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by 300bps 1470 days ago
It isn't just ransomware. It's money laundering, terrorist financing, drug trafficking, human trafficking and so much more.

Think about it for a second - of those $900 million in transaction fees, how many of them were transactions involving legal vs illegal activities? Anyone involved in legal activities would have a much easier time and lower fees using ACH, wire transfers and other methods.

1 comments

> Think about it for a second

Well, that is upsetting me. I am profoundly disappointed, but I think you have a serious point.

I will look for some more data on illegal activity. I hope the data is not accurate, but I would only be lying to myself if I refused to believe reality.

I accept that the lower bound of the value of the network does not surpass the illegal activity. But most of the volume should still be presumed innocent.

I see an estimate of $14B of volume was illegal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_and_crime

But that only makes up 0.15% of the total 2021 volume: https://www.wsj.com/articles/cryptocurrency-based-crime-hit-...

Thank you for your patience.