In the Morning Risk Report, the Wall Street Journal emphasized that police enforcement agencies as well as fiscal organizations that are describing bitcoin as a terrorism financing tool are exaggerating the risks involved inward digital currencies including bitcoin. Bitcoin as Terrorism Money Narrative Pushed yesteryear Governments
Since the offset of 2016, police enforcement agencies including the FBI as well as Europol accept begun to depict bitcoin as a terrorism financing tool due to its purpose example inward the night web. However, these police enforcement agencies were harshly criticized for misleading the public, as fiat money or cash, which serves the global fiscal ecosystem as the base of operations monetary system, accounts for nearly 97% of all criminal activities due to its consummate anonymity.
Analysts as well as supporters of bitcoin expressed their concerns over governments as well as police enforcement agencies’ attribution of bitcoin to criminal activities, to a greater extent than frequently than non because bitcoin is non completely anonymous as anyone tin move rail downwardly the menstruum of transactions using the populace blockchain. When a criminal tries to sell bitcoin inward a regulated bitcoin exchange, with KYC as well as AML systems inward place, authorities agencies volition live on able to unravel the identity of the bitcoin user with ease.
More to that, criminals are ever inward search for amend technologies as well as alternatives. Criminals utilize automobiles, cash, phones, as well as other technologies to supplement their operations. However, this shouldn’t necessarily Pb to the fighting of the full general public. In other words, authorities agencies shouldn’t endeavour to ban every technology scientific discipline utilized yesteryear criminals across the world. If so, no i volition live on able to utilize the internet, bitcoin, banking system, cars, alongside many other technologies.
International defence as well as safety think-tank Royal United Services Institute consultant as well as erstwhile U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism as well as Financial intelligence official David Carlisle stated: “Treating cryptocurrencies as an exceptional threat creates the misleading impression that to a greater extent than conventional fiscal products are non already equally, or more, vulnerable to terrorist exploitation.”
Terrorist Financing: Bitcoin Vs. Conventional Banking
Essentially, bitcoin is a decentralized protocol built to facilitate payments betwixt 2 parties with the absence of moderators or tertiary political party service providers. Everyone inside the network has equal potency over each other as well as at that spot exists no administrators who tin move manipulate, alter or delete transactions from the populace blockchain.
This decentralized architecture of bitcoin prevents exploitation as well as manipulation of funds, different conventional banking. Over the yesteryear decade or so, banks accept been exposed for leading fraudulent operations that accept led to hundreds of billions of dollars inward losses. In fact, it was revealed terminal calendar week by Bloomberg that the world’s largest banks were fined US$321 billion inward full since the 2008 fiscal crisis. In consideration of this staggering number, it is dishonest as well as deceitful of governments to attribute bitcoin as criminal as well as terrorist money, when their almost trusted partners accept deluded the populace for decades earlier beingness fined billions of dollars for their actions.
Carlisle also noted that terrorist groups including the ISIS accept their ain forms of money such as their unique minted gilded coins as the unified currency. Thus, bitcoin or other digital currencies volition non live on a priority for terrorist groups specially if bitcoin is hard to obtain without forfeiting user identity due to KYC as well as AML regulations implemented across the world.
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