[foxylad]

Or simply make exchanging bitcoin for anything of value illegal. It makes extortion of all kinds too easy, and company data is just the tip of the iceberg.

I was in Italy recently, and saw articles about the epidemic of kidnappings there in the 70s. It won't be long before organised crime figures out how to use crypto to bring back the glory days.

Killing bitcoin would shut down an enormous illegal economy overnight. And stop the crazy electricity consumption at the same time. Maybe you can help me here, but I'm having difficulty thinking of a single real downside.

[yonaguska]

> shut down an enormous illegal economy overnight.

Despite not owning any Bitcoin, I find it quite comforting to know that there is a currency that exists outside of the purview of a central bank or a government that can devalue or outright take the accruement of my labor on a whim.

[Zenul_Abidin]

Then what's stopping the criminals from going back to good ol' wire fraud like in the 90s and 2000s?

PS. All of the smart ransomware groups are not demanding payments with Bitcoin anymore, they are using another cryptocurrency called Monero. It turns out that Bitcoin is actually traceable by governments via its public ledger, but Monero is a private currency that can't be traced, hence why the IRS posted bounties some time back to encourage people to break Monero's obfuscation.

The only gangs that are still demanding Bitcoin are the less-educated and savvy ones.

[tasuki]

Can't they receive the money in Bitcoin and then run it through Monero to "clean" it?

[literallycancer]

Monero can be de-anonymized relatively easily.

[DaSHacka]

source?

[tradertef]

Oh yeah.. there were no ransom business before Bitcoin.