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On 2016-03-24 02:15, spike wrote:<br>
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<div><span
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wouldn’t. But what about the slimeballs who locked
those hospitals’ files? Did they get away? Couldn’t
some commie get in cahoots with kidnappers here, make
money on bitcoin? Is it really untraceable? <o:p></o:p></span>
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<br>
The untraceability of bitcoin is debatable. Without mixing, the
blockchain actually is a tamperproof, distributed accounting ledger
of bitcoin transactions, so one would be able to find at least to
what anonymous accounts the money went. However, there are mixing
nodes that make it hard or impossible to follow an individual
bitcoin... in principle. I get the impression there are practical
limitations here. <br>
<br>
But the key practical limitation is that if the malware makers
reside in a country with a government that looks the other way
(especially for hacking stuff in countries they do not like anyway),
then traceability does not matter much. <br>
<br>
Kidnapping is harder to succeed with than locking files, since you
need to actually physically grab somebody, putting you in harm's
way. Digital crimes can also be automated so you don't have to work
so much. <br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University</pre>
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