@Eirolfeam2 11 November 2021 edited

Cryptocurrencies are Used for Illegal Activities

I learned about the existence of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies when I was still in Grade 10 or about 6 years ago, when I was just looking for ways on how to make money online. And just a year ago, I started to learn more about it with the help of this blogging platform. **So what are Cryptocurrencies?** **Cryptocurrencies** are digital or virtual currencies, which are encrypted and decentralized, that can be used to purchase goods and services. Although it has been used for quite some time already just like the fiat money, some people who are new or not familiar with cryptocurrencies, or just merely hate decentralization, have notions or beliefs that it doesn't bring any good. In fact, one of the myths that surrounds the cryptocurrency world is that ~~Cryptocurrencies are used for Illegal Activities!~~ According to the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at the Innovation Policy Roundtable, "**Cryptocurrencies have been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers; they’ve been a tool to finance terrorism.**" https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0023 Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger also said that, "**I hate the bitcoin success. I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth.**" https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/01/charlie-munger-calls-bitcoin-disgusting-and-contrary-to-the-interests-of-civilization.html The European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde also claimed that, **"Cryptocurrency is an asset and it’s a highly speculative asset which has conducted some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money-laundering activity."** https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-13/lagarde-blasts-bitcoin-s-role-in-facilitating-money-laundering These are just some of the significant people in the Finance industry who have claimed that Cryptocurrencies are used for illicit financial dealings. However, these are all just nothing but false accusations about Bitcoin and crypto. Let's dig deeper to bust these allegations with data to build the facts surrounding the Bitcoin and Crypto ecosystem. Contrary to the false beliefs that the majority of cryptocurrency transactions are for illegal activities, based on the Cryptocurrency Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Report, February 2021, **illicit transactions only make up less than 0.5% of Bitcoin’s yearly volume in 2020**. https://ciphertrace.com/2020-year-end-cryptocurrency-crime-and-anti-money-laundering-report/

And based on the **Chain Analysis**, out of that small portion (0.5%), **scams**, not money-laundering, terrorism, trafficking, sanctions, or other unlawful activities, made up the overwhelming majority of all cryptocurrency-related crime at 54% of illicit activity.  https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-crypto-crime-report-intro-ransomware-scams-darknet-markets On the other hand, the Crypto Crime Report 2021 reported that in 2020, the **criminal share of all cryptocurrency activity fell to just 0.34%**, from the criminal activity in 2019 which consist of 2.1% of all cryptocurrency transaction. https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-crypto-crime-report-intro-ransomware-scams-darknet-markets It is also worth noting that despite the perceived attractiveness of cryptocurrencies for money laundering purposes, an estimated **99 percent** of cryptocurrency transactions are performed through centralized exchanges, which can be subject to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regulation similar to traditional banks or exchanges. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR4400/RR4418/RAND_RR4418.pdf Criminal activities or illicit financial dealings are also not safe in the cryptocurrency ecosystem as Cryptos are easier to track because of blockchains that already exist for the majority of transactions. The data, such as the date, time, amount of transaction, type of crypto used, wallet address involved, and hash value, recorded in the blockchain can't be altered, so there is no data loss. It also helps to identify the criminals who are behind the illegal activities. These are just some of the proofs that the cryptocurrency ecosystem are not used for Illegal activities. So what are Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for and what do people do with it? According to the **Brave New Coin** article, there are a lot of awesome things anyone can do using Cryptocurrencies. https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/10-awesome-uses-of-cryptocurrency **1. Low-cost Money Transfers** Cryptocurrencies are mainly used for sending and receiving payments all around the world at a very cheap transaction fee with high speed of transfer process, usually within a few seconds. **Bitcoin Cash (BCH)** is one of the best cryptocurrencies for this purpose. **2. Make Private Transactions** Cryptocurrencies can also give the crypto people the privilege to make private financial transactions without explaining to anyone why they are making such transaction, the sources of the money, and to whom they want to send it to. **Bitcoin Cash (BCH)** also enables the users to make private transactions through an application called **Cashshuffle** that allows users to shuffle their BCH with other fractions of BCH to blur the transaction trail. **3. Earn Passive Income on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with 'Yield Farming**' Crypto people take advantage of their Bitcoin and other currencies through Crypto Yield Farming, such as DeFi lending and Crypto Staking, which will give them a stable source of passive income every month. Compared to the low interest rates offered by traditional banks, Crypto lending and staking offers higher interest per annum. **4. A Censorship-resistant alternative store of wealth** Unlike banks that can ban or freeze your assets anytime, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies become a censorship-resistant alternative store of wealth where it is only the person who holds the private keys or seed phrase can access it, and it can't be frozen by authorities. **5. Get paid to Post Content** **Read.Cash** is a blogging platform that allows writers to get paid with a cryptocurrency called **Bitcoin Cash** for publishing different content/articles. **Noise.Cash** is alo a micro-blogging or social media platform that allows its users to earn **BCH** just by making short posts. These BCH-powered platforms empowers its users by rewarding them for contributing content to the platform. **6. As high-risk Investments** Most of the people who buy and own cryptos are holding them longer with the hope that it will give them a high return of investment over the years. **7. Used as Donations** Cryptocurrencies are also used for **donating to charities** and **fundraising events** that will benefit for the betterment of humanity. There are a lot of legal ways to use Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies on our day-to-day life and it is very evident especially in the Bitcoin Cash community. I am one of the BCH users who has been using it for more than a year now and I love using it to send and receive money all over the world as it has a very cheap fee with fast transaction.

**Thus, Bitcoin was created for a peer-to-peer electronic cash system and not to use it for illegal activities.** My SmartBCH Address: 0x77C55F90014f99B4b424C4dd3240A4f105B11B14