Crypto was created only for money laundering and other illegal activities!!! Truth or myth?!?!?

A big greeting to all my readers wherever they are!!!

Before we start processing and explaining today's topic, the first thing we should clarify is what money laundering is, in general, how it is done, who does it, with what goal, and in what way, and then we will be able to understand more easily how money is laundered using cryptocurrencies. So let's start in order and try to clarify the concept of money laundering.

Definition of money laundering

The definition of money laundering I found on Wikipedia:

"Money laundering is the process by which the proceeds of crime are converted into seemingly legitimate money or other assets".

Let's clarify this definition a bit. So, money laundering would be when we take some kind of money that was acquired through some criminal act, for example, selling drugs or prostitution, and try to "wash" that money from its criminal past, i.e. we try to hide the origin of the money and present it as if the money was acquired legally.  To do this and present that money as "honest" money acquired through legal means, there are various ways that criminals use. Their list is growing every day, because, with the progress of technology and the progress of society, the progress of crime also goes hand in hand, in all fields and so also on the financial side. The easier part, according to experienced criminals who have been caught and brought to justice, has always been to steal money or earn it illegally, while the hardest part is how to turn that money into legal money, i.e. "wash it" so that it can be spent, because it is very dangerous to spend "dirty money" since the police can easily track it down. Criminals have thousands of ways to do this, and we will mention only one of the examples here for an easier understanding of the material.

How?

Casino method of money laundering: In this method, an individual enters a casino with money and buys chips, plays for a while and spends very small, almost minor amounts of money, then cashes the chips and asks for a cash payout and just like that the money is "laundered", because he now represents it as winnings from gambling, which is an entirely legal way to earn money in some countries. So the origin of the money is hidden and it can now be spent without fear that someone will ask you where you got it from.

Here, concluding with this example, we have dealt with the question of "how", and now we will move on to the part of "who" deals with "money laundering".

Who?

As we mentioned before, money laundering is done by criminals, but not only and exclusively by criminals, because they often hire people from the financial sector, who are engaged in completely legal business, for their dirty work. However, drug cartels, arms dealers, large prostitution chains, bank robbers, and diamond smugglers, in fact, all the "big fish" from the criminal milieu, are most often involved in "money laundering". All of them are trying in every possible way to launder their illegal money and make it legal and ready for consumption.

With what goal?

I guess what the goal of money laundering would be is already partly clear from the text, but it will be best if we define and explain it.

Money is laundered to camouflage its origin and misrepresent it to the authorities and state financial institutions, all for one thing only, and that is to be able to spend that money without fear that the police will be able to track it down and discover his actual criminal background.

Cryptocurrencies were created for money laundering! Truth or myth?!?!

Let's move on to cryptocurrencies and clarify once and for all whether crypto was created only to be able to launder money and pay for some illegal activities or whether crypto still has a higher and nobler goal.

I have already read or heard several times on the Internet from people who are the biggest crypto critics and opponents that the only purpose of cryptocurrency is money laundering or paying for illegal activities on the Internet such as child pornography and that cryptocurrency is the biggest fraud ever invented, so let's analyze a little bit how much in there is truth to all that.

As many people already know, and those who move in the world of cryptocurrencies know it all, the first cryptocurrency that ever existed was Bitcoin, and its creator was a mysterious person or group of people called Satoshi Nakamoto. What did Nakamoto want to achieve by inventing digital currency? Did he want to launder money or cheat people?

I totally doubt all these statements, because Bitcoin, and later all other crypto-currencies, was invented with one very lofty goal, which would be to DECENTRALIZE MONEY AND TAKE THE POWER OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, LIKE BANKS, OVER THE LITTLE ORDINARY MAN AND GIVE THAT LITTLE ORDINARY MAN COMPLETE FINANCIAL FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FROM ALL CENTRAL FINANCIAL BODIES, ESPECIALLY BANKS. Read this definition carefully remember it well and never let anyone tell you otherwise: Even though in the world of cryptocurrencies there is money laundering, illegal activities, and various frauds, IS NO MORE THAN IN THE REAL WORLD AND OTHER PARTS OF SOCIETY, LIKE THE STOCK EXCHANGE OR BANKS!

The biggest crypto critics would have you think that those things only exist in the crypto world, but not in the real world, but that is one big lie and deception because crime is everywhere and there always will be, which does not mean that it should not be fought against. In fact, crime should be eradicated both in the real world and in the digital world!

Definition of money laundering through cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency money laundering is when illegally obtained money from the real or digital world is used to buy various crypto coins or NFTs through crypto exchanges to hide the real origin of the money.

Now let's start with our three questions "How, who, and for what purpose" and explain money laundering in the crypto.

How?

Someone who owns illegal money opens an anonymous account on one of the crypto exchanges with a low level of control and buys one or more cryptocurrencies for this "dirty money", then makes several transactions and transfers these coins from account to account and from one cryptocurrency to another and in the end, he sends all the crypto to an account that can be in another country where crypto regulation is very weak or non-existent. In the end, he converts all the crypto back into money like dollars or euros and pays himself or someone reliable on the account, and the tracks are covered and the money is laundered. But we will explain whether it is really that easy and whether the money cannot be traced a little later, and now we will go to the question of "who".

Who?

Who would be the criminals who launder money through crypto? The answer is similar to the previous one, but not the same.

So money is laundered through crypto by drug cartels, arms dealers, bank robbers, and diamond smugglers, but crypto is not only reserved for big fish from the criminal world, it can also be done by smaller criminals who have knowledge of the digital world or those who can hire someone with that knowledge. Here we must mention that hackers who steal money from crypto accounts must also launder that money, and those who steal large sums in crypto, and then blackmail crypto exchanges for large sums of money, must also launder the blackmail money. As you can see, a completely new criminal elite has emerged that rules the digital world of crime, namely HACKERS AND BLACKMAILERS. They don't need drugs, rifles, or pistols, just a good computer and an internet connection to commit a crime. The list of criminals in the crypto world has not decreased but increased, but with one important difference, which is that digital criminals must also have knowledge of the digital world, and with that the list of criminals becomes more specialized, and not everyone can be included in it.

With what goal?

Here the goal remains the same, which is to hide the origin of the money. Money is laundered to camouflage its origin and misrepresent it to the authorities and state financial institutions, all for one thing only, and that is to be able to spend that money without fear that the police will be able to track it down and discover his actual criminal background.

We promised you before that we would tell you if it is really that easy to hide your money trail using crypto transactions. The answer to this question would be a big NO and that's because every crypto connoisseur and advocate will tell you the same thing, which is that all crypto transactions are recorded in a so-called "Ledger" and every transaction is traceable. What would that mean? This would mean that a good financial forensics expert can, with just a little effort and knowledge of cryptocurrencies, trace every transaction, and thus trace the criminal who tried to hide and launder the money. Therefore, the myth that cryptocurrencies are only used for money laundering and illegal activities does not hold up at all, because already in the very essence of crypto, a code is embedded that indelibly records all transactions and thus destroys the theory that money can be hidden or laundered, which does not mean that some people won't try that. The success of this venture, i.e. money laundering, depends solely on the legal regulation of crypto in a particular country and the will and desire of state institutions to catch such persons and prevent them from illegal activities.

Final word

In the end, let's summarize and present my view of all this.

I think that there will always be a crime, both in the digital and in the real world, and as for the allegation that crypto serves only to hide criminal activities, it seems to me that this is complete nonsense and fabrication by the opponents of crypto and progress in general. Such views are expressed by people with only one goal, which is to maintain the status quo or the current state of affairs in the world of finance. Such people want the common man to never achieve his financial independence and remain forever a slave to banks, loans, and other so-called financial products that tighten and suffocate him like a noose and do not allow him to live even a little easier without daily worries about his existence and his poor financial situation. Today's man is already full of debts and interests that he inherited from his parents, and he struggles all his life to settle these debts, which the state itself created, and to try to create a better life for himself and his children. 

That fight so far looked hopeless, but a new hope for a better future appeared on the horizon, which is CRYPTO, and that's why we need to persevere in this fight for our own better life and ignore all quasi-experts and crypto critics and their distorted and false attempts to discriminate and falsely accuse everyone and everything that has to do with cryptocurrencies.

I greet you and until the next reading!

Neo77