Claim: Bitcoin is used by money launderers and other criminals.
What is Bitcoin Good for? > Claim: Bitcoin is used by money launderers
- Bitcoin developed a reputation for money-laundering based off of criminal activity in its early years (2012-13) because the technology was new and unknown to law enforcement.
- Today, savvy criminals have learned to avoid Bitcoin because the log of Bitcoin transactions (the Bitcoin ledger) is public and the FBI has learned how to analyze the transaction logs to find the illicit activity .
- The FBI learned how easy it is to catch crime when they caught two of their own agents stealing (Ted-talk video) from the Silk Road, an early black market which used Bitcoin. Government Agents who had authority to order Internet Service Providers to erase their logs failed to cover their tracks because they couldn’t delete the Bitcoin logs of their theft.
Former Government Prosecutor of the Silk Road black market: Kathryn Haun
How Does Illicit Bitcoin Activity Levels Compare to the Existing Banking System?
- Bitcoin has less than half the illicit
Michael Morell, Acting CIA Director use of the existing banking system according to Michael Morell, former Acting Director of the CIA. (pg 3-4)
- Michael Morell quoted an expert who said: “if all criminals used blockchain, we could wipe out illicit financial activity” (pg 6)
