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Topic: [2017-09-24] North Korea Bypassing International Sanctions with Bitcoin Mining (Read 2716 times)

hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 501
North Korea Bypassing International Sanctions with Bitcoin Mining

In the last couple of months, the tensions between North Korea and the United States have gone from tense to dramatically worse. On August 2017, the United Nations Security Council passed a new resolution that imposed even stricter sanctions on the North Korean government. A very recent article by VOAnews reports that Pyongyang has started its very own Bitcoin mining operation, which peaked back in May 2017. According to the Virginia-based intelligence research firm, Recorded Future, Bitcoin mining could potentially become a major source of income for the North Korean government.

http://bitcoinist.com/north-korea-is-bypassing-international-sanctions-with-bitcoin-mining/

I would be assuming that this is already a confirmed news that Nokor is really into Bitcoin mining inorder to earn some needed revenues so they can buy more materials for their nuclear program and the many military hardware they are developing so they can be the number one country in the world which many others can be fearing.

Now, would this mean another bad image for Bitcoin? Well, the problem is that we can not stop any country or anybody from also doing mining since there is no regulatory body that will determine if one is fit or not to participate in the opportunity.

Nokor regime is a deranged and a rogue one...willing to do anything to advanced their hard-to-fathom causes.
sr. member
Activity: 616
Merit: 256
if that is true and they have a revenue of 90+ million US yearly income, that's additional resources to buy anti-US allies arsenals. their are only two potential vendors to North Korea Chna and Russia, since China are banning bitcoins then Russia undoubtedly would supply additional weapons. I still doubt that this income is for buying weapons but not for the good benefits to their poor citizens.
sr. member
Activity: 2352
Merit: 245
Apparently, North Korea began actively extracting bitcoin in order to circumvent the UN sanctions imposed on it. In addition, she may have other insidious plans, especially with regard to the United States. The profit from mining bitcoins is not so great within the state, to do this only for profit. Although, who knows how they have there with the economy. Perhaps several tens of millions of dollars for North Korea is a good income item.
hero member
Activity: 2660
Merit: 551
... According to the Virginia-based intelligence research firm, Recorded Future, Bitcoin mining could potentially become a major source of income for the North Korean government. ...

North Korea must be really hurting if mining Bitcoins could be a "major source of income". Right now the total yearly mining revenue is only 650,000 BTC. If you mine 20% of that and your profit margin is 20%, then your income would be 26,000 BTC, currently worth around about $94 million.

I think the North Koreans are very wise to get source of income from bitcoin mining. With all the sanctions going around they will need to find another way to survived. I just hope that this news will not have a impact, otherwise this is another negative publicity for bitcoin. $94 million would be a big help for them, assuming they mined 20%. But I doubt it, probably around 1-5% is my guesstimate coming from North Korea, if indeed they are really mining that well.

I hope I didn't end up buying coins from NK on yobit

LOL. It doesn't matter where your bitcoins come from. Similar to USD which is tainted with cocaine.  Grin Grin
member
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I hope I didn't end up buying coins from NK on yobit
legendary
Activity: 4466
Merit: 3391
... According to the Virginia-based intelligence research firm, Recorded Future, Bitcoin mining could potentially become a major source of income for the North Korean government. ...

North Korea must be really hurting if mining Bitcoins could be a "major source of income". Right now the total yearly mining revenue is only 650,000 BTC. If you mine 20% of that and your profit margin is 20%, then your income would be 26,000 BTC, currently worth around about $94 million.
tyz
legendary
Activity: 3360
Merit: 1533
North Korea Bypassing International Sanctions with Bitcoin Mining

In the last couple of months, the tensions between North Korea and the United States have gone from tense to dramatically worse. On August 2017, the United Nations Security Council passed a new resolution that imposed even stricter sanctions on the North Korean government.

A very recent article by VOAnews reports that Pyongyang has started its very own Bitcoin mining operation, which peaked back in May 2017. According to the Virginia-based intelligence research firm, Recorded Future, Bitcoin mining could potentially become a major source of income for the North Korean government.

http://bitcoinist.com/north-korea-is-bypassing-international-sanctions-with-bitcoin-mining/
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