house Bill H.R. 2433
Should the Feds Assess the Threat Posed by Terrorists Using Virtual Currency to Finance Operations?
Argument in favor
Virtual currencies are growing in popularity and could be abused by terrorists using the money to finance operations. The Dept. of Homeland Security should carry out an assessment to better understand and monitor the threat.
09/10/2017
The very nature of these types of currency is that the seller, the purchaser and the commodity is hidden. The transaction once agreed upon by the parties concerned is invisible and untraceable. I would not bet against it being used by Trump himself for transactions that he wanted unobservable. That's why the bitcoin was conceived. The secretive nature of terrorism would be a good fit with bitcoin except when converted to physical currency. The volatility of the coin would make the exchange rate unpredictable and undependable. I would think that there would be better ways to monitor terrorism. Bitcoin is not a nation state coinage, it is very decentralized and regulated world wide. This would be like put your finger on mercury to hold it still, it ain't done. If the US government wants to try, good luck.
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09/10/2017
OlderNWiser you should change your moniker to OldNCranky, because there is nothing wise about close-minded ignorance.
09/11/2017
With all of the investigations currently into terrorist organizations, how much additional would it cost to investigate cryptocurrency? Why not push this off to NATO and share responsibilities and costs with other nations? Any medium should be investigated if it is considered to be part of Terrorist operations. Why do we need a separate bill or initiative to investigate this?
Argument opposed
There’s not a lot of evidence to suggest that terrorist organizations are using virtual currencies like Bitcoin to finance their operations. The feds should wait until it becomes a problem before assessing the threat.
09/10/2017
With a different administration and White House this might be a good idea. With this one, embracing fascism at every turn, and with this one supporting White Supremacy Terrorist Groups like Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Clan, I see a smokescreen to legalize enacting racist agendas and even further scapegoating Muslim and Arab people to further a nativist agenda.
09/10/2017
No. You know what happens when a government agency assesses something for threats? They find "threats". And then they declare themselves the almighty rulers of it in order to "protect us" from the "threats". It becomes the purview of the government "for our own good." You know what crypto-currencies actually threaten? The monopoly of the Federal Reserve's fiat currency. That's why the government wants to control crypto-currencies. It's not for your good, it's for theirs. They need to be able to manipulate and inflate a currency to fund our egregious spending and our empire, but you can't print up additional bitcoins (that's also why they're scared of a gold standard - because you can't just make up more gold). This has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with control. If they wanted to investigate currency that enables terrorism they would start with the US dollar and the billions in arms sales to Saudi Arabia. That rabbit hole runs DEEP.
09/10/2017
Virtual currency certainly can be problem. Yet, the drug cartels continue to use the US printed currency. Why? My guess is that printed money is more convenience to the "work mules" at the bottom of the drug train. Cash doesn't leave many trails, but eCurrency is difficult to pay normal bills like rent, groceries or gasoline. Virtual currency requires a computer, accounts on both ends of the transactions. WiFi/cellular may become a issue too. But eCurrency needs time to mature like PayPal or Google Pay. If there is a way, there will be those who will try to find "the way."
The very nature of these types of currency is that the seller, the purchaser and the commodity is hidden. The transaction once agreed upon by the parties concerned is invisible and untraceable. I would not bet against it being used by Trump himself for transactions that he wanted unobservable. That's why the bitcoin was conceived. The secretive nature of terrorism would be a good fit with bitcoin except when converted to physical currency. The volatility of the coin would make the exchange rate unpredictable and undependable. I would think that there would be better ways to monitor terrorism. Bitcoin is not a nation state coinage, it is very decentralized and regulated world wide. This would be like put your finger on mercury to hold it still, it ain't done. If the US government wants to try, good luck.
With a different administration and White House this might be a good idea. With this one, embracing fascism at every turn, and with this one supporting White Supremacy Terrorist Groups like Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Clan, I see a smokescreen to legalize enacting racist agendas and even further scapegoating Muslim and Arab people to further a nativist agenda.
No. You know what happens when a government agency assesses something for threats? They find "threats". And then they declare themselves the almighty rulers of it in order to "protect us" from the "threats". It becomes the purview of the government "for our own good." You know what crypto-currencies actually threaten? The monopoly of the Federal Reserve's fiat currency. That's why the government wants to control crypto-currencies. It's not for your good, it's for theirs. They need to be able to manipulate and inflate a currency to fund our egregious spending and our empire, but you can't print up additional bitcoins (that's also why they're scared of a gold standard - because you can't just make up more gold). This has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with control. If they wanted to investigate currency that enables terrorism they would start with the US dollar and the billions in arms sales to Saudi Arabia. That rabbit hole runs DEEP.
Virtual currency certainly can be problem. Yet, the drug cartels continue to use the US printed currency. Why? My guess is that printed money is more convenience to the "work mules" at the bottom of the drug train. Cash doesn't leave many trails, but eCurrency is difficult to pay normal bills like rent, groceries or gasoline. Virtual currency requires a computer, accounts on both ends of the transactions. WiFi/cellular may become a issue too. But eCurrency needs time to mature like PayPal or Google Pay. If there is a way, there will be those who will try to find "the way."
Not with this WH staff. The DOJ is no longer the unbiased group for justice they are supposed to be.
The Feds are the biggest source of terrorism, drug running and arms sales. They launder the funds through the international banksters, who are allowed total immunity from prosecution. Cybercurrency is a threat to their profits and control.
OlderNWiser you should change your moniker to OldNCranky, because there is nothing wise about close-minded ignorance.
The Obama administration gave how many billions in cash to Iran? And now you are worried about bitcoin?
Because of the way Bitcoin works there is literally the most traceable path of the virtual currency transfers possible. Bitcoin keeps a 100% record of all transactions in the block chain. It becomes "untraceable" when pulled out to cash. Cash is far more problematic since cash transactions for terrorism present 0 record. The US 100 funds far more illegal actions than Bitcoin.
There really is nothing to assess. Bitcoin is the currency of terrorism. See. I've done The Feds job for them.
With the explosion of interest in cryptocurrency, An initiative to examine individuals possessing large quantities of virtual currency would cause needless invasions of privacy against individuals who simply want to make side income in a changing online market. To me, this sounds like another attempt by the US government to shut down cryptocurrency.
Stay away from Bitcoin. How much sense does it make for the federal government to investigate Bitcoin being used as currencies for potential terrorists when they just spent billions of the people's money on weapons for the Saudis?
This seems like a waste of tax dollars to me. I'm sure terrorists use all types of currency to finance their operations.
With all of the investigations currently into terrorist organizations, how much additional would it cost to investigate cryptocurrency? Why not push this off to NATO and share responsibilities and costs with other nations? Any medium should be investigated if it is considered to be part of Terrorist operations. Why do we need a separate bill or initiative to investigate this?
We have to be right 100% of the time. They only have to be right once.
This is only the first step in a mechanism for attempting to outlaw cryptocurrency for the benefit of large banks. You can already track the ledger of any block chain network, (it's actually FAR easier to track than paper money, but it's just that it's anonymous when using shady accounts that aren't very secure in the first place) so what about spending your time actually finding where the money is going instead of making a "threat assessment" that will do nothing more than create a stigma around a technology that is also being used to shift power from banking cartels to the lower and middle classes in more than just a handful of countries, and could be used for elections to make them exponentially more secure? This isn't just cynicism here, you don't have to take my word for it. I urge anyone reading this to do their research on block chain technology and try to fully understand it, and you will see the potential it has. The current state of the world and the effect this technology could have if embraced makes this a monumentally important issue.
I sense a smokescreen for the GOP to utilize at will on anything they want to hide within the dark net. Why do you think they want to privatize everything? Why do you think they want to limit our access to the internet? So they can hide all their corrupt business.
Anything a terrorist uses can be termed a threat because it aids the terrorist. Normal currency is a threat in terrorist hands! This is a waste of time. We should not be responding to them by limiting our own freedom.
Just an excuse for the Feds to get control of digital currency. They know they can't stop anybody from using it. They can't even stop them from using physical currency.