Why is the Kremlin Suddenly Obsessed With Cryptocurrencies?- via Bill Browder tweet

[Leghorn21]

Putin and his people once threatened to jail bitcoin users. Now, they can’t get enough of the digital money.

Marc C. Johnson
MARC C. JOHNSON
08.05.17 12:01 AM ET

In early June, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The headline moment at the event was a wide-ranging and at times combative interview with Megyn Kelly. But Putin quietly made news in another way—he signaled an official volte-face on the issue of cryptocurrencies, digital financial instruments such as bitcoin.

As recently as a year ago, the Russian government had threatened to jail users of bitcoin for up to seven years. The Kremlin had also toyed with the idea of creating its own digital currency to compete with bitcoin. Many observers speculated that Russia would then make all other digital currencies illegal to force adoption of its coin.

But sometime last year, something changed. Perhaps the Kremlin realized that creating a proprietary “digital ruble” defeated the purpose of having a dispersed-ledger digital currency. Possibly they observed the huge sums of money being poured into blockchain technology by Silicon Valley, and resolved to make sure Russia didn’t get left behind when the technology became popular. (The blockchain is essentially a ledger with thousands of copies that gets updated every time a transaction takes place.)

Or maybe they just woke up to the vast array of possibilities that cryptocurrencies could offer in the service of money laundering.

more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/why-is-the-kremlin-suddenly-obsessed-with-cryptocurrencies?via=newsletter&source=Weekend

...This is looking to be a Really Big Deal in the very near future

[sharedvalues]

1. Money laundering

[Leghorn21]

2. Totally. And I don't have the imagination to comprehend what it might mean in the context of

this mobsterized new world we're in, shared. But it would seem that the days of busting criminal enterprises the way we do now will become obsolete...and I wonder what will happen to the little people like me who have a checking account with a little cash in it - ? I.e., the "unrich" - - Will money be moved so freely - and invisibly - as to - slowly (or quickly) take over the world? Will armies of mercenaries be paid "invisibly" and quietly mobilized against all the little people like me, in a flash, in a heartbeat?

I know - always the optimist here!

[uponit7771]

8. +1

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Hmmmm, verily, tis a mystery.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-russia-sanctions-20170802-story.html

[TheBlackAdder]

4. Graphics Cards are going in short supply, being scarfed up by cryptocurrency miners.

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Check out this article, and search for others similar on the web. There is massive pilferage going on.


http://www.tomshardware.com/news/graphics-cards-prices-mining-cryptocurrency,34879.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/gpu-prices-increase-ethereum-cryptocurrency,34865.html


These theves are building servers with up to a dozen high-performance graphics cards in them, with numerous cores, strictly for the purpose of trying to crack the codes of these currencies and steal other people's money.

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[mathematic]

5. It sounds like you misunderstand cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency miners are not pilfering, thieving, or hacking. There's nothing illegitimate about it. In fact, miners are part of the process and they insure the integrity of the cryptocurrency.

They use these graphics cards to run extensive calculations that ultimately result in new currency being created and granted to the miner. They are actually the ones creating the "codes" that you refer to and for this earn currency.

[TheBlackAdder]

7. There are multiple ways to hack cryptocurrency, forks only prevent some of them.

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While mining sounds great on the surface, the hardware and power investments rarely pay for the rigs. That's why most try to use bots and distributed installations, a sort of scam to install these things to help charities (which never receive any money). These guys aren't spending 1/4th to 1/2 of a person's average yearly income in Russia and 3 times their income in less wealthy nations on a chance that they might be the one of the hundreds of thousands of mining coops that actually get rewarded. Many are building these rigs to test for weaknesses and vulnerabilities.



https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/21/11985832/ethereum-cryptocurrency-dao-theft-fork-buterin

http://www.pcgamer.com/hackers-steal-34-million-in-second-ethereum-cryptocurrency-theft-his-week/

https://qz.com/710126/a-massive-79-million-heist-just-happened-and-its-threatening-the-future-of-blockchains/


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There's even a redirection of IP traffic to use miners as unwitting mules to carry the loads for the thieves:

https://www.wired.com/2014/08/isp-bitcoin-theft/


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Now, if someone enters into mining as legit, which most do, that bubble is about to burst, leaving them holding the bag.


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[Achilleaze]

6. All your moneybucks are belong to bitcoin, Inc. (R)