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In the old days, criminals liked their ransom payments in briefcases full of unmarked bills. But the NYT reports that now criminals prefer Bitcoin because it can be held in a digital wallet that does not have to be registered with any government or financial authority — and because it can be easily exchanged for real money. "The criminal underground very much likes Bitcoin," says Curt Wilson. "It's enabled a greater sense of obfuscation." The latest reminder of Bitcoin's underbelly came last week with the arrest of two Florida men for running an underground Bitcoin exchange where ransom victims could buy Bitcoins to pay the ransom demanded by the malware. The complaint suggested that the criminals also used the site to launder their proceeds. In total, between approximately October 2013 and January 2015, Coin.mx exchanged at least $1.8 million for Bitcoins on behalf of tens of thousands of customers. The operators sought to trick the major financial institutions through which they operated into believing that their unlawful Bitcoin exchange business was simply a members-only association of individuals who discussed, bought, and sold collectable items, such as sports memorabilia.
Some leaders in the Bitcoin community have suggested potential ways to fend off the ransom threats, digitally marking any coins used for ransom payments, similar to how dollar bills used in hostage situations are marked with invisible dye. But such solutions have been held up because of the value that many Bitcoin believers have put in the virtual currency's unfettered free movement.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday July 27 2015, @08:15AM
I don't object to paying taxes. I don't have any ill-gotten gains.
But one of the symptoms of my Schizoaffective Disorder is paranoia; at times that paranoia is quite severe. It could well lead to my murdering a completely innocent person because I felt the need to defend myself from them.
One way to keep a lid on my paranoia - and I have already found this to be effective - is to avoid tracking; hence the way I blackhole analytics servers in my hosts file. I'd love to own a car but I don't because of license plate readers. While I cannot completely avoid surveillance cameras I do cut down on my exposure to them, for example by spending a lot of time wandering around at night. I don't use store loyalty cards. I don't have any financial accounts.
BitCoin means to me that I might have some hope of having a normal financial life. Something other than stuffing cash in my mattress. I do not yet have a BitCoin wallet but I plan to get one sometime soon.
The IRS regards BitCoin as an asset. One must pay tax on the difference between the dollar prices when one buys and when one sells. While I don't object to paying my tax fairly, I am leery of disclosing the ways I get the money. However I do realize the IRS needs this information from everyone, so as to catch actual criminals, so I am willing to - begrudgingly - provide it.
If I don't do stuff like this, my symptoms get worse, I have to take more medicine, that medicine does not work as well and sometimes it does not work at all. While every psychiatric medicine is effective for some psychiatric patients, not all are effective for any one patients. Even the effective ones have side effects that one may be unable to tolerate, as I just learned the hard way with Tegretol - I was overcome with nausea.
Were I to get a Safeway Club Card, a car, a checking account, were I to pay with a debit card the chances are pretty good that medical science would run out of medicines that can relieve my paranoia.
It's rather like drug-resistant bacteria. The best way to avoid The Coming Plague is to avoid use of antibiotics we don't really need. For me to avoid getting shot by a law enforcement officer is to employ such technical measures as BitCoin.
Despite that I know I'm delusional, it doesn't mean that I'm not being watched.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Monday July 27 2015, @09:55AM
> BitCoin means to me that I might have some hope of having a normal financial life. Something other than stuffing cash in my mattress.
It is not a big difference. You will have to stuff data (representing cash) in your hard drive instead. My personal feeling is that my materss it is far safer place than my hard drive. But then again, I never did any of these two things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @05:11PM
You only store your "spending wallet" on your hard-drive. Savings should be generated off-line, with the private keys stored in at least two locations. Paper is almost ideal for this (cheap, long-lasting if kept dry).