Adventures in Bitcoin

[Spanky]

Spanky, you are being ridiculous. I am not doing anything illegal and we have made some serious $. Nothing to not like about that.

Not you.

Criminals do. There are many articles on the net. Here's a sample:
https://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=31835

 

[Teacher Terry]

I don't care what others do.

 

[mrfeh]

Glad you got out with what little gain you have... I was wondering what all the people on this board who kept telling us how great it was and how it was going to keep going up and up was going to say, if anything...

Depends on when you bought your bitcoins. Anybody who bought before December is still in the green.

Anybody that uses funds they aren't willing to lose are being reckless.

 

[4legsgood]

Not you.

Criminals do. There are many articles on the net. Here's a sample:
https://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=31835

I'm sure speculation is now by far the largest use of bitcoin.

 

[ulrichw]

Not you.

Criminals do. There are many articles on the net. Here's a sample:
https://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=31835

I think you picked a good example of the articles documenting so-called money-laundering through Bitcoin.

The article is a fluff piece written by some legal group (HG.org) likely trying to leverage the popularity of Bitcoin into getting some web hits.

There's nothing particularly inaccurate about the article, but it is purely hypothetical.

Also, the exchanges that let you convert USD to/from Bitcoin that I've found comply with KYC (Know your customer) rules - i.e., you have to document your identity.

A big drawback for money-launderers is that Bitcoin's ledger lives forever. That means that if an address is ever linked to you, the trail can be followed all the way to its sources regardless of when the transactions were done.

This makes it an extremely risky to use Bitcoin for money laundering because you have to take into account not only the risk of current disclosure, but also the risk of future disclosure.

Beyond that, the article also makes a hand-waving argument that you can: "simply [convert] it to fiat currency out of the country where the transaction will not be noted by the government" - This may be true for small quantities - but I suspect the liquidity isn't there for any significant fiat laundering (after all, the funds that you're receiving for your Bitcoin have to be clean, too).

I think Bitcoin's current value is far greater as a gambling instrument than as a money laundering instrument.

 

[Spanky]

I think Bitcoin's current value is far greater as a gambling instrument than as a money laundering instrument.

Agreed - Bitcoin is totally speculative. Some would say that it will reach $100,000 by the end of 2018 while some would say that it will return to the mean soon.

 

[aja8888]

As far as gambling, I would rather go to Vegas and place my bet on the Patriots.