>While it is possible that as Bitcoin gains wider acceptance, terrorists can choose [it] ... it is by no means the magic bullet of terrorist financing some regulating bodies are purporting.
The article does a good job to back this claim up, but it fails to raise an even bigger point -- "Regulated" money in banks (like HSBC [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/hsbc-terrorists_n_4... ]) is regularly used to fund terrorism with zero consequences, and it's a theoretically legal and above-board bank.
Yeah check out this bit from the senate hearing on bitcoin where the head of the Treasuries financial crimes devision says cash is still the best way to launder money:
I have never understood concerns about bitcoin misuse.
We haven't abandoned cash because it is untraceable by the government, used for buying drugs, or otherwise involved in crime. The idea that because a digital currency COULD be developed with the tracking of its users inherent to its structure creates a moral obligation to utilize that structure is, pardon my language, fucking idiotic. Read a history book.
The article does a good job to back this claim up, but it fails to raise an even bigger point -- "Regulated" money in banks (like HSBC [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/hsbc-terrorists_n_4... ]) is regularly used to fund terrorism with zero consequences, and it's a theoretically legal and above-board bank.