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Money laundering. Illicit transactions. Any number of things government money stored in banks is not much good for. How big a market is that? I'm guessing much,

• HarryHirsch 9y ago
  You do ask how people ran their drug-and-weapons enterprises before bitcoin. You'd guess it was through shady lawyers, corrupt banks, tax oases and webs of mailbox holding companies all the way down. That's proven working. But with bitcoin you are stuck with the dozen shady exchanges. Any normal criminal would think it's too risky.
  • rebuilder 9y ago
    Isn't this like saying Uber can't compete with taxi companies because the old model is proven to work? I'm not able to tell you whether it's true or not, but the claim here is that Bitcoin removes a lot of the friction in illicit markets, so that you don't need to be a Colombian Don to sell cocaine.
  • kamaal 9y ago
    >>Any normal criminal would think it's too risky. Actually a simple Perl script would do. Plus if it comes down to that, those criminals can run their own exchanges.
• kamaal 9y ago
  >>How big a market is that? The Black market in countries like India is large enough beyond our comprehension. Large enough that its mixed so well into everyday life, taking action on it could cause massive economic distress. Bitcoin is the next step in the game for these kind of things. Its like a dream come true.