Illegal use of Bitcoin affecting its value?

[Swordsoffreedom]

Has the use of Bitcoin for illegal things such as purchasing drugs, weapons, fraudulent documents and laundering money effected its value?

Yes, in the beginning the first market for Bitcoin besides pizza were for gambling and drug sites such as the Silk road along with other legitimate reasons that said it wasn't such a bad thing since it started in that segment and grew from there to the early mainstream usage we are witnessing now.

[wasserman99]

Has the use of Bitcoin for illegal things such as purchasing drugs, weapons, fraudulent documents and laundering money effected its value?

Yes, in the beginning the first market for Bitcoin besides pizza were for gambling and drug sites such as the Silk road along with other legitimate reasons that said it wasn't such a bad thing since it started in that segment and grew from there to the early mainstream usage we are witnessing now.

I would not consider gambling sites to be an illegal use. The only thing that would make gambling illegal is your physical location verses the location of the website, which is a mere technicality. Gambling in most places of the world is legal, it is just that in many places the government has monopoly over the gambling.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Has the use of Bitcoin for illegal things such as purchasing drugs, weapons, fraudulent documents and laundering money effected its value?

Yes, in the beginning the first market for Bitcoin besides pizza were for gambling and drug sites such as the Silk road along with other legitimate reasons that said it wasn't such a bad thing since it started in that segment and grew from there to the early mainstream usage we are witnessing now.

I would not consider gambling sites to be an illegal use. The only thing that would make gambling illegal is your physical location verses the location of the website, which is a mere technicality. Gambling in most places of the world is legal, it is just that in many places the government has monopoly over the gambling.

Well there is the legal grey area around online gambling websites, I recall Satoshidice having issues with US users of its site a while back but allowing other gambling jurisdictions to use it.
So I considered it sort of illegal but not illegal in that case, but what I meant is that some of the earliest uses came from there and it grew to more mainstream uses over time.

[itsAj]

Has the use of Bitcoin for illegal things such as purchasing drugs, weapons, fraudulent documents and laundering money effected its value?

Yes, in the beginning the first market for Bitcoin besides pizza were for gambling and drug sites such as the Silk road along with other legitimate reasons that said it wasn't such a bad thing since it started in that segment and grew from there to the early mainstream usage we are witnessing now.

I would not consider gambling sites to be an illegal use. The only thing that would make gambling illegal is your physical location verses the location of the website, which is a mere technicality. Gambling in most places of the world is legal, it is just that in many places the government has monopoly over the gambling.

Well there is the legal grey area around online gambling websites, I recall Satoshidice having issues with US users of its site a while back but allowing other gambling jurisdictions to use it.
So I considered it sort of illegal but not illegal in that case, but what I meant is that some of the earliest uses came from there and it grew to more mainstream uses over time.

It is legal in most states to gamble, but only as long as you gamble via the state sponsored lottery. You are generally not able to send money across state lines to gamble anything. You are correct that satochi dice has had some problems in that they do not allow people with US IP's to access their site (if you use TOR or a VPN from overseas then you will be fine).

[giveBTCpls]

It affects the adoption rate I guess. Or even the value. I for once was scared away from BTC back in the good ol 0.1$ per coin days. Fuck my life, if I really looked into it instead of being scared away by how Bitcoin was used by criminals, I would be filthy rich by now. Oh fuck the fucking thing.

[kleeii]

I don't think that Illegal use of Bitcoin will affect its value but I'm concern about reaction from USA and other Western governments if Bitcoin become famous like tool for money laundry. This will be very bad for the development of Bitcoin and its global acceptance.

[Leina]

Cash has illegal use and it didn't affect its value.

Bitcoin will have the same issue as cash when it comes to illegal use.

[wasserman99]

Has the use of Bitcoin for illegal things such as purchasing drugs, weapons, fraudulent documents and laundering money effected its value?

Yes, in the beginning the first market for Bitcoin besides pizza were for gambling and drug sites such as the Silk road along with other legitimate reasons that said it wasn't such a bad thing since it started in that segment and grew from there to the early mainstream usage we are witnessing now.

I would not consider gambling sites to be an illegal use. The only thing that would make gambling illegal is your physical location verses the location of the website, which is a mere technicality. Gambling in most places of the world is legal, it is just that in many places the government has monopoly over the gambling.

Well there is the legal grey area around online gambling websites, I recall Satoshidice having issues with US users of its site a while back but allowing other gambling jurisdictions to use it.
So I considered it sort of illegal but not illegal in that case, but what I meant is that some of the earliest uses came from there and it grew to more mainstream uses over time.

I would say that gambling sites are generally illegal in the United States. Although the reason for being as such is nothing more then a technicality. It is illegal to gamble across states lines because states want to be able to heavily regulate and tax casino operations.

[jjacob]

I would say that gambling sites are generally illegal in the United States. Although the reason for being as such is nothing more then a technicality. It is illegal to gamble across states lines because states want to be able to heavily regulate and tax casino operations.

States try and tax as much as they can. Even Amazon collects state sales tax in a large number of states.
Tough to implement that model in online casinos though....

[Jerome?]

for me this also helps in gaining popularity

[Get.BTC.Now]

Has the use of Bitcoin for illegal things such as purchasing drugs, weapons, fraudulent documents and laundering money effected its value?

Maybe not from illegal activities.. Bitcoin will decrease its value if scams will be tolerated

[Bitzkrieg]

bad publicity is still a publicity

[superresistant]

 
FIAT money should be illegal.

[Bitzkrieg]

Depends on whose using it

[Ringumbau]

No it isnt, its how people using it, not how you use it that matters.

[BCEmporium]

No it didn't. And if you look at the market trend you find exactly that.
It just happened that Silk Road and BMR appeared around 2011's bubble. But later that year you got BTC back at 2 USD, a drop from 30 to 2 and it remained as so with SR at full steam.
The biggest bubble so far came after SR arrests, BMR breakdown, SM theft and, a couple of months early, Atlantis closure. In the end none of those markets had any impact on the bitcoin value, maybe helped on introduce bitcoin and make it known for some people.
To the very best they increased the transactions flow; customer -> cash > bitcoin ---> dealer -> bitcoin > cash

[burnscamcoins]

Yes bitcoin was very much a bubble at the time. The high prices of most bubbles are eventually surpassed over time as fundamentals of the underlying asset catches up to the price of the asset.

[mllenios]

No it isnt, its how people using it, not how you use it that matters.

That means if you use your money to buy porn videos is that ok?

[DaveSaldana123]

For me it will affect positively. Not negatively.

[SW725]

For me it will affect positively. Not negatively.

Kindly elaborate this one?