Senator Stresses Bitcoin’s Battle in Eliminating Criminal Baggage

On Wednesday, a Republican senator, Chuck Grassley, called out Bitcoin for supporting crime with its anonymous exchange mechanism. He backed his claim using some ‘distorted estimates’ to run down the bitcoin image Uphill. Cryptocurrency has been facing several battles in breaking the seedier assumptions of its Silk Road past.

Senator Chuck had called for a closer investigation of the Crypto due to his claims; he is currently the senate Judiciary Committee top republican; he told the Biden administration that Bitcoin funds many illegal transactions yearly. He put this figure at $76 billion.

In a letter addressed to Regina LaBelle, who is the Acting Director of the Office of the National Drug Control Policy, he said, “What makes cryptocurrency dangerous is that users can remain anonymous,”

But according to a former Justice Department honcho, Katie Haun, ‘Bitcoin is barely anonymous’. She mentioned that its Pseudonymous and public ledger makes it possible to track down ransom takers, especially the group that ran the colonial pipeline to a halt.

Several Cryptocurrency companies and exchangers have argued this position of Senator Chuck Grassley. They stated that the Senator’s idea was outdated and not what recent U.S. agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration and FBI, are accustomed to. These departments certainly know that bitcoin can be traced.

Bitcoin’s Baggage

Bitcoin has suffered a lot of bad press in Washington DC; policymakers have tried to demonize it and often promote any information that doesn’t look good for the Crypto.

But several researches have proved that only a handful of the bitcoin market is used for drugs, trafficking, ransomware and other anti-social deeds. Chainalysis and Merkle Sciences carried out this research.

They had stated that crypto crime was an estimated $10 billion in 2020, comprising just 1% of all transactions, which is very well below the number that Senator Chucks had mentioned.

What is the case?

Senator Chucks had mentioned that cryptography had made the job of law enforcement difficult since it is anonymous and difficult. But Jesse Piro, the head of Government Affairs for Chainalysis, argued that it is the opposite. He said Cryptocurrencies are more transparent since they use public ledgers.

He said federal investigators could use the transparent nature to follow the money and bust criminals in the real sense. “It’s a common misconception that cryptocurrencies are anonymous, untraceable, unregulated, and primarily used for illicit purposes,” he said

Of course, law enforcers have exploited public ledgers to capture an extensive drug ring in California, and this was accomplished in part by tracing bitcoin transactions. Over time, it has been challenging to bastardize bitcoin in the case of anonymity since it has been increasingly challenging to maintain pseudonymity through cash-out.

Special Agent Christopher Hicks stated that even if Crypto is believed to be an anonymous platform, there are things that can be exploited. He stated that security operatives already know the truth about the use of Bitcoin and know how to track down criminals.

Crypto exchange platforms can also be used to trace users. Platforms like Coinbase and Kraken will require some form of identification before you are allowed to use their apps and this can help Law enforcements to crack down on criminal activities.