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Yeh, sadly enough the Dutch media and government try to totally hide this in their stories. Bitcoin == Money laundering, and TOR == THE DARK WEB. Period. [0
by arianvanp 11y ago
Yeh, sadly enough the Dutch media and government try to totally hide this in their stories. Bitcoin == Money laundering, and TOR == THE DARK WEB. Period. [0]
The article is full of misdirections and word plays.
It starts of with "Bitcoin is used by criminals, because the currency is not controlled by banks and thus there is no supervision". This is the first misdirection, because just because it's not controlled by banks doesn't mean you cannot supervise it. The core idea of bitcoin _is_ supervision. It's a public ledger.
It then continues to support their argument by saying "Bitcoins go back and forth in a _closed_ system of users, so authorities can't see it". Which is just a plain lie. Bitcoin is an _open_ system. Anyone can see any transaction.
The article continues:
"As soon as the bitcoins were turned into real cash, the money was turned into cash at banks. They finally stepped to the police, because their warning systems detected large amounts of money being transferred".
So apparently it _was_ really easy to track down? They detected the weird transfers and were able to find the criminals. Seems bitcoin actually saved us here? That totally is the opposite of what they told us two paragraphs back where they said "there is no insight at all in what happens with bitcoin"
The article then continues to mumble about how TOR == Dark web and it's just painful to read. I hate media.
Now my mom starts asking me akward questions about hard drugs because I have a TOR and a Bitcoin sticker on my laptop.
[0] http://nos.nl/artikel/2081531-bitcoins-en-dark-web-een-goed-huwelijk.html http://nos.nl/artikel/2081531-bitcoins-en-dark-web-een-goed-...
- SixSigma 11y agoShows how far it has come though, when moms have awareness of Tor & Bitcoin at all.
- icebraining 11y agoThe idea that money laundering can happen in Bitcoin because it's not controlled by banks is particularly good. Maybe we should get a large, trusted bank like HSBC to regulate Bitcoin? Oh, wait: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC#Money_laundering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC#Money_laundering
- hackerboos 11y agoSo HSBC were fined $1.9 billion by US regulators and 40 million Swiss francs by Swiss regulators. Who do we fine for money laundering on the blockchain?
- icebraining 11y agoThe people who were arrested, as per the article in discussion?
- lunchTime42 11y agoMakes you wish there was a accountability on journalism side for what writers produce. Imagine a information overlay that filters out authors who wrote many propaganda pieces and fear mongerism.
- superuser2 11y agoReputable newspapers in the 20th century employed armies of professional editors. Holding reporters accountable for their claims, keeping them from overstating, etc was their daily grind. Corporate culture deliberately separated them from the business side of the organization. They called it "Church and State." When the Internet decimated newspapers, owners realized they could could lay off all the editors (QA) without any short term financial downside. So they did. Church and State is now a relic, except to some degree at a few bastions of old-school journalism like NYTimes. A high quality newsroom is an expensive thing. Internet ad revenues alone generally do not support them.