There have been many claims made against bitcoin in the past year. One claim is that the virtual currency is primarily used for criminal transactions and illicit deals. Another claim is that it’s meant to evade paying taxes. There are numerous claims, mostly negative, regularly made that would portray the digital currency in a negative light.
The next one might take the cake and make the bitcoin community chuckle.
Jamie Bartlett, an author at the London Telegraph, published an article entitled “Could a crypto-currency like Bitcoin help child pornographers evade police?” in which it states that because of the somewhat anonymous nature of the cryptocurrency that it can be utilized as a tool by child pornographers everywhere.
“According to a report shared with me by the Internet Watch Foundation, last month researchers uncovered the first case of Bitcoins being used to pay to access a commercial child pornography site (which the IWF refers to as “child sexual abuse material”),” wrote Bartlett.
He would later add: “However, Bitcoins are not the only crypto-currencies out there. There are more secretive and anonymous crypto-currencies currently being developed, and I suspect there are many more to come.”
“In some ways, it’s surprising that it’s taken so long: the FBI warned back in 2012 they feared the currency would be used by child pornographers.”
At the end of the article, Bartlett concludes that two questions remain: is bitcoin being used to buy and sell child pornography because it’s fast and cheap or is it being used to avoid being detected by authorities? He stated that he’s concerned it’s “a bit of both.”
Opponents have already lambasted the article by making the case that by replacing the term “bitcoin” with anything else would already negate the premise behind the article. For instance, if bitcoin were to be replaced with dollars or euros, then the author could also be arguing that these two currencies could be used for child pornography purchases.
By the way, dollars and euros are still being used by child pornographers.
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