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CASEBITCOIN making the case for bitcoin every day
Bitcoin Marketcap
$1.89T
Gold Marketcap
$16.30T
BTC Settlement Volume (24hr)
$12.90B
BTC Inflation Rate (next 1yr)
1.17%
CASEBITCOIN making the case for bitcoin every day
6 Apr 2021 | | Price when published: $58,569 (ROI since: +70.81%)
Filed under: fundamentals reports
Michael Morell is the former acting Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. In this piece, he set out to understand bitcoin and crypto-currencies' role in illicit activity. In short, he found that illicit use of Bitcoin is far less than many people assume, and probably even a significantly smaller share of the bitcoin-economy than illicit use of dollars are vs global GDP.
Data and conclusions in this report are well-sourced. Mr Morell notes that he and his team "consulted a diverse group of experts in the fields of cryptocurrency technology and investment, financial services, payment systems, global intelligence and security, financial regulation, and law enforcement. We interviewed executives from major blockchain analytics firms, former senior Treasury Department officials, a senior official from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and a former CIA intelligence analyst, as well as academics, venture capital investors, former federal prosecutors, and a former leader in the banking industry. We also consulted studies from the U.S. Department of Justice; the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN); the Financial Action Task Force (FATF); major blockchain analytics firms; the Brookings Institution; RAND Corporation; BAE Systems; and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Sigal Mandelker, former Acting Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, as well as a former Department of Justice official and prosecutor, gave us a significant amount of her time to tap into her wealth of experience on the issue."
However, based on our research and discussions with industry experts, I have confidence in two conclusions:
• The broad generalizations about the use of Bitcoin in illicit finance are significantly overstated.
• The blockchain ledger on which Bitcoin transactions are recorded is an underutilized forensic tool that can be used more widely by law enforcement and the intelligence community to identify and disrupt illicit activities. Put simply, blockchain analysis is a highly effective crime fighting and intelligence gathering tool.
...
According to a recent study by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, illicit activity among all cryptocurrencies as a percent of total cryptocurrency activity from 2017 to 2020 was less than 1 percent. For Bitcoin specifically, blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace estimates that illicit activity makes up less than 0.5 percent of total transaction volume.
...
All of this together suggests a broader point—that the illicit use of cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin in particular, as a share of total market activity, is certainly not higher than it is in the traditional banking system and is most likely less.
What do you think of this piece?