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Yes, crypto's main use is crime. Its supporters have various arguments for why crime is actually good.

rvz 4y ago
> Yes, crypto's main use is crime. It is quite a very poor use with such "crime" happening all on a public and transparent blockchain, making it very easy to trace all of that (even if they use a tumbler / mixer) with the funds certainly seized and frozen as soon as it hits the exchange. In fact criminals and scammers still use banks and Zelle to facilitate their criminal enterprise - [0] [1] in the trillions of dollars. [0] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-files-financial-scandal-criminal-networks https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-fil... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/business/payments-fraud-zelle-banks.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/business/payments-fraud-z...
- tzs 4y ago
  So why do so many ransomware gangs want payment in Bitcoin?
  - rvz 4y ago
    Perhaps they want to get themselves traced on a public ledger and to join the long list of gangs caught and arrested by the authorities each week? Once again, Bitcoin is worse for scammers, criminals and ransomware than using Zelle and the banks for fraud. You should be asking why the banks continue to move trillions of dollars of illicit funds for criminals for years without them doing anything. Same with Zelle.
- saurik 4y ago
  And Square. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jack-dorsey-block-loses-20-164948270.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jack-dorsey-block-loses-20-16...
psychphysic 4y ago
I suppose you'd have told Ms Parks to shut up and get off the bus if avoiding crime is all that's good for society?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
codedokode 4y ago
Crypto is a technology that offers just one thing: electronic payments without anything unneessary bundled with it. Crypto is a model of what banking should be. For comparison, to use a bank card you first need to provide all your details to bank which can share them with anyone they want, and then your application can be rejected for arbitrary reasons. And after this again the bank can share information about anything you bought with the card. There is even an official organization for sharing data about consumers loan history and this is totally not a crime in our weird society.
sunshinerag 4y ago
What a childish argument
- psychphysic 4y ago
  It's a depressing reality that most adults will not progress past stage 4 in Kohlberg's moral reasoning. The law however arbitrary and flawed is the source of morals for most adults. George Carlin said it best with “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
- bitcharmer 4y ago
  Sadly there are many more simple minded people like this than people who understand nuance and know that legal doesn't always equal right. Even more terrifying, people like this can vote.
Ferret7446 4y ago
Crime is relative. Homosexual relationships are criminal in a significant portion of the world, along with many other activities that you may support. "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist." Crypto's main use is crime insofar as its main use is denying monopolistic/governmental control, and anything that the government bans is a crime.
stiltzkin 4y ago
You live in a bubble if you think projects working on blockchains as Ethereum or Bitcoin are only used for crime. USD is still the #1 FIAT used for crime.

rvz 4y ago

> Yes, crypto's main use is crime. It is quite a very poor use with such "crime" happening all on a public and transparent blockchain, making it very easy to trace all of that (even if they use a tumbler / mixer) with the funds certainly seized and frozen as soon as it hits the exchange. In fact criminals and scammers still use banks and Zelle to facilitate their criminal enterprise - [0] [1] in the trillions of dollars. [0] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-files-financial-scandal-criminal-networks https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-fil... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/business/payments-fraud-zelle-banks.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/business/payments-fraud-z...

tzs 4y ago
So why do so many ransomware gangs want payment in Bitcoin?
- rvz 4y ago
  Perhaps they want to get themselves traced on a public ledger and to join the long list of gangs caught and arrested by the authorities each week? Once again, Bitcoin is worse for scammers, criminals and ransomware than using Zelle and the banks for fraud. You should be asking why the banks continue to move trillions of dollars of illicit funds for criminals for years without them doing anything. Same with Zelle.
saurik 4y ago
And Square. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jack-dorsey-block-loses-20-164948270.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jack-dorsey-block-loses-20-16...

psychphysic 4y ago

I suppose you'd have told Ms Parks to shut up and get off the bus if avoiding crime is all that's good for society?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

codedokode 4y ago

Crypto is a technology that offers just one thing: electronic payments without anything unneessary bundled with it. Crypto is a model of what banking should be. For comparison, to use a bank card you first need to provide all your details to bank which can share them with anyone they want, and then your application can be rejected for arbitrary reasons. And after this again the bank can share information about anything you bought with the card. There is even an official organization for sharing data about consumers loan history and this is totally not a crime in our weird society.

sunshinerag 4y ago

What a childish argument

psychphysic 4y ago
It's a depressing reality that most adults will not progress past stage 4 in Kohlberg's moral reasoning. The law however arbitrary and flawed is the source of morals for most adults. George Carlin said it best with “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
bitcharmer 4y ago
Sadly there are many more simple minded people like this than people who understand nuance and know that legal doesn't always equal right. Even more terrifying, people like this can vote.

Ferret7446 4y ago

Crime is relative. Homosexual relationships are criminal in a significant portion of the world, along with many other activities that you may support. "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist." Crypto's main use is crime insofar as its main use is denying monopolistic/governmental control, and anything that the government bans is a crime.

stiltzkin 4y ago

You live in a bubble if you think projects working on blockchains as Ethereum or Bitcoin are only used for crime. USD is still the #1 FIAT used for crime.