Topic: [2018-08-07] Bitcoin Speculators, Not Drug Dealers, Dominate Crypto Use Now - page 2. (Read 347 times)
August 07, 2018, 02:37:22 PM
It's been proven many times before that criminals use other investment means (such as property purchases) more than they do using Bitcoin.
August 07, 2018, 02:09:22 PM
At least they've come around now and are not just needlessly slandering and smearing bitcoin by highlighting its use by criminals.
Who are they? Do you mean DEA or bloomberg? (they both suck IMO)
Of course, the crypto currency will always be used by criminals and there is no doubt about it. They always use advanced technology for their own purposes. However, now they switch to the use of crypto currency with a high level of anonymity - Monero, ZCash, Dash and others. In this case, bitcoin is used less and less. In this there is nothing surprising or unusual.
This is both completely normal and completely fine from the economic point of view. There has to be balance in the world. Since criminals are a part of the society (for instance there's 5% of them) there has to be a corresponding number in the statistical use of cryptocurrencies. It can be lower or higher than the average but it will always be there and it shouldn't be treated like something strange or bad. It's a useless piece of news, just like "this brand of cars is the most popular among criminals".
August 07, 2018, 01:59:59 PM
Of course, the crypto currency will always be used by criminals and there is no doubt about it. They always use advanced technology for their own purposes. However, now they switch to the use of crypto currency with a high level of anonymity - Monero, ZCash, Dash and others. In this case, bitcoin is used less and less. In this there is nothing surprising or unusual.
August 07, 2018, 09:15:34 AM
Finally a good news for all of us who is waiting for wider adoption! Of course we, on this forum, have known that criminal domination in the crypto market had gone quite some time ago, but ask anybody on the street and they will tell you that crypto is used by criminals mostly. This misinformation is the main hindrance on the way to wider adoption, because most people don't want to be associated with criminals. But if the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is saying that illegal activity has shrunk to about 10 percent, I think people will believe them.
August 07, 2018, 09:11:50 AM
I agree, criminals before has a lot of room to work using bitcoin but now different agencies find ways to track those criminals through blockchain analysis. And we all know that bitcoin is not really anonymous and criminals recognized this the hard way. Maybe some of them are still using crypto to hide their illegal activity, but sooner or later the full hands of the law will be knocking at their doors.
Criminals have moved on to privacy coins like Monero, although if you take extortion schemes like ransomware, Bitcoin is still used because it's more likely that the victims will pay with it rather than some privacy coin, because it's harder to buy the latter. This has contributed to decrease of the percentage of criminal transactions, but the biggest factor is that other uses cases have increased. What would be actually interesting is the absolute values of illegal transactions per day in early days and today.
August 07, 2018, 08:38:05 AM
I agree, criminals before has a lot of room to work using bitcoin but now different agencies find ways to track those criminals through blockchain analysis. And we all know that bitcoin is not really anonymous and criminals recognized this the hard way. Maybe some of them are still using crypto to hide their illegal activity, but sooner or later the full hands of the law will be knocking at their doors.
August 07, 2018, 07:52:16 AM
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-07/bitcoin-speculators-not-drug-dealers-dominate-crypto-use-now
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At least they've come around now and are not just needlessly slandering and smearing bitcoin by highlighting its use by criminals.
Quote
The ratio of legal to illegal activity in Bitcoin has flipped, according to Lilita Infante at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
When Infante started seeing the Bitcoin pop up in her cases at the DEA five years ago, her analysis of blockchain data showed criminal activity was behind about 90 percent of transactions in the cryptocurrency. Now, illegal activity has shrunk to about 10 percent and speculation has become the dominant driver, she said.
That doesn’t mean criminals stopped using Bitcoin. Total transaction volume associated with illegal uses has surged since 2013, said Infante, who is a DEA special agent and part of the 10-person Cyber Investigative Task Force. The team focuses on dark web and virtual-currency related investigations and collaborates with other Department of Justice units including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“The volume has grown tremendously, the amount of transactions and the dollar value has grown tremendously over the years in criminal activity, but the ratio has decreased,’’ she said in an interview at her office in Weston, Florida. “The majority of transactions are used for price speculation.’’
Infante’s findings contradict the popular perception that Bitcoin is mostly being used by criminals such as the notorious Dread Pirate Roberts, but also show that the underground market is one of the biggest groups of people using Bitcoin for its actual features rather than its price gyrations. Transactions are pseudonymous, so not easily traceable, while a decentralized ledger eliminates the need for banks and governments, and also means there’s no company that can be subpoenaed in an investigation.
When Infante started seeing the Bitcoin pop up in her cases at the DEA five years ago, her analysis of blockchain data showed criminal activity was behind about 90 percent of transactions in the cryptocurrency. Now, illegal activity has shrunk to about 10 percent and speculation has become the dominant driver, she said.
That doesn’t mean criminals stopped using Bitcoin. Total transaction volume associated with illegal uses has surged since 2013, said Infante, who is a DEA special agent and part of the 10-person Cyber Investigative Task Force. The team focuses on dark web and virtual-currency related investigations and collaborates with other Department of Justice units including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“The volume has grown tremendously, the amount of transactions and the dollar value has grown tremendously over the years in criminal activity, but the ratio has decreased,’’ she said in an interview at her office in Weston, Florida. “The majority of transactions are used for price speculation.’’
Infante’s findings contradict the popular perception that Bitcoin is mostly being used by criminals such as the notorious Dread Pirate Roberts, but also show that the underground market is one of the biggest groups of people using Bitcoin for its actual features rather than its price gyrations. Transactions are pseudonymous, so not easily traceable, while a decentralized ledger eliminates the need for banks and governments, and also means there’s no company that can be subpoenaed in an investigation.
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At least they've come around now and are not just needlessly slandering and smearing bitcoin by highlighting its use by criminals.
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