The Web belongs to society and is shaped by society. And until society is a crime-free zone, the Web will not be a crime-free zone.
So what exactly is a cryptocurrency? A cryptocurrency is a decentralised payment system, which basically lets people send currency to one another over the web without the need for a dependable alternative party for instance a bank or lender. The transactions are cheap, and in many cases, they’re free. As well as, the repayments are pseudo anonymous as well.
After that, the main feature is the fact that it’s totally decentralised, meaning that there isn’t any single central reason for authority or anything like that. The implications of the is done by everyone using a full copy of all of the transactions that have ever happened with Bitcoin. This creates an incredibly resilient network, meaning that no-one can change or reverse or police some of the transactions.
Our prime amount of anonymity inside signifies that it is rather difficult to trace transactions. It is not totally impossible, but it’s impractical typically. So crime with cryptocurrency– as you have got fast, borderless transactions, plus you’ve got a high level of anonymity, it theoretically creates a system that is ripe for exploitation. So typically when it is a criminal offense online with online payment systems, they often visit the authorities and, say, we can give this payment information or we can stop these transactions and reverse them. And none of this sometimes happens with Bitcoin, therefore it makes it ripe for criminals, theoretically.
In light of this, a lot of different agencies are researching into Bitcoin looking at Bitcoin and looking to understand how it works along with what they could do to police it. Additionally it is held it’s place in the media a number of times, and the media, to be the media, like focus on the bad side than it. So they focus very heavily around the crime by using it. So if there’s a theft or even a scam something like that, they often blame it on Bitcoin and Bitcoin users.
So the perhaps most obviously might be Silk Road, which got removed recently, and thru their $1.2 billion price of Bitcoins, went along to buy everything from drugs to guns to hit men to people sorts of things. As well as the media, again, very quickly responsible this on Bitcoins and say that it absolutely was the Bitcoin user’s fault.
But there’s actually very little proof of the size with the problem of crime with cryptocurrencies. We don’t determine if there is a lot or unfortunately we cannot determine if there’s a little. But regardless of this, individuals are extremely swift to brand it a criminal thing, and they forget the legitimate uses, such as the fast and quick payment.
So a couple of research questions I’m considering in this region is exactly what does crime with Bitcoin seem like? So a lot of people will say that scams and thefts happen to be taking place for ages. However the means through which they happen changes with all the technology. So a Victorian street swindler would practically be doing something very different with a 419 Nigerian prince scammer.
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