BitCoin signatures are traceable, but the link between signatures and human beings is only traceable from outside the BitCoin system. If you are already dealing

BitCoin signatures are traceable, but the link between signatures and human beings is only traceable from outside the BitCoin system. If you are already dealing with briefcases of cash, it is a simple matter to buy BitCoin using one of those briefcases anonymously. Throw Tor in the mix, and you'd have to be the next Bin Laden for the world to dedicate the resources necessary to uncover your dealings. These are people who built 200meter+ tunnels underground to transport drugs between the US and Mexico: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/14/drug-tunnels_n_1673317.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/14/drug-tunnels_n_1673... Cash is a terrible currency for big time crime. It is very difficult to store, being susceptible to mites and fungus. It is very difficult to exchange large quantities, think pallets instead of briefcases for millions/billions of dollars (which is the primary reason they don't make a $1000 bill). It is nearly impossible to exchange any meaningful amount cross-border. It is difficult to count and keep track of. It is easier to counterfeit and get bad cash. Cash has serial numbers, fingerprints, and DNA all over them (I'm surprised we don't hear more about cash forensics, or bugged cash with tracking chips in them). Cash will still be used for the last mile, for the street-level "retail" transactions. But when those get gathered up and need to be sent back to headquarters, or between organizations, or to other nations, the backhaul, by necessity, needs to run on something more sophisticated. Today, that seems to be Bitcoin, even though I agree with you that it is far from perfect. Its first-mover advantage is allowing it to build a robust ecosystem of services that is making it that much harder for an incumbent to take its place. But when that super currency does come, and crime shifts to using it, I predict a relatively straight decline in BitCoin value.