I don't think something that make it worth optimizing for but is intended to optimize criminals activities is really desirable.
Anyway, there's no advantage with crypto, the smuggler didn't smuggle 1 million dollar worth of cocaine from Mexico, cocaine is moved in much larger volumes, if a few pounds are lost, it's part of the business risks, criminals understand it and sometimes facilitate it, so that police can make big splash announcements and everybody is happy.
money is another thing entirely.
that million dollar worth of cocaine has been cut in hundreds of smaller doses, that are being paid mostly in cash.
so now every corner dealer has a pile of cash that use to pay the bigger dealer and so on.
first of all, you can't buy crypto with cash.
You should go through another person who already owns enough to sell them to you, which means another breadcrumb that could lead back to you in case that other person is caught.
also, cash has some disadvantages over a usb pendrive, but one big advantage is that it's harder to lose a briefcase than a usb drive and they don't break as easily.
so the smaller dealers have no incentive to do it.
the average dealer has no incentive on buying crypto to pay the larger dealer, because he gets rid of the cash pretty fast and keeps his cut that invests into criminal but legal activities so that the facade is clean.
the larger dealers have now a pile of cash that need to handle anyway, they can't ignore it and make it disappear just because it takes too much space.
let's go back to the smuggler (probably a cartel man) that moved cocaine from Mexico to Chicago
they have bank accounts in Panama and don't care about moving large sum of money anonymously or through perfectly clean American front men.
The system already works, there was an article the other day on front page titled "The war against money laundering is being lost" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26786810), so why change it for an asset that has not even a stable value?
I guess they tried at one point, but there's too much attention on them now, so criminals with capital C dropped them and let only their kids play with it so they can pay for their college expenses.
We are still talking about criminals. By "well worth optimizing", I meant worth to them.
I'm not defending that Bitcoin is a solution to moving money, I'm attacking what I perceived to be an argument that it's not a problem for dealers because they can just do to cash as they do to drugs.
are we still talking about criminals?
I don't think something that make it worth optimizing for but is intended to optimize criminals activities is really desirable.
Anyway, there's no advantage with crypto, the smuggler didn't smuggle 1 million dollar worth of cocaine from Mexico, cocaine is moved in much larger volumes, if a few pounds are lost, it's part of the business risks, criminals understand it and sometimes facilitate it, so that police can make big splash announcements and everybody is happy.
money is another thing entirely.
that million dollar worth of cocaine has been cut in hundreds of smaller doses, that are being paid mostly in cash.
so now every corner dealer has a pile of cash that use to pay the bigger dealer and so on.
first of all, you can't buy crypto with cash. You should go through another person who already owns enough to sell them to you, which means another breadcrumb that could lead back to you in case that other person is caught.
also, cash has some disadvantages over a usb pendrive, but one big advantage is that it's harder to lose a briefcase than a usb drive and they don't break as easily.
so the smaller dealers have no incentive to do it.
the average dealer has no incentive on buying crypto to pay the larger dealer, because he gets rid of the cash pretty fast and keeps his cut that invests into criminal but legal activities so that the facade is clean.
the larger dealers have now a pile of cash that need to handle anyway, they can't ignore it and make it disappear just because it takes too much space.
let's go back to the smuggler (probably a cartel man) that moved cocaine from Mexico to Chicago
they have bank accounts in Panama and don't care about moving large sum of money anonymously or through perfectly clean American front men.
The system already works, there was an article the other day on front page titled "The war against money laundering is being lost" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26786810), so why change it for an asset that has not even a stable value?
I guess they tried at one point, but there's too much attention on them now, so criminals with capital C dropped them and let only their kids play with it so they can pay for their college expenses.