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This turns Bitcoin back into cash. Original money system. Any comparisons with money laundering are misguided because it gives users back their privacy - privac

by exo762 10y ago

This turns Bitcoin back into cash. Original money system. Any comparisons with money laundering are misguided because it gives users back their privacy - privacy they didn't had because of the fact that blockchain is public. Today they have some privacy while using banking system - average criminals don't have access to their financial information. With new privacy tools for Bitcoin no-one will have access to that information. Just a side effect of "no privileged third parties" system. If this is money laundering - than cash is money laundering. Plain and simple.

auganov 10y ago
Cash can be and is tracked. This takes it a step further. I won't be surprised if governments outlaw the use of tumblers or go after everyone with tainted bitcoin (which given a possible high percentage of dirty bitcoin would make them unfeasible). Otherwise, you've given for-profit cybercriminals the last piece to routinely execute perfect crimes.
- ryanlol 10y ago
  The usage of tumblers is "money laundering" in mostly every country. > go after everyone with tainted bitcoin How? What for? owning tainted bitcoin isn't illegal and given the amount of "tainted" coins it's probably not even enough for probable cause.
  - auganov 10y ago
    Well, effectively outlawing tumblers involves investigating people that pay with tumbler-tainted coins. I mean it more in a Patriot Act type legislation sense rather than probable cause [0]. Obviously, if you've got non-tumbled coins with a direct criminal taint then I'm pretty sure that's probable cause already. Just to be clear - coins are not forever tainted in such context. i.e. someone extorts 1 BTC, the victim reports it - it's now tainted. The criminal pays the 1 BTC for pizza, police arrests him. The coin owned by the pizza place is a clean coin again now. [0] tho I guess in some cases it could very well fulfill it (>50% probability of a crime having been committed)
dansze 10y ago
To be fair, money laundering is associated with cash in countries where people mostly pay with plastic. Admittedly, the reverse association is fairly weak, as I doubt that bringing up cash will make people think of money laundering all that often.

by exo762 10y ago

auganov 10y ago

Cash can be and is tracked. This takes it a step further. I won't be surprised if governments outlaw the use of tumblers or go after everyone with tainted bitcoin (which given a possible high percentage of dirty bitcoin would make them unfeasible). Otherwise, you've given for-profit cybercriminals the last piece to routinely execute perfect crimes.

ryanlol 10y ago
The usage of tumblers is "money laundering" in mostly every country. > go after everyone with tainted bitcoin How? What for? owning tainted bitcoin isn't illegal and given the amount of "tainted" coins it's probably not even enough for probable cause.
- auganov 10y ago
  Well, effectively outlawing tumblers involves investigating people that pay with tumbler-tainted coins. I mean it more in a Patriot Act type legislation sense rather than probable cause [0]. Obviously, if you've got non-tumbled coins with a direct criminal taint then I'm pretty sure that's probable cause already. Just to be clear - coins are not forever tainted in such context. i.e. someone extorts 1 BTC, the victim reports it - it's now tainted. The criminal pays the 1 BTC for pizza, police arrests him. The coin owned by the pizza place is a clean coin again now. [0] tho I guess in some cases it could very well fulfill it (>50% probability of a crime having been committed)

dansze 10y ago

To be fair, money laundering is associated with cash in countries where people mostly pay with plastic. Admittedly, the reverse association is fairly weak, as I doubt that bringing up cash will make people think of money laundering all that often.