Sex, Drugs and Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies have grown rapidly over time in price, popularity and mainstream adoption. A lot of people who were skeptical of its fame at first have been blown away with its rapid growth. The total market capitalization of Bitcoin alone exceeds $250 billion, with a further $400 billion in over 1000 other currencies.

The rapid growth and anonymity come with a price; creating more and more regulatory challenges. Just like any technology this too has its dark side with its use in the illegal trade of drugs, hacks and thefts, pornography, and even murder-for-hire.

There is little doubt that providing a digital and anonymous payment system has given rise to the darknet online marketplace. Its ideal for illegal operations as tracking a wallet’s owner can be extremely difficult. Despite blockchain being open and transparent, its indeed a paradox. Easily giving a carte blanche to the outlawed.

The first common illegal activity to take place was money laundering. Since now it was easy to transfer money anywhere, people took their chance to launder money without it being an illegal activity. Not only this but it rapidly branched out into the drug market and for obvious reason; perk of anonymity. You could easily buy without anyone having a whiff of your identity. Moreover, it provided the perfect veil to all the drug lords as they, too, could conceal behind this perfect cover. It also allowed them to track their payments with ease and it was all digital. This might have decreased the street fights as most consumers run away at the time of payment.

Pornography was another dirty industry to latch onto this ideal, anonymous, tech model. It created a safe space for people to view adult content without revealing their identity. You can now view quality content without anyone knowing. It also gave access to countries where porn viewership is blocked. Without government leaching on your back, you can have full access to private shows with almost as less as 5% fee charge. These companies are creativity designed to guarantee complete pleasure. Read more about porn blockchains here.

One can’t deny that all these things previously existed, you’d be a simple-minded fool to blame it all on the blockchain technology. Moreover, with changing narratives, porn actors demand more respect and since companies like Paypal, Mastercard, Visa, and others have systematically declined them service; redlining them and leaving them in the hands of shady industries to come and screw them. With blockchain, it allows them to connect with other decentralized marketplaces granting them control over the content they create without those greedy corporate hands violating them.

It sure does create a safe environment for people who want to take part in illegal activities and we’re not here to police anyone if they want to partake in these activities. However, we’re curious to know how the authorities will react to this. Do they have a way to counter the crypto darknet?