It’s been an embattled year so far for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency world in general. The start of the year saw a precipitous drop in Bitcoin value, marking somewhere around blockchain’s 250th death. Then, numerous financial institutions, government regulatory agencies, and elite moguls rubbed salt in the wounds with a series of rhetorical attacks aimed at discrediting cryptocurrency and dismissing it as a dangerous bubble. Even Facebook got a few kicks in when Zuckerberg — after seemingly pondering the efficacy of crypto in a post — banned all altcoin ICOs from advertising on the site.
Now, about a month later, Bitcoin and most of the other major altcoins have recovered, and predictions are once again calling for meteoric growth through 2018. Almost as if on cue, enter Bill Gates to announce that cryptocurrency is quite literally killing people.
Gates made the statement during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session in which he declared that the ability to conduct anonymous financial transactions is a great boon for drug dealing, financial crimes, and terrorism:
“The main feature of crypto currencies is their anonymity. I don’t think this is a good thing. The government’s ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing. Right now crypto currencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way. I think the speculative wave around ICOs and crypto currencies is super risky for those who go long.”
Of course, Gates is accurate in saying cryptocurrency has been and is used for illegal activity. A recent study out of the University of Sydney stated 25 percent, roughly 24 million illicit users, of the Bitcoin network is funded via illegal activity.
Another study, conducted in Australia in 2017 using “forensic finance techniques,” found nearly half of Bitcoin’s transactions facilitate some form of illegal activity, including drugs, weapons, and pirated software.
However, others argue that these numbers are skewed and that things have changed since the fall of the Silk Road, when Bitcoin was pretty much synonymous with ‘shady’ transactions on the Dark Web. In fact, blockchain may make it more lucrative for law enforcement to track criminals.
“If you catch a dealer with drugs and cash on the street, you’ve caught them committing one crime,” Detective Sarah Meiklejohn says. “But if you catch people using something like Silk Road, you’ve uncovered their whole criminal history. It’s like discovering their books.”
"We're getting a lot better through law enforcement tracking those [criminals] and holding the exchanges more accountable," one Homeland Security official said. "I think [Bitcoin]'s a lot more legitimate than people give it credit for."
More importantly, as with any great technology, the great promise of cryptocurrency comes with great peril, and this volatile balance fluctuates just like other economic vectors, so it’s intellectually dishonest to argue that cryptocurrency is killing people any more than digital technology or the Internet is killing people.
Blockchain could revolutionize banking and finance with fraud protection, faster transaction times, financial efficiency, transparency, decentralization, and user-controlled networks. Future uses of blockchain include distributed cloud storage, smart contracts, digital voting, cryptography, decentralized notary, machine learning, graphic rendering, and big data analysis.
It’s also worth pointing out that Gates’ former company, Windows, has been developing blockchain applications since 2015.
Seeing the potential of cryptocurrency’s underlying blockchain technology, it is only logical that such a tool could also be used for nefarious purposes. Virtually all forms of technology result in collateral deaths, most of them vastly more so than cryptocurrency. One could apply his quote applies to nuclear technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, or artificial intelligence — or fiat currency itself, something we’re unlikely to see Bill Gates relinquish.
In other words, while there are risks associated with cryptocurrency, they are outweighed by the rewards of technological and social progress.
What do you think about Bill Gates’ statement? Is it fair to say cryptocurrency is killing people?
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Gates needs to worry about his vaccines that literally kill people.
haha right
Amen to that my friend. He is the epitome of hypocrisy.
That prick would know - killing people, drugs, money laundering - he is world champion!
Everything kills people to some extent... in some way... directly or indirectly... do we ban everything? lol
I noticed this too and addressed it in one of my posts from today, he is very wrong. He is the snippet from my post:
"One area where the cryptocurrency community fails is the ability to identify problems in achieving their goals. For example most projects just hate banks or do not want to make changes that they don't feel are needed that could decrease friction for greater adoption by the general public. An area where I feel the BTCP team can beat out other cryptocurrencies is through changing the public perception of cryptocurrency. Bill Gates see's nothing good about cryptocurrency. If the BTCP team also places a small emphasis on real world applications cryptocurrency can help with, such as things which are not for profit, but a social good, then they will be on top.
IN FACT, I CHALLANGE THE BTCP TO PROMOTING SOCIAL SIDE PROJECTS LIKE CRYPTOCURRENCY APPLICATION TO EDUCATION.
I have never met Jacob Brutman of the BTCP team, but researching about him makes me feel that he would be very good at spearheading a social side project like this. Show the world how cryptocurrency can solve social problems we struggle with. Win the public by relating to what hits at home for them on a daily basis. How can cryptocurrency and token network effects be applied to things like education? If you need a hint think about Steemit and how it incentivize's things and disincentivize's things. Now apply that to the funding for schools and how our test based system continues to fail us. Republicans cannot solve it and Democrats can't solve it. Looking at the members of the BTCP team, I feel like many of them would easily be able to tackle these sorts of problems. This is part of what I mean when I say the team is diverse, both in a direct technical sense, but also indirect things they bring to the table.
I would argue that the philanthropic value of their work would be worth more than ANY amount of money Bill Gates may throw at a problem. Bill Gates has a lot of money, giving it away is not really a sacrifice for him. If Bill Gates used his real strength and got down and dirty like when he was starting Microsoft to solve the causes he cares so much about, he would leave a much longer lasting impact than measuring the philanthropic impact of his work on the quantity of resources he has provided. "
Full post: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@byzantinehash/royal-crypto-fork-will-the-real-bitcoin-please-stand-up-learn-about-bitcoin-private-btcp
Feel free to follow me @ByzantineHash if you like the post, I try to make sure I provide more insight and original content than other posts out there.
" Right now crypto currencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way." Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, such as fentanyl, causing deaths in a VERY direct way! Just another attempt to insult intelligence. Good try though.
Bill Gates obviously doesn't understand cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology very well... Scaremongering
cryptocurrencies will be the life of many, we will see the blockchain technology revolutionize the internet as we know it, which will have numerous impacts on many sectors that we so rely on.
Gates proposes some great points, but i'm afraid he is sadly mistaken with that statement. Just look at steem, creating a passive income for many around the world that have a hard time putting food on the table or a roof over their heads. Steem and the steem blockchain could potentially mitigate poverty, now whoever thought this to be possible?
there is nothing on earth existing that doesn't have its disadvantages. Take for example, As useful and effective the internet is, are there no abuse or internet fraud practices by people. should that now prevent one from using it???
things should be viewed from both sides and conclusion must be drawn on a reasonable ground not with sentiment.
I think he said that cuz he is afraid...what he is afraid?? Loosing control of the people. Cryptocurrency is our revolution now or never!!!
Don't give up and carry on. :)
I disagree with Gates statement. It may used to be used like that, but not anymore. Blockchain technology has so many usecases and shouldn't be reduced to just a payment system anyway, but even if you see it like that it is still only a small percentage of all transactions. In my opinion bad people will get to their illegal activities anyways. Its not really the difficulty of the process of getting into illegal activities its more the mindset thats important.
And let's not forget all the BACK DOORS Microsoft has provided over the years to the NSA/CIA/et al.
Scientists proved that drinking water kills. 100% people who drank water died or will die.
Scientists proved that drinking water kills. 100% people who drank water died or will die.