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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 woul

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.

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.