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I am told, by so-called experts (who are usually defending crypto) that it is the most traceable form of currency that exists, and therefore really sub optimal for use in crime.
And yet.
Once upon a time, I wanted to buy a couple of packs of a specific kind of clove cigarette I used to enjoy as a spooky young person, before they outlawed flavored cigarettes for sale in the US. (Now they have to look like "cigars.") And the only way I could get them, was to order them from overseas. And the only way I could pay for them? Bitcoin.
I know I'm confessing to crime, here, but I think it's small beans enough that I'm not very worried. And it is material to my point. I know someone who wanted to order drugs off the dark web. (A friend of my son's.) I am pretty sure that it was a scam, but he was telling me that the only way to pay for it was...you guessed it...Bitcoin.
So if crypto is the currency of choice for shady dealings on the dark web and other naughty parts of the internet, how again is it SOOOO traceable? I mean, is anyone bothering to trace anything? I know that when I reported buying and selling crypto on my taxes at one point, they did not ask for any identifying information to work out which bits of what Bitcoin or whatever it was, that I'd owned. And the wallet service I used did not ask for my social security number.
How can it simultaneously be perfectly traceable, and yet...so..not? I don't really get that.
So given that this is my impression of it, now you bring in the art world. Oh, for heavens sakes. In case anyone did not know it, shady, sketchy rich people looking to hide assets and move wealth around without it being traced, very often use art to do that. VERY often. In fact, I'd say that a huge chunk of the valuation of contemporary art, at least, is that and little else.
So take absurd over-valuations of digital "art" (or whatever) and rinse it in snobby champagne and hipster trendiness, and then saute in a shell company with some digital crime-coin until you get.... another way for sketchy rich people to move large amounts of money around.
Once upon a time, I wanted to buy a couple of packs of a specific kind of clove cigarette I used to enjoy as a spooky young person, before they outlawed flavored cigarettes for sale in the US. (Now they have to look like "cigars.") And the only way I could get them, was to order them from overseas. And the only way I could pay for them? Bitcoin.
I know I'm confessing to crime, here, but I think it's small beans enough that I'm not very worried. And it is material to my point. I know someone who wanted to order drugs off the dark web. (A friend of my son's.) I am pretty sure that it was a scam, but he was telling me that the only way to pay for it was...you guessed it...Bitcoin.
It's very simple. It's like conspiring to kill some over the internet in 1994 in a chat room. You wouldn't have gotten caught until 10 years later when they had optimized software or SQL logic to check the logs.
Every transaction on the Blockchain is immutable and can be discovered, it's just a question of time and resources. Nobody is going to make the effort to track down $20 contraband but all the big boys have already been caught and locked up in jail with their funds seized. You need the sufficient bounty for data forensics teams to get involved.
A former CIA director already called Yellen out on her dumb dumb comments publicly. The Blockchain is problematic for criminals.
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