Use of bitcoin to deal in drugs is not a symptom of a problem in the bitcoin concept whose burden a private exchange or bitcoin as a system should bear.
It is a symptom of the policies of governments around the world. The beauty of bitcoin or any distributed system is the removal of arbitrary government rule and the impositions related to such from digital transactions. I say let exchanges be exchanges and let governments do what the do best, moan on the floor of their respective parliaments/legislatures about how it isn't fair that they can't know everything going on in the lives of their slaves.
No doubt some will force exchanges in their jurisdiction to hand over records, we will simply go elsewhere.
Topic: A new excuse against the drug mafia using bitcoin (Read 813 times)
1. The government could never "track" bitcoins... never so don't even argue that part.
While the coins themselves can't be tracked, you can be tracked as soon as you convert them to $ or €...
I could not disagree more....
1. The government could never "track" bitcoins... never so don't even argue that part.
2. drug lords are NOT the kings of Cryptography. Though their real life street and business skill can help them transport merchandise undetected.. That is nothing to do about technological skill. Data encrypting is completely different in every way.
1. The government could never "track" bitcoins... never so don't even argue that part.
2. drug lords are NOT the kings of Cryptography. Though their real life street and business skill can help them transport merchandise undetected.. That is nothing to do about technological skill. Data encrypting is completely different in every way.
Hi All,
I might be repeating this argument since it did not hit any search results, but please listen it over. I support exchanges working with governments because of the following arguments.
One idea which was floated earlier was that no one could stop druglords from starting their own drugcoin using the bitcoin code. But this does not seem to make sense to me.
Imagine a future where most main bitcoin exchanges are Know Your Customer compliant. Moving large amounts into and out of bitcoin are being tracked by various government spy machines.
Then bitcoin actually becomes a much more difficult currency to suppress legally.
Drug lords are already the cutting edge users of encrypted messaging of all kinds. Using cryptography is not an issue for them. They do not need bitcoin the protocol, they need to be able to transfer actual resources. They need an actual currency with a community supplying real resources. When the exit through cash is monitored, they need the baker, the grocer, the landlords and the gas stations to accept bitcoin for it to be useful to them or their couriers or soldiers.
The key is that when the baker, grocer, landlords or gas stations start accepting bitcoin, the popular support would be too much for suppressing bitcoin. So, cooperative exchanges imply that bitcoin will become a much stronger community due to merchants providing more services because the exit through cash will become a bigger problem for gainers from illegal activities.
I might be repeating this argument since it did not hit any search results, but please listen it over. I support exchanges working with governments because of the following arguments.
One idea which was floated earlier was that no one could stop druglords from starting their own drugcoin using the bitcoin code. But this does not seem to make sense to me.
Imagine a future where most main bitcoin exchanges are Know Your Customer compliant. Moving large amounts into and out of bitcoin are being tracked by various government spy machines.
Then bitcoin actually becomes a much more difficult currency to suppress legally.
Drug lords are already the cutting edge users of encrypted messaging of all kinds. Using cryptography is not an issue for them. They do not need bitcoin the protocol, they need to be able to transfer actual resources. They need an actual currency with a community supplying real resources. When the exit through cash is monitored, they need the baker, the grocer, the landlords and the gas stations to accept bitcoin for it to be useful to them or their couriers or soldiers.
The key is that when the baker, grocer, landlords or gas stations start accepting bitcoin, the popular support would be too much for suppressing bitcoin. So, cooperative exchanges imply that bitcoin will become a much stronger community due to merchants providing more services because the exit through cash will become a bigger problem for gainers from illegal activities.
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