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_refugee_  ·  4022 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire

    is is meant for nefarious purposes (large drug deals, slavery, etc) and all the 'innocent' investors and legitimate uses only make it harder to nab the bad guys

So, I shouldn't have a gun because often times guns are used by bad guys And me having a gun makes it harder to identify the real bad guys? I shouldn't have a recreational amount of marijuana because bad guys carry drugs and by having drugs I potentially divert attention from the real bad guys? I shouldn't buy things off (for examples sake. I know it went down) the Silk Road like clothing or furniture or the other legal items that used to be available there because "the bad guys" use Silk Road too and I'm just making it harder for the authorities to identify who they are ?

I thnk not

Edit: Some more, better examples, generated when I wasn't still scratching the gunk out of my eyes this morning:

- craigslist missed connections/casual encounters/entire dating section are often used by sex workers to generate clientele! that's illegal! does that mean that no one should use this section so law enforcement can properly identify who's breaking the law?

- say that mostly criminals drive a certain type of car. I don't know. A Neon. Or a Gran Torino. Are you going to turn around and say that no one who is using a car for a legal purpose should buy either of these cars because "mostly bad guys" use them?

The essense of my point is this: If your "good guys" or law enforcement are so inept at properly identifying criminals that the only way for them to do so is for no one else to use a given product, then you need better "good guys." It's not appropriate to say "This is mostly used for crime, so therefore anyone who's not using it for crime should just not use it so we can find the criminals!" You need a much better law enforcement strategy than that - plus at that point you are advocating for usage of products to be banned or regulated just so we can catch "the bad guys." That's, frankly, ridiculous.