[jesusthatsgreat]

Another hitjob on Bitcoin paid for & promoted by old money.

Terrorists using Bitcoin for funding are idiots. They're creating an undeniable, timestamped treasure trove of digital evidence which is far simpler to trace and track than any cash transactions.

I would hope intelligence services are trying to lure terrorists in to using Bitcoin by pushing articles like this as opposed to actually believing that Bitcoin transactions can't be tracked and can't be used to hunt down funding sources.

[onion2k]

Another hitjob on Bitcoin paid for & promoted by old money.

If it's true that the banks and old businesses are paying for news articles to denounce Bitcoin then that's a lot more interesting than this article. I think it's much more likely that a journalist read that a law enforcement agency confiscated a few Bitcoin and saw an angle for an edgy "OMG terrorists!" article.

[jbob2000]

Bitcoin doesn't track who made the transaction, it tracks which computer made the transaction. This is an important distinction because the banking system is fully setup to track who makes transactions, they don't care which computer makes them.

Now law enforcement need to do the job of the banking system: figure out who made the transaction.

[cameronbrown]

True, but by the time something goes wrong (read: explosions) having a digital paper trail is moot.

[arcticbull]

... promoted by old money.

I didn't know old money was defined as anyone who didn't want to get attacked by well-funded terrorists. In the future, I'd avoid this kind of conspiracy theory advocacy as it weakens any argument you staple it to.

AML/KYC and the OFAC list aren't there because the acronyms make you sound fancy. They're there because society agrees payments should be censorable.

[feanaro]

Does it agree? Or is the average person just too uninformed and powerless to do anything about it, particularly because sinister effects of such procedures are long-term and hard to see?

After all, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also a product of society.

[arcticbull]

If you don't want to have an OFAC list I suggest you petition your congressperson and see how far you get. Or take your case to the people! Tell me, who do you want to pay that you can't right now, because they're Syrian/Iranian/North Korean?

[feanaro]

I don't have a congressperson. I like having privacy in my payments even though I (to my knowledge) do not fund criminals. I do find that I share this sentiment with many people I talk to about it.

[arcticbull]

Bitcoin payments aren’t private or anonymous, they’re pseudonymous and consequently if it ever actually catches on beyond the seedy underbelly of scamming investors, automated deanonymization will be standard, and you will somehow enjoy even less privacy.

[feanaro]

I doubt routine, automated deanonymization will ever be the standard for Bitcoin, but even if so, there are better alternatives when it comes to privacy, such as Monero. I have no doubt others will appears too.

In any case, the point is that privacy of financial transactions is a good thing.