Betwrong]

That's right, using fiat currency is much more convenient for terrorists because, unlike Bitcoin, it's 100% anonymous. Blaming BTC is ridiculous, but if we think of it, since recently no serious person blames BTC in helping terrorists. It's ignorant journalists who don't know the difference between Monero, Zcash and the likes and Bitcoin write those foolish articles, and fortunately fewer and fewer people read them.

Even with Monero and Zcash, there is no concrete evidence that they are being used for terrorism.

Can this be so because they are untracable? I'm not saying terrorists using them, but how could we know?

XMR and ZEC have even serious liquidity issues, since their trade volumes are much lower when compared to established cryptocurrencies. Journalists just want sensationalism and use these sort of stories as clickbait. That said, I don't want to call them as ignorant. It's all intentional.

By "intentional" you mean they just want to create clickbait articles, or some other purposes? Because I feel like many journalists often understand very poorly what they are writing about, and their main intention is to be liked by the audience, which is even more ignorant than they are, and get paid for their job.

Also, for the governments cryptocurrency is just a convenient excuse to hide their own failures in combating global terrorism.

I absolutely agree with this. Same as they blame Bitcoin mining in contribution to carbon footprint, hiding their failures in creating more clean energy sources.

[oHnK]

Same as they blame Bitcoin mining in contribution to carbon footprint, hiding their failures in creating more clean energy sources.

This is the biggest bullshit I have often heard from governments rejecting crypto especially Bitcoin. Everywhere, they say the same thing even the previous drop in BTC price was caused by influencers who said the same thing. It really doesn't make sense, if they fight the existence of BTC with classic reasons like that. Which type of investment really doesn't destroy nature? Or what currency is the most frequently used by terrorists? Isn't it that terrorist activities have always been supported by fiat, otherwise how can they buy weapons and so on.

Fiat is currently very bad with a lot of evidence available, the solution offered by BTC will disrupt many things so that the initial rejection is very hard because they and their access are disrupted by the presence of BTC. Hopefully the public will soon realize how the government continues to hinder the freedom in managing our personal money.