Topic: Survey: gauging community opinion regarding criminal transactions - page 2. (Read 4184 times)

Governments across the world probably just forced banks to enforce KYC policy out of boredom, I think it's great bitcoin's built it's own infrastructure of roads where speed limits normal folk have to abide by don't apply (figuratively speaking!!)

Saying bitcoin is responsible for criminal transactions is like saying the alphabet is to blame for threat letters, or that roads are to blame for speeding.

You can't stop it. There's nothing you can do to stop it. No government can tell anyone how to spend their bitcoins, and that's why I'm here.

Sorry you smell bias - as I said, I'm not trying to prove any hypothesis with this survey. It's a follow up to results I've got already in the study. I don't quite understand what you mean how if it's seen as biased then it's better. Showing biased in research, particularly when gathering the data is a very bad thing, because it affects the validity of the results.


As I said in the original post, I'm not trying to blame Bitcoin for crime, I personally believe Bitcoin doesn't cause crime. I'm not even anywhere implying that Bitcoin is used for more crime than standard pounds & dollar. (small aside: we had some interesting discussion on technological determinism vs social construction of technology, and personally, the most legitimate sounding theory is social shaping - e.g. people create technology based on social requirements and such, and the technology changes the social requirements and such, so it's cyclic.)

 But, a possible reason as to why people don't blame pounds or dollars for crime is because there's measures in place to try and reduce crime with them. There aren't as many of these measures in Bitcoin, and it's a possibility that this could mean more criminal transactions with Bitcoin as opposed to PayPal. E.g. pirateat40 may not have been able to get away with what he did with a recognized currency with the necessary measures. It is a possibility that if it was considerably harder to pay for illegal things online, then not as many people would do it, and if they did, they maybe easier to catch.

It maybe interesting to see what amount of people support measures to curb criminal transaction which may help towards policy making and recognition of Bitcoin as a proper currency.

Thanks again for taking the time to fill it out and providing some feedback, it's really appreciated.

Dom

Very important point, with the US Government on a warpath to make everything online illegal, something that we consider an everyday convenience today could be a felony tomorrow.

OBAMA IS NOT MY PRESIDENT

That's not the case, my study is exploring the use of different virtual payment systems. The bulk of the research is looking at different systems used to pay cybercrime services. My findings from that suggest that Bitcoin seems to be the most commonly referred to payment system when people buy/sell illegal products and services online. The survey is to further understand what the community thinks on the problem and how to tackle it, as you guys probably know more than anyone else about Bitcoin, the way it works, and it's problems.

So, it doesn't matter what the results are from this survey are with regards to the validity of my research.

As I said, I'll try make sure I get it made available publicly do you can all take a look. It's really good that you're all pointing out issues such as closed systems where Bitcoin only operates on the boundary - these will be things to include in the analysis and discussion of the validity of my findings - it's all hugely appreciated.

Thanks again,

Dom.

After doing the survey, I can smell the bias almost every question asked.
As with any research based work you do at university level, if it's seen as biased you better have a really good reason to be able to still use it as supporting evidence for you opinion on a idea or statement.

Currency is not the problem, it's the people involved that is. You don't see people blaming the British pound or US dollars since it sometimes is use to buy drugs, buy weapons or hire hookers. Some is illegal or at least controversial, the people are doing the act, the medium of currency doesn't matter that much.

I agree. The study is part of my Masters which is leading into a PhD, so I will hopefully have the next 3 years to explore the question more gradually.

Web Science is an interdisciplinary subject so we're encouraged to approach web based problems from multiple disciplines. My research over the course is done with the Criminology department, along with the Computer Science department. My first degree was Computer Science, so I'm having to pickup and learn the criminology + social side quite quickly. But the benefit of the course is that I can effectively utilize and draw ideas from all disciplines, including things like law, economics, philosophy etc.

Part of the aim of the Masters is to explore a question or problem, to allow further in depth informed research over the course of the PhD.


Yup, I agree. Also, I think it's worth mentioning, in an ideal world, a lot of legislation and policy making should be made based on academic research, which is why so much money is invested. Personally, I believe academic research into Bitcoin is a "must" for it to be accepted as a currency.

Might want to look into what percentage of transactions SR ends up really being any part of bitcoin.
Realise that % is pretty damn small. Compare that to the value of those transactions to estimates done in local fiat of almost any country.

Bitcoins is a method for some skirting the law yes, but it's nothing in comparison to those who just simply pay cash.

More research is in order. I guess that hypothesis has to be correct for the bulk of your thesis or term paper to be valid? If not then a bit more research may benefit your paper.

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+are+people+buying+illegal+drugs+online&hl=en&biw=1920&bih=907&sa=X&ei=yGVCUL7nGoSS9QSArICABg&ved=0CAkQpwUoBg&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A9%2F1%2F1999%2Ccd_max%3A9%2F30%2F2009&tbm=

computers will be the ruination of the world imo

if the did not waste tax money, we would not have computeres.

Great another academic wasting tax payers money on fancy long words.

I suggest you explore the question with more granularity. Some people use Bitcoins for "criminal" transactions because they feel that particular laws are unjust, invasive, abusive or otherwise inappropriate.

You may find a difference in the percentage of people who are opposed to the use of Bitcoins to facilitate theft vs the percentage who are opposed to the use of Bitcoins to allow expats to send remittances to their family in countries the US government does not permit trade with, or the use of Bitcoins to avoid legal prohibitions of online gambling.

Hi,

I was using the definition "Non-repudiation is the concept of ensuring that a party in a dispute cannot repudiate, or refute the validity of a statement or contract." So someone may use Bitcoin so that the other party can't question, track or reverse a transaction. In retrospect, it maybe a little stretch to get it to what I mean. I put the clarification next to it in brackets just in case.

Thanks for filling it out, and the feedback is muchly appreciated:)

Dom.

Flawed survey is flawed.

Non-repudiation is orthogonal to 'to not get caught'.

I still answered to the best of my ability.

The survey is now closed. I'm writing up the research. Once I've got it marked with some feedback and confirmed it's okay to republish, I'll stick it up on here for you all to scrutinize.

Thanks to those that took the time to look at the survey, and even more thanks to those who provided feedback and criticism on it - muchly appreciated:)


Hi,

I'm doing my Masters Project as part of a PhD in Web Science at the University of Southampton, in which I'm investigating the use of Virtual Payment Systems in cybercrime.

The aim of this survey is to try and understand how the Bitcoin community perceives criminal transactions along with possible ways to reduce criminal transactions.

The study is part of my Masters project, which is funded through the Web Science Doctoral Training Centre which is in turn funded by the EPSRC. I'll see if I can get it self archived after so it will be available to everyone.

I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to fill it out. There are 9 questions, 7 of which are multi-choice so it shouldn't take long (between 2 - 15 minutes).

The link for the survey is:

Now closed

If you visit that link, there's a bit more information and then if you want to take part, you must tick a box for consent, and then you will be taken to the survey.

Just a few clarifications based on issues raised when others have taken the survey:

• Personally, I support Bitcoin, I have no interests in stopping or shutting down Bitcoin - I would love to see it accepted as a currency.
• The reason I'm sending this survey out to Bitcoin community forums, as opposed to PayPal community forums, as my research so far has suggested a large amount of illegal products and services traded online are typically paid for with Bitcoin. I'm not implying that all, or even the majority, of Bitcoin transactions are criminal, but I'm also not denying that criminal transactions do happen with Bitcoin.
• When I talk about cybercrime and online crime, I'm referring to actions that a user takes part in online, which is illegal in their current jurisdiction.
• The survey will be available most likely until Wednesday 5th Sept, maybe longer if required, but I need to get the data analysed and written up to be handed in on the 14th September

Any feedback regarding the survey, the study or any useful comments or questions, don't hesitate to ask on here, or there's a contact e-mail address on the survey information page at the start.

Thanks in advanced

Dom.