4 ms·

Bitcoin is first and foremost a money-laundering method, especially from ransomware hackers. EDIT: some recent news on that ($4B money laundered): https://arst

• sddfd 9y ago
  Why is this getting downvoted?
  • pmlnr 9y ago
    Good question. I'd say because people want to believe it's not.
  • csomar 9y ago
    Unproven statement. I could have written it also and replaced bitcoin with cash. Bitcoin probably handles much less than 1% of the world-wide money laundering business at its current market cap.
    • deleted 9y ago
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    • mamon 9y ago
      You got it backwards: it is not about what percent of money laundering is done with Bitcoin, it is about what percent of Bitcoin is used for money laundering. I've just posted link (few comments above) about $4B laundering scheme discovered, that's 9% of global Bitcoin market cap (currently $46B). And you can assume that this Russian arrested wasn't the only one doing it, so actual proportion is probably bigger.
      • csomar 9y ago
        You'll probably need to research backed-up numbers to confirm that. Yes, I do believe the same too (most bitcoin activity is used for illicit activity) but we don't really have the numbers yet and I am not sure if it is possible to do it.
  • bognition 9y ago
    Because it's a blanket statement that demonstrates the commenters failure to understand what Bitcoin actually is. Sure its used for those things but that isn't it's first and foremost use.
    • bhaak 9y ago
      Even if Bitcoin's first and foremost use were money laundering, it is not very well suited for that with its public ledger. Anybody who needed proof for that just got it with the btc-e founder case.
• fsniper 9y ago
  With a global ledger where every transaction is recorded, blockchain is the worst choice for money laundering. If you have seen the BTC-e founder case, you would understand what I mean.
  • loceng 9y ago
    It's because the individual didn't have a network to launder the money through, that's why he started the BTC-e exchange - however I suppose he was sloppy, especially since they were able to connect his real name to an account because he posted about it online, connected to some crypto-asset. It's similar to the mafia, however the mafia evolved to launder money through networks of families and starting 'cash' businesses that they could disguise funds coming in - at least until the businesses became 'legitimate.' This trusted network basically would have started to develop through strong arming. Late edit: For crypto-assets, the network of 'trusted' people is formed simply by the early adopters - most of which those are people who are purchasing or spending resources mining for speculation purposes. Then you have these people who are all aligned to increase adoption. Strong arming can come later, when people in positions of power (or who have control) are manipulated (whether through bribery/lobbying, etc) or other tactics to have them tie the crypto-assets value into a nation's real currency's value, essentially legitimizing it by force and potentially forcing everyone to buy at the then going rate. Imagine if a company on the stock market told you you're buying their stock for $y price, even though you don't believe or know it doesn't have any value, and they forced everyone to do that; this is war, a battle anyhow, with capitalism and finance involved instead of capitalism and physical military force/mass bloodshed - massively different in their subtleties, and where the first can quickly gain global adoption and tap into global speculative greed and money when tied to a crypto-asset.