Topic: Ex-CIA Director Proved Bitcoin Use in Illicit or Crime to be disprove (Read 302 times)

^ The only reason why the Ex-CIA has to prove that BTCs legality and low rate or percentage of use in Illicit or illegal transaction is because of the greediest person Janet Yellen. Probably people already knew about her personal agenda and where she really is after and also the people behind her campaign that supports her because they find BTC as a threat to their business. If you will check carefully, the percentage of BTC being used for illicit purposes is way smaller than fiat now. The community has successfully controlled illegal stuff to be connected to cryptocurrency’s pioneer.

so as deputy director before 2013 he was part of the propaganda that bitcoin was darkweb money..
he probably earned a fair bit going to 'security' conferences to spout out that mantra in his official capacity

then after leaving his role and in his unofficial capacity he wants to get paid doing interviews to say that the CIA propaganda was wrong
.... bit late .. but getting paid jumping over a fence he created

its like the SEC guy that invented bitcoin NYLicence. .. and a year later left his role to join a bitcoin corporation to help advise people how to get around the licence or how to get through it quick and cheaply

Previously, similar studies have already been carried out in the United States and Europe, and by government agencies. They showed that bitcoin is not as anonymous as previously assumed, and under certain circumstances, it may well be tracked by law enforcement agencies. Perhaps, and with this in mind, according to research results, bitcoin was used for illegal purposes in 5-6 percent of cases, while in another study, this percentage was about ten. Fiat currency is used for illegal purposes, in my opinion, much more often.

We do not know the real percentage, however, is it really bad if this percentage was more than 10%? Anyone who understood the technology behind bitcoin and some of the other cryptocoins would accept that they are very good mediums for criminality. I am only annoyed by some people who deny this because it might be a threat to the pump.

It something that's easy to understand because all transaction carried out through Bitcoin are not totally anonymous while fiat currency can be easily moved in person from one destination to another without knowing who does the transaction and the last time I checked most people that are into an illicit business like fiat currency that crypto.

It's great that the purpose of the report is to disprove the point about Bitcoin being a tool for illegal activities. I'm glad that the result of this research is that this point is overstated, especially since the guy who did it wasn't initially pro-Bitcoin.
However, I believe that it would also make sense to compare Bitcoin usage to fiat usage when it comes to illegal activities because somehow people don't say that we should strictly regulate the usage of USD because it's used for illegal activities, so some sort of comparison could be useful.

I know very well that the fiat currency is the one that is being used mostly by those that are into scamming and all of that. Though I do know that there are some illicit activities where bitcoin is being used, but I have always believed that there isn’t many of them that are making use of cryptocurrency as a payment method, it’ has always been fiat that they prefer to be making use of.

So, the government or anyone trying to say that these currencies should be stopped for that same reason is a big lie. It’s just like the Nigeria central bank that banned bitcoin and claimed it’s because it is being used for illicit activities, they are just making up foolish lies, lots of their politicians have been laundering money from them and using fiat to do it and they never found out lol, that’s one of the worst central bank there is.

this could just be an excuse to force exchanges so they could seize information. they know very well how they could track everyone. yellen pretty sure had been educated as much as this ExCIA how blockchain works. i'm sure they can ask the exchanges for access to their database regarding the kyc they've gathered and where the coins are sent from our wallets.  they started with Kraken already.

There's also the undocumented crimes that slip past the eyes of the law enforcement agencies, they aren't accounted so I disagree with the fact that there is less than 1% and I think that this ex-CIA director is just reporting false numbers because they seem to have a benefit in this thing.

agree with you, we have to respond to this news from two sides...
If his report says Bitcoin is used more often for crime then we can also argue that fiat money was already used for crimes such as drug transactions, arms trafficking, and bribery, long before Bitcoin existed.

Agreed on the less than 1% if you consider bitcoin transactions from wallets to exchange and then back to wallets. Much of bitcoin’s transactions are motivated by speculation, however, the percentage for underground transactions should be more if you remove those transactions to the exchanges and from them.

This is a very powerful information statement coming from an Ex CIA director which proved the misinformation and false claim which a lot of Bitcoin hater within the government are feeding the major public about Bitcoin been use for illicit activities so they can cause FUD in the market it all a lie but is still sad though because the CIA director makes this prove after he leaves the office and the same thing goes to Trump ex-chief strategist that said Bitcoin is a true symbol of liberation.
Which mean a negative statement about Bitcoin said from the government agency which is currently in the office shouldn't be trusted.

Well, the graph tells it, the illicit or crime use of bitcoin is almost 0%. Perhaps, when it comes to financing --a 7 percent is already high and alarming. Every percentage counts and big money is already involved with the least percentage. So 6-7 percent drop rate of illicit/crime use is too much already to prove that a currency or alternative currency or assets or securities deserve to gain trust from the public. Bitcoin already has it and already gained too much trust based on its results and fruits. Those against have to prove that they are more deserving, as well. I don’t really like Janet Yellen, on my own. She does not have what it takes to be a Treasury Secretary. On this, I don’t think the campaign founded by Janet will re-think of pursuing what they fight for. Unless they only care for the financing they get from the campaign.

Of course, he didn't discover anything new that we didn't already know, and that is that Bitcoin is not something used by criminals or terrorists. When all the possible data is compared, then fiat is still the king when it comes to illegal activities, and if someone wants to hide something through crypto, then they will use other alternative currencies that have far greater privacy.


And I believe you're not the only one who's confused, because the media always emphasizes that Bitcoin is something that bad guys mostly use - but it's slowly becoming a nonsense story, because according to that, both PayPal and Tesla should also be on the other side of the law if they use Bitcoin. As a result, the focus of the "Bitcoin is bad" story has recently shifted to the environmental impact of mining. You don't have to believe everything you read on the internet, most of the news is mostly speculation and bad journalism.

I guess everyone should approach this report with open mind, we have seen in the past that some claim that bitcoin is often used for illicit activity more than cash, but I doubt this is the case. However, I do believed that there are government agencies trying to destroy bitcoin whichever way they can. That's why as bitcoin enthusiast, we should approach this report with neutrality.

So the conclusion of this statement in your opinion is valid if the use of bitcoin for illegal things is still not big?
I am confused by that, because on the other hand there are groups that agree that bitcoin is often used for crimes, especially terrorism. on the other hand there is this statement, maybe I should look for many sources of reference to see the real facts

The report,written by this ex-CIA director won't make the anti-Bitcoiners shut up.
You can't convince somebody,who desperately wants to believe in a lie.
The FUDsters might stop saying that Bitcoin is a "currency of the criminals",but they will keep saying that Bitcoin is a bubble or a ponzi scheme.The FUD will never stop.
This report shows things,that the average Bitcoin supporter already knows-Fiat is more popular than Bitcoin,when it comes to illicit finance and money laundering.There's no surprise for us here.

The report pointed out repeatedly that Blockchain is the best forensic tool available for tracing transactions. It states multiple times that authorities can trace coins that have gone through mixers, when they go for it. Does that render anonymizing platforms useless in the long run? In a probable future where Bitcoin is going to be used for all sorts of financial transactions, would it be a good thing that the governments will have all the control over how normal, middle-class people manage their money?

I don't know about the developed world but a lot of people in developing countries often pin their hopes for a comfortable retirement on pieces of obscure lands bought in the hope of appreciation. When such assets appreciate, the transactions happen in cash while the transaction amount that appears on paper trail is lesser. In a world with cryptocurrencies, it'll be impossible to do anything like this. Ditto for small businesses, self-employed blue-collar workers using cash to earn a little extra. Some call it tax evasion but does it bode well for the common people?

The real money launderers don't have to worry as they have plenty of options like HSBC, Citibank to do it for them in far more sophisticated ways. The report raises more questions than answers. Though as a purely lobbying and PR exercise, there is nothing better than an ex-CIA director endorsing the use of Bitcoin.

It is pretty simple actually, instead of looking at bitcoin alone you should look at bitcoin in comparison with other payment systems. Bitcoin in comparison is the most transparent way of transferring money, that means while you can easily hide your money trail using fiat systems you will have an extremely difficult time doing it in bitcoin. That means fiat will remain the dominating currency used for illicit activities.

This is even happening less after the introduction of anon-coins which are created with one purpose and one purpose only: to have completely anonymous transactions.

Not to mention that there are a lot of crimes that are going on without being monitored by the law enforcement, maybe this stats were just the activities that were caught, there is probably more.