How we use cryptocurrencies (often, badly!). Here are the main uses of Bitcoin & co.
Have you ever wondered? how we use cryptocurrencies? If the answer is: to make payments on online purchases, you are wrong. Even if the goal of many digital currency creators is precisely that, in reality the preferential outlet is still speculative operations and, therefore, the election of cryptocurrencies as online trading currency.
However, the other more frequent uses are surprising. In fact, it seems that cryptocurrency, whose capitalization value fell rapidly in 2018, are increasingly an operational reference point in the darknetor rather on the Internet that standard search engines cannot reach, dark corners of the Web where you can exchange anything from illegal drugs to child pornography.
Well, in the Darknet Bitcoin is a kind of reference currency, the most common form of payment for drug sales on deep markets. To support it is a National Drug Threat Assessment Report of the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Agency), according to which - precisely - Bitcoin is the most used virtual currency for its longevity and for its growing acceptability in legitimate companies and institutions all over the world .
Another unworthy outlet is that of money laundering. Today, despite (or perhaps because of) a drastic improvement in the application of anti-money laundering rules, money laundering has largely moved towards cryptography. 97% of Bitcoins from criminal activities received directly from exchanges have flowed into countries with weak anti-money laundering laws - CipherTrace Cryptocurrency Intelligence said in its Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report 2018. "Cryptocurrency exchanges in countries with weak anti-money laundering regulation receive almost 5% of their payments directly from criminal sources "- he added.
In particular, given China's restrictions on the movement of capital, cryptography has become very popular for evading its laws. “CUBS [Chinese Underground Banking Systems] money brokers sell Bitcoins to drug traffickers for the money earned from drug sales in the United States, Australia and Europe. This drug money is then sold to Chinese citizens in exchange for Bitcoin which Chinese citizens themselves use to transfer the value of their goods outside of China, "says a DEA report. “Many China-based companies that produce goods used in Trade Based Money Laundering (TBML) systems now prefer to accept Bitcoin. Bitcoin is very popular in China because it can be used to anonymously transfer value overseas, circumventing controls on Chinese capital "- the report concluded.
