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You can at least trace the money back to a mixer. Large amounts of money being sent to a terrorist organisation. The money is being mixed by a mixer. Easy to

You can at least trace the money back to a mixer. Large amounts of money being sent to a terrorist organisation. The money is being mixed by a mixer. Easy to shut down the mixer. If mixers are being used and they aren't being shut down it's because it is easy to trace the money through the mixer (or, perhaps the government doesn't care, but that seems unlikely). The funny thing is that if the mixer is hard monitor because it is going through fiat currency, then you never needed BTC in the first place -- you just launder money through it. I frequently say this: if you think a news story seems strange, look at what the reporter has written previously. Newspapers are making it easy these days, which is awesome. This is Nathaniel Popper's recent work: https://www.nytimes.com/by/nathaniel-popper https://www.nytimes.com/by/nathaniel-popper He gets paid to write controversial stories about cryptocurrency (and impossible burgers :-D ).

mirimir 7y ago
> Easy to shut down the mixer. A counterexample is Bitcoin Fog.
wruza 7y ago
Hmm, I have a couple of questions on this. >then you never needed BTC in the first place -- you just launder money through it. I’m afraid I don’t understand this part. Their goal is not to launder money, but to receive funds from “around the world” (and blow up someone). Of course easy laundering may be profitable^ to criminals, but how are these two connected here? >Easy to shut down the mixer. Easy in which country? How a mixer in any “closed” country could be shut down? Say DPRK or strong middle east countries who oppose “west world” to be opaque enough, but not technically aware of these activities (or simply don’t care, as you mentioned). Couldn’t that basically turn “person X consciously funds hamas” into “someone in country Y funds hamas as a hidden detail of business operation”? ^ Our company tried to create a btc-based business in EU. Banks required us to provide sof for every transaction, including banning any amount from fraud/criminal lists, and mixers were all in these lists. I doubt that you can easily launder via well-known, big enough mixers. At least to my understanding, EU is very aware of grey money that comes from btc market.

mirimir 7y ago

> Easy to shut down the mixer. A counterexample is Bitcoin Fog.

wruza 7y ago

Hmm, I have a couple of questions on this. >then you never needed BTC in the first place -- you just launder money through it. I’m afraid I don’t understand this part. Their goal is not to launder money, but to receive funds from “around the world” (and blow up someone). Of course easy laundering may be profitable^ to criminals, but how are these two connected here? >Easy to shut down the mixer. Easy in which country? How a mixer in any “closed” country could be shut down? Say DPRK or strong middle east countries who oppose “west world” to be opaque enough, but not technically aware of these activities (or simply don’t care, as you mentioned). Couldn’t that basically turn “person X consciously funds hamas” into “someone in country Y funds hamas as a hidden detail of business operation”? ^ Our company tried to create a btc-based business in EU. Banks required us to provide sof for every transaction, including banning any amount from fraud/criminal lists, and mixers were all in these lists. I doubt that you can easily launder via well-known, big enough mixers. At least to my understanding, EU is very aware of grey money that comes from btc market.