Is the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie an attack against BTC?

[stompix]

Phil,
Apart from some Americans on this board the rest of 99%
- don't have a clue who Nancy Guthrie is
- don't have a clue who Savannah Guthrie is
- haven't seen 5 minutes of NBC news

If they wanted an attack on Bitcoin, they would have snatched Saylor and left him in a ditch after torturing him and making him drop all the coins from the MSTR vaults.

[Satofan44]

This particular case is getting more publicity. I read one of the reports about this kidnapping and the writer called Bitcoin a currency that is popular among criminals. Nobody knows how things will turn out because the US has a president who acts like a despot. He can make sweeping changes to crypto laws using this kidnapping case as a backing.

Enough of your panicking and exaggerating with this stupid nonsense. Articles have been written about Bitcoin being popular among criminals, which is not true, since it has been created. It has never stopped, you were just distracted by reading news from other sources so you believe something is different now.

Reform could be asked for.  My fear is a coin freeze proposal that gets legs and is done in the USA.

my thoughts are your thoughts I bolded in red.

Stop it, you are too old to be panicking this often for nothing. Enjoy your life, and you should know better that a coin freeze proposal is impossible. Anyone who knows even the basics of Bitcoin knows that it is impossible. They do not have anywhere near the influence on the network to pull something like that off. It would take intrusion, bribery, persuasion, and manipulation over several decades to maybe reach that level of influence of the network -- by this time you won't be alive, so stop worrying about arbitrary stuff. You, like many news-reading people, may be addicted to worrying and concern. It is part of the consumption cycle, get it sorted.

Why would it be? This is not the biggest ransom or death that involves Bitcoin or Monero? It may be the highest profile case in the US, but worldwide it is insignificant and nothing new.

At first I was shocked that this became so popular news because there is nothing spectacular there and such kidnapps happen often without gaining any attention but I guess, this case became high profile because Savannah Guthrie is a co-anchor of NBC's "TODAY" show and since she is famous, it reached to the White House and then President Donald Trump expressed his support for the family and offered federal assitance and in the end, it became a high profile case.

This does not make the case any special on itself, it makes it special in the perception of people who care about manipulated News and public figures. Other than that, it is as classic of a case as any. Many people have even died this way, we barely hear about them.  

Since the kidnapper asks for Bitcoin instead of Monero, I'm sure that he doesn't know how to protect his privacy well, so even if he gets paid $6 million Bitcoin, I predict that he will be exposed the moment he tries to withdraw his money.

If they had asked for Monero, they may have a chance. The Bitcoin can still be converted through decentralized means in a fast way, but this way the attackers are leaving breadcrumbs everywhere. With Monero they could sit on it for a long time and then use it with very little risk.

[Ambatman]

This kidnapping could mean a call to be able to freeze BTC. It certainly will damage BTC if the ranson is paid and if the kidnappers are never caught.

okay it seems the kidnapped is quite popular
Since I just saw another thread about her.
Similar to what I stated before
Cash has been used for Ransom for years and it hasn't affected it's reputation
Nor does the average person think it's criminal money.
If they do it's just an excuse to give reason why KYC is important.

So it will hurt BTC for sure , but I do not know if the kidnappers just want BTC or if there is no kidnapping and it is a plot to hurt crypto.

My guess is the kidnapping happened and they think they can clean the BTC.

I believe Cash is better when it comes to privacy
And Using Bitcoin would have to make them rely on mixers or monero
This would affect mixers if it becomes successful not Bitcoin
But I believe if they serious as long as the funds moves they could be caught.

I believe her life should be a bigger concern not Bitcoin.

[Patikno]

This kidnapping could mean a call to be able to freeze BTC. It certainly will damage BTC if the ranson is paid and if the kidnappers are never caught.

It will also likely hurt monero and mixers if the btc get vanished and cleaned.

So it will hurt BTC for sure , but I do not know if the kidnappers just want BTC or if there is no kidnapping and it is a plot to hurt crypto.

My guess is the kidnapping happened and they think they can clean the BTC.

Do you mean by "attack against BTC" that it damages Bitcoin image? If so, then I don't think the case will cause any damage to Bitcoin. I am sure the case will be solved, and I hope it will be soon. Even if the kidnapper tries to clean up the BTC, I think it will be difficult for them, because there will be many eyes on the kidnapper address, and chain analyzers will try to uncover it. I don't think the local government will remain silent either, and they will cooperate closely with several crypto activists, and maybe even try to collaborate with the mixers to uncover it. The point is, the kidnapper wallet will be difficult for the kidnapper to liquidate. Cmiiw.

By the way, the footage (recording) of the kidnapping case was successfully recovered, and maybe making it easier for law enforcement to get closer to solving the problem. I hoping very much this case will resolved soon, so that no one is harmed, whether it is crypto (especially Bitcoin), or a human being. After all, humanity is above all, and I believe that.

[PrivacyG]

If they had asked for Monero, they may have a chance. The Bitcoin can still be converted through decentralized means in a fast way, but this way the attackers are leaving breadcrumbs everywhere. With Monero they could sit on it for a long time and then use it with very little risk.

What stops them from Atomic Swapping the Bitcoin to Monero?  It is a low chance that the attackers know how to properly keep their identity hidden, they will probably do some thing really stupid some time in the future.  You often see these criminals successfully plan out and carry their attack really well but then they end up depositing it on Binance or bragging about it on Tik Tok.

[FinneysTrueVision]

All these big stories that involving Bitcoin and crypto have given ammunition to the detractors. Even within crypto there are people spreading FUD about Bitcoin because it was mentioned in the Epstein files. I guess they believe that by attacking Bitcoin, it will help whichever particular altcoin they are a fan of.

The Nancy Guthrie kidnapping on its own might not affect Bitcoin’s reputation by much, but altogether with every other negative story, including Epstein and Trump’s open grifting, helps reinforce the image that many people already had about Bitcoin being used for criminal purposes.

Most of the FUD might not even true, but nobody really bothers to fact check and they just believe whatever they are told by influential people on social media.

[NotATether]

What stops them from Atomic Swapping the Bitcoin to Monero?

They're too stupid to know how to use atomic swaps.

I keep seeing criminals demand BTC and USDT for ransoms and I just facepalm. Especially the ransomware orchestrators, so dumb. Now they will get caught because of their foolishness in not using Monero, which is a good thing.

And no, mixers will not save them. In fact, whoever touches these coins is handling kryptonite and will get seized by the feds.

[Satofan44]

If they had asked for Monero, they may have a chance. The Bitcoin can still be converted through decentralized means in a fast way, but this way the attackers are leaving breadcrumbs everywhere. With Monero they could sit on it for a long time and then use it with very little risk.

What stops them from Atomic Swapping the Bitcoin to Monero?  It is a low chance that the attackers know how to properly keep their identity hidden, they will probably do some thing really stupid some time in the future.  You often see these criminals successfully plan out and carry their attack really well but then they end up depositing it on Binance or bragging about it on Tik Tok.

Knowledge and liquidity depending on the actual case. If one is asking for Bitcoin instead of Monero for a high-level criminal act such as this one, then one can reasonably assume that the knowledge of the perpetrators is extremely low. Therefore, I highly doubt that they will find their route to atomic swaps and actually be able to pull it off without making some grand error. Anyway, Monero is not bulletproof either and such individuals would probably run a light wallet and thus open up another avenue for de-anonymization. Another way to see these things is that we should be glad that very few criminals of the world are smart and technologically competent. This is good for Monero and good for people who could possibly become innocent victims were it not the case.

I keep seeing criminals demand BTC and USDT for ransoms and I just facepalm. Especially the ransomware orchestrators, so dumb. Now they will get caught because of their foolishness in not using Monero, which is a good thing.

USDT is even so much worse than demanding BTC, incomparably worse. The issuer of USDT can freeze any address arbitrarily, no court order is needed for this. Therefore, all it takes is to report the address to which the payment should be made in advance and have their system follow and freeze it automatically as soon as the reasons for which the ransom is being paid have been executed. I believe that one of the reasons for this is that the idiots mistakenly believe that the ability of being able to use decentralized swapping services somehow adds privacy and anonymity to their transactions. It does not. All of this can be still traced, and if not done by a quite competent individual and many transactions, it is not even that hard.