Talk:Cryptocurrency and crime

Article title
Cryptocurrency and security seems likes an oddly misleading or unclear descriptor of what this article's subject is. I mean, from the first sentence: Cryptocurrency and security describes attempts to obtain digital currencies by illegal means Would this not be more clearly titled Cryptocurrency and crime or something as straight forward? Perhaps there's a reason for the name being what it is, but at first look it seems like a subtle attempt to downplay the hard-to-dismiss public narrative that Bitcoin/crypto had for much of it's existence. Maybe i'm wrong to assume that. "Security" would imply to me that it's about security flaws, protocols/standards for protection, use of KYC/AML regulations, etc. as it pertains to crypto. This just sounds more like a History of Crypto Hacks and Heists otherwise. Thoughts? hidden lemon (talk) 06:13, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Agree, this is a strange ill conceived article. Jtbobwaysf (talk) 15:53, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

NPOV in the opening paragraph?
The opening paragraph is phrased very assertively, and I quote:

"As of 2022, no proof currently exists that cryptocurrency is abused more than fiat money. Many sources have stated cryptocurrencies are mainly used for funding illicit and illegal activities, but this is not the case."

This is then sourced to a Medium article published by Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange. The article itself links to various sources for more specific statements. Some of these are still suspect. Some are unreachable (this requires a "business email" to access) or don't seem to support the statements (a link to the Department of Justice only says that transactions are traceable to addresses, but that finding the address owner does not necessarily follow from that). Other links go to various cryptosecurity companies, which at least seems to be worth attributing in the article.

Then, at the end, the source mentions institutions fighting various crime (including "child exploitation, and even terrorist financing") on the blockchain, crime that was stated to be negligible there - this also does not support the claims in the article.

With that in mind, I have removed the two sentences. If somebody wants to reintroduce similar claims, fine, but please, use sources without conflicts of interest that make specific claims. Kotlopou (talk) 11:10, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

Notable thefts - what is the lower limit of notable?
It seems that theft of millions of dollars can be pretty common every month nowadays. We might not want to list each and every such event. What is the minimum ballpark that should be mentioned? bkil (talk) 17:11, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

Financing terrorism
Are there any examples of crypto being used to finance terrorism or notable concerns about crypto being used to finance terrorism or other illegal activities? And would this fit within the scope of the article? This article now seems more focussed hacks and theft of cryptocurrency, but not the usage of cryptocurrency as an agent in real world crime.--Treehorn 1991 (talk) 20:35, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Expand article or create new one
I was interested in writing an article on cryptorelated scams and happened to stumble upon this one. I'm curious as to whether there are any objections on significantly expanding this article based on the literature I've been able to gather so far here or whether I should rather create a new one on cryptoscams specifically. Apart from rugpulls, ponzi schemes and other forms of scam or crime in general this or a new article could/should also cover (potential) methods of countering illicit activities of that sort both on a regulatory as well as purely technological level. There is ample literature on the subject, so both WP:N as well as WP:OR would be sufficiently served. Any opinions would be appreciated.--JasonKryptonite (talk) 16:00, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
 * A scam is analogous to a crime, so seems ok to include it here. No good reason to fork it in my opinion. Sometimes these research pieces are really quite close to OR, but I am guessing you know how to distinguish. any opinion on sourcing here? Thanks! Jtbobwaysf (talk) 10:00, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

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