[hn_throwaway_99]

Physical cash is much more difficult to:

1. Handle in large quantities. The ransom paid here was $1 million. With crypto, transferring that much is a few keystrokes. With cash, it's basically a large bag of cash that needs to be moved around.

2. Hold for ransom. Given point #1, kidnappers (of people and data) know that it's much easier to demand payment of large amounts in crypto than cash. If you kidnap a rich person in the crypto world, kidnappers know it's easy for him to sign over a very large amount of bitcoin quickly, which looks to be what happened here. Even for a very wealthy person, it's not logistically easy to get a million dollars in cash, never mind hand it over in a way that isn't a huge risk for the kidnappers.

3. Launder. Crypto tumblers are still a thing despite US government crackdown. Laundering cash with recorded serial numbers is much harder.

I'm not denying that crypto may have some legitimate uses, but it's basically a dream come true for criminals.

[beloch]

I think this gets it right.

If criminals know somebody holds a significant amount of crypto, such as the CEO of a crypto company, they don't need to have them contact somebody else to withdraw and deliver a large amount of physical cash. They don't need to convince anyone they're serious. If the victim has their phone with them or can remember a password, then the criminals just have to coerce the victim into making a transfer.

Arguably, this isn't even really kidnapping in the traditional sense. It's high-tech mugging.

Owning a significant amount of crypto-currency and carrying the ability to make a transfer around in your head or pocket is basically the same as carrying a suitcase full of cash.

[philistine]

It turns out the friction of a banking system has great benefits! Who knew!

[cbsmith]

It's logistically pretty easy these days for a wealthy person without an ounce of crypto to buy crypto and transfer it to someone else.

On the other hand, if your business was a scam and you needed to explain where $1 million went to...

[nujabe]

Your comment that it is logistically easy for the random rich guy to buy large sum of crypto is simply not true. For one, you'd have to go through KYC which takes time, and you can't just open an account and buy 100k in crypto (yet alone millions) as you'd need a history of activity on your account and multiple limit increases.

[jamiek88]

This is very naive.

There are many many ways for the wealthy to procure bitcoin with zero restrictions.

[mtnGoat]

True, but not in this mental exercise where the person is being held hostage. They would still need to liquidate assets and transfer to crypto, and also need connections to this type of seller. In that case, that’d probably already have it.

[djbusby]

How? I'm not wealthy but I'd like some unrestricted crypto. Do I have to be wealthy for these channels?

[mtnGoat]

You can buy crypto for cash on Craigslist. Don’t need to be wealthy. You’d probably need “connections” to buy six figures or more off market.

[nujabe]

^Yes, do all that but also try avoid being kidnapped.

[lazzlazzlazz]

Crypto does have significant advantages (handling in large quantities and rapid payment, as you described) but it is meaningfully harder to launder since blockchains are public and forensics is straightforward. The DoJ and crypto forensics firms has posted about this at length.

You're just explaining why crypto is becoming increasingly popular for businesses in general: the tech works.

[hn_throwaway_99]

1. Yes, everything is recorded on the block chain, but tumblers work. But yes, I agree it's hard to move large amounts of money on the blockchain since it's public.

2. "You're just explaining why crypto is becoming increasingly popular for businesses in general" Citation definitely needed. I used to see "pay with Bitcoin!" in a couple places online about 5-8 years ago. I never see it now, and hardly anyone I know, even big time "crypto people", actually use crypto to buy anything. Almost all the "uses" I hear are speculation or criminal uses. The only legitimate use I've actually seen is cross-border payments.

[JumpCrisscross]

> it's hard to move large amounts of money on the blockchain since it's public

This was a $1mm ransom. The attraction of crypto isn't that it's easy to launder. It's that it's easy to steal. Beat a crypto bro on the head and you know you can effect a verifiable, irreversible transfer. Wiring money involves many more steps and has all kinds of reverse options.

[akimbostrawman]

>blockchains are public and forensics is straightforward

only the bad ones. See XMR

[Paradigma11]

If you are wealthy, why not put your hardware ledger(s) in bank vaults that can only be accessed with id?

It's not expensive.

[hn_throwaway_99]

It still makes you a better target for bad guys.

Just look at all the movie plots that hinge on "ransom payment gone wrong" scenes, where the actual handing over of payment results in some kidnappers getting killed. With crypto, it just becomes "send a large amount of bitcoin to address X by date Y, otherwise we start shipping you various body parts of the kidnappee on dates Y+1, Y+2, etc." This dynamic is also the reason ransomware is so effective.