Debate: Do you think criminals do more good than harm to bitcoin?

Amph

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Quote from: Panus on October 30, 2015, 11:09:43 PM

I recommend it's as being a advantage, it is good personally as extended because the cost increase

no the cost decrease if a criminal get tons of bitcoin for free, he will dump without thinking no matter the price, maybe he will hold a portion, but there is no way that this will contribute to a better value

Pierre 2

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I believe they do harm bitcoin than promoting. Bitcoin needs better public image that "illegal use money"
But I still think they do add lot to bitcoin market. Illegal things will always happen, it does not affected by what curreny they use or jewellery.

BitcoinCounty

newbie

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You cannot use bitcoin for drugs. You can use US dollar bill to wrap the drugs and then take them. You cannot do that with bitcoin.

mtnsaa

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For the general media and common people it's definitely bad advertising. However I'm sure the black market moves a lot of BTC per day. If you throw in grey activities like gambling, then it's even bigger. I for one, don't really know if Bitcoin has a true identity, to me it is still making the first steps on what could become. But not sure if it will ever shake off that reputation of being something illegal, bad or unsafe because of cyber heists and other scandals.

stingers

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Quote from: brunoshady on October 29, 2015, 05:23:25 AM

Lately I have seen another news of some kidnappers demanding ransom in bitcoin. Then the family seems to be really bought $1.7M worth of BTC (about 5.5k BTC as my estimate). This would be one of the reason for the recent price increase ($1.7M is a lot of money!). However medias keep spreading false information on bitcoin, like stating 'bitcoin is using widely in criminals' etc.

So how do you think? Does the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

First of all i hope that every service provider relating to bitcoin blacklists the kidnapper's address and don't let them use their bitcoin.
Second, i think that yes, if you see for the price and popularity of bitcoin, criminal activities are doing good for the price of the coin. We get media coverage because of these things. Bitcoin came into limelight when it was used in the blackmarket so according to me, yes, we need these things for the betterment of bitcoin and after all criminal activities are a part of this world.

cjmoles

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Quote from: Blue_Tiger73 on October 30, 2015, 04:37:05 PM

Criminals are doing good and bad for bitcoin. That price rise was a good thing for bitcoin, but won't people ask about the random 5.5k bitcoin. When they realise that the money came in because of ransom, do you really think they will still want to use bitcoin. I would use it but I think it would against people morals.

Black market products certainly account for much of the volume of bitcoin....so that is good. However, many people will not adopt bitcoin because it is attractive to black market traders, so that is bad thing for the regular Joe.

Panus

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I recommend it's as being a advantage, it is good personally as extended because the cost increase

cjmoles

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Quote from: JeWay on October 29, 2015, 08:46:44 AM

Exactly. Criminals do anything with fiat as well. No different with bitcoin. So, specifically seeing bitcoin along with criminals is completely meaningless. We must accept that bitcoin is somewhat traceable than fiat. So, there is no special case for criminals if it's bitcoin.

Wrong...Try toting a million dollars thru an airport's security, onto the plane, and then wait for it to be inspected and weighed by your clientele while you're under the security of their armed guard, who could easily rob and shoot you in any instant, and then tell me that there's no difference between bitcoin and fiat when it comes to crime.

franky1

legendary

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they say bitcoin used for sex is bad,, i say

they say bitcoin used for drugs is bad,, i say

they say bitcoin theft is bad,, i say

tailsjoin

newbie

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What is a criminal? If those deciding what a criminal is, are by their own definitions criminals. Then this whole discussion is a bit of a circle jerk.

bitbaby

hero member

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I don't think they're doing any good and I also don't think the price rise was because of this. There must have been other factors such as European union accepting BTC as a currency etc. Criminals harm bitcoin's reputation every-time they harass/blackmail/steal from someone. But I hope the only good affect of this is people start to care more about their privacy online, so things like this don't happen in future.

Blue_Tiger73

member

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Criminals are doing good and bad for bitcoin. That price rise was a good thing for bitcoin, but won't people ask about the random 5.5k bitcoin. When they realise that the money came in because of ransom, do you really think they will still want to use bitcoin. I would use it but I think it would against people morals.

teukon

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Quote from: n2004al on October 30, 2015, 07:27:23 AM

In this kind of view the opinions are divided. Some people don't care about this second part of interpretation and think that their action do good to bitcoin. The seconds ones, which put in balance what is right and what is wrong and then decide choosing the right, think that their action do bad to bitcoin making the others to think that bitcoin is used mostly by the criminals and for doing bad things. I'm part of the second group.

I care a great deal about right and wrong. I enjoy doing what I think is right and feel bad doing what I think is wrong.

I do not believe that all crime is necessarily bad. "Crime" is defined by the state and I do not believe that the state is perfect. If I thought the state were perfect then I would trust its money and have little interest in trustless money experiments such as Bitcoin.

I care little about appeasing those that think "crime = bad". On the contrary, I care to dispel this myth.

BitcoinCounty

newbie

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As law abiding people, if we use bitcoin more, the proportion of bitcoin used in bad business will be smaller.

davinchi

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Quote from: Snorek on October 30, 2015, 07:38:08 AM

Quote from: JeWay on October 29, 2015, 08:46:44 AM

I suggest it's as a advantage, it's good for me as long as the price increase Grin

Price increase is always good for bitcoin but associating this fact with ransoms and kidnappers are not. Media are overreacting and as always try to demonize everything.
FIAT is equally as anonymous and even harder to track than bitcoin, so telling us that it is currency used by criminals alone is pure FUD.

Exactly. Criminals do anything with fiat as well. No different with bitcoin. So, specifically seeing bitcoin along with criminals is completely meaningless. We must accept that bitcoin is somewhat traceable than fiat. So, there is no special case for criminals if it's bitcoin.

aakashsangwan

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PUGG.io

Quote from: 1Referee on October 29, 2015, 05:36:20 AM

5.5K BTC is quite a large amount, but not enough to move the market this much. And that's considering they really bought 5.5K BTC. The current price advance looks more like a rally rather than 1 entity buying coins just to be able to pay the ransom. At the end it will only be negative as the coins most likely will get mixed first and then dumped.

what ever you are telling is right but when the culprit gets the ransom then the next day he would have sold everything and then the market should have gone down. but it is increasing it steadily, their are big players buying in the market and the small players are booking profit so cannot say buy i think it will cross 400+ market in november.

xmaxbit

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It may be a publicity stunt done by some bitcoiners to make it visible to the world. Else educated criminals are hard to find .

Snorek

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Quote from: JeWay on October 29, 2015, 08:46:44 AM

I suggest it's as a advantage, it's good for me as long as the price increase Grin

Price increase is always good for bitcoin but associating this fact with ransoms and kidnappers are not. Media are overreacting and as always try to demonize everything.
FIAT is equally as anonymous and even harder to track than bitcoin, so telling us that it is currency used by criminals alone is pure FUD.

traderbit

hero member

Activity: 798

Merit: 1000

When i read in news that it is mentioned bitcoin i am happy.
But when it is used for illegal things and activities this is bad.
When it is mentioned in bad news then people will not hurry to be interested in bitcoin.

n2004al

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Quote from: brunoshady on October 29, 2015, 05:23:25 AM

Lately I have seen another news of some kidnappers demanding ransom in bitcoin. Then the family seems to be really bought $1.7M worth of BTC (about 5.5k BTC as my estimate). This would be one of the reason for the recent price increase ($1.7M is a lot of money!). However medias keep spreading false information on bitcoin, like stating 'bitcoin is using widely in criminals' etc.

So how do you think? Does the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

This is a very controversial question and it is mainly an ethical matter than an economic one. If it will be handled only as economical one for sure make good. The big demand rise the price of bitcoin and this show and strength the power of it. But if we go further and see for what this bitcoin is used and who buy it then the things changes. That big amount of bitcoin is bought by a criminal (or some of those) and its use (or even part of it) will be for sure used by this criminal (or criminals) for bad purposes (even if it will be used only to feed him or those). In this kind of view the opinions are divided. Some people don't care about this second part of interpretation and think that their action do good to bitcoin. The seconds ones, which put in balance what is right and what is wrong and then decide choosing the right, think that their action do bad to bitcoin making the others to think that bitcoin is used mostly by the criminals and for doing bad things. I'm part of the second group.

Topic: Debate: Do you think criminals do more good than harm to bitcoin? (Read 2198 times)