How Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency can Facilitate and Undermine the Crimes of the Powerful

• In Event: Etiology and Correlates of White-Collar Crime

Abstract

Bitcoin is the first best known cryptocurrency, which involve using computer code to create a unit of value that can not be counterfeited or spent more than once. Of particular interest to criminologists should be cryptocurrencies that are: (1) decentralized so no central authority can stop or reverse a payment, and (2) that have high levels of privacy or anonymity. While there are various scams currently happening with exchanges and crypto pump and dump, this project is interested in exploring how decentralized privacy “coins” can both challenge and be a tool for crimes of the powerful. The first section provides an overview of bitcoin’s cypherpunk roots, the protocols by which it operates and the properties that emerge from it. The second section examines how they can be used by people subjected to oppressive regimes as well as oppressive regimes defying international sanctions. The third section examines their use in dark net markets, as well as their libertarian challenges to the war on drugs. The final section examines some current regulatory trends.

Author

• Paul Leighton, Eastern Michigan University