Topic: Why resist the adoption of bitcoin for 'criminal' activities? (Read 1040 times)

exactly. i think one of the reasons (among others) drug cartels and gangs resort to violence is because they dont face serious competition. they dont face serious competition because the state prevents it. they state cant prevent competition such as the silk road. i dont know of any case of a silk road employee being gunned down in a drive by, have you? silk road is completely peaceful. the state is violent. bitcoin has facilitated the transformation of something that has up until this point been violent, into something completely peaceful and voluntary. cant it do the same thing for other illegal activities as well? should we resist the transformation of normally violent, coercive, or involuntary activities into something peaceful and voluntary?

and of course a bump in purchasing power is usually a good thing...

I'm going to try to answer the original question in terms of what's helpful Bitcoin to succeed long-term, without making any value judgements about who should be doing what: It's not clear that a lot of illegal activity would be good for Bitcoin right now.

Ideally we want Bitcoin to be accepted by a lot of merchants, and easy to use in either the legal or illegal economy. For that to happen it's better if governments don't feel pressured to try to shut Bitcoin services down right now.

There was a time when it wasn't clear if Bitcoin would be viable because not enough people would accept it. Illegal use was helpful during that phase, but I think we're now past that point, or will be soon if current trends (Wordpress, Namecheap, Mega) continue. There will also come a point in the future when so many tax-paying businesses are dependent on Bitcoin that governments won't try to shut it down, and once we get to that point it will be helpful to have people using across all parts of the economy, legal and illegal.

But right now we're in the middle: We don't particularly need more illegal use for Bitcoin to succeed, and more illegal use in the short-term will make more legal use harder, which will in turn make illegal use harder in the long-term.

Not that it makes much difference whether anybody thinks it would be helpful or not - sooner or later people who have a use for Bitcoin will find out about it one way or another.

Although that may be true (as it is in the case of my younger sister,) I believe the problem is more so people being disconnected by one another than women being molested as children.  Because a man is so out of touch with the world, instead of simply meeting a woman, he'd rather pay for one, as he feels he could not find a mate any other way.  Of course, vice versa for male prostitutes.  People are in their own little bubbles in societies like ours.  I'm not sure why it occurs, but, I must admit, I couldn't list any of my neighbors, except for this one asshole named Steve who lives on the other side of the road I'm on and invites Asian hookers over every weekend, and I only know him because he bitches me out about my dog.  Steve doesn't seem to have a wife, and hardly goes outside his home, except to work.

Either way we could look at it, tho, it's still not an issue with money.  If prostitution happens with the dollar, it may as well happen with Bitcoin.  I don't see any difference; the money isn't to blame.  Society can't pin its issues on who uses money for what.  In the end, law is just a bandage for an open wound.

Sexual exploitation of children is not victimless.

Prostitution is a symptom of a problem instead of being a problem itself. An overwhelming majority of prostitutes were sexually exploited as children so the victimization already took place long before they became adult sex workers.

An exchange of services between consenting adults...which one is the victim? Are you claiming that the guys are getting ripped off?

The rise in cost could very well be the adoption by drug lords of Bitcoin use. The billions spent per year by drug cartels could make it mainsteam.

But it may have a different affect. Silk Road may be doing to the drug cartels what Bitcoin is doing to the central banks.

You really think street-level prostitution is victimless?

I knew a guy who had been thrown in jail for a few hours and talked the ears off of anyone that would listen about bitcoin.

I've even thought of raising bitcoin for the specific purpose of getting myself thrown in jail and giving away wallets to the people that i meet behind bars.

Seeing as how those that are against the widespread adoption of bitcoin are going to link it to criminal activity anyway, why not advertise it to all the people looking to engage in prohibited activities? especially since many of those prohibited activities would be victimless (prostitution, drug use, etc) , and especially if the adoption of bitcoin in those fields may very well reduce the need for violence in order to engage in those activities.

thoughts?