Is Bitcoin inherently criminal? We asked a criminal...
Face it: Many people who complain that bitcoin is just for criminals are thinking specifically of Silk Road, the "deep web" marketplace that uses Tor anonymizing tools to allow online purchases with bitcoins. The site sells various products, but most of them are pharmaceutical or recreational drugs. Talking to people who use bitcoin on Silk Road, though, reveals the site is likely not creating criminals. There's a fair amount of hassle and fiddling required to use Silk Road properly. Anecdotes and forum posts suggest that existing users who choose to buy certain, ahem, substances online....
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Criminal activity has always been linked with crypto by governments and individuals who would rather see the assets banned. Despite widespread beliefs that only criminals use crypto, it is still significantly less than the criminal activity related to fiat currencies, with sources saying only about 1% of cryptocurrencies are used by criminals. Nevertheless, this does […]
I woke this morning to the sound of dozens of message notifications in rapid succession. The DAO had been attacked. More than $50 million worth of ether had already been drained. At least one technical solution had already been proposed. Some people like it, some don't. In addition to the technical remedies, some have asked about legal remedies that might be available against The DAO hacker. Could they be criminally or civilly liable? Could they be sued? If so, how? And if so, by whom? Some thoughts on this topic follow, below. Criminal law. State and federal criminal statutes are....
Adoption by criminal enterprises is evidence of the product/market fit for censorship-resistant tech and an indicator of whether innovation will see usage in the non-criminal world.
The European law enforcement agency, Europol, has arrested 10 people believed to be members of the criminal gang that stole cryptocurrencies with an estimated value of $100 million. The arrests follow an international investigation into a series of sim swapping attacks that occurred in 2020. According to Europol, this criminal gang had also targeted high-profile victims that are based in the U.S. The Hijacking of Mobile Devices In a statement following the arrests, the law enforcement agency explains that eight members of the gang were nabbed on Feb. 9. The two other members, one from....
U.S. Senator Margaret Hassan has requested that government agencies take “additional targeted steps to prevent and prosecute the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes.” She expressed her concern over “the rise in the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes.”
US Senator Requests Agencies Take Steps to Prevent and Prosecute Use of Crypto for Criminal Purposes
U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland expressing her concern about the criminal use of cryptocurrencies Thursday. Garland is the 86th U.S. attorney....