Cryptocurrencies provide an excellent breeding ground for crime. In a 2019 article, researchers Sean Foley, Jonathan Karlsen and T lis Putni š estimated that 46% of bitcoin transactions made between January 2009 and April 2017 involved illegal activity.

While authorities are increasingly successful in tracing bitcoin transactions and (sometimes) seizing the spoils, the ability to make digital payments without financial intermediaries has facilitated the sale of illegal goods and services online and money laundering. silver. Moreover, there is no simple solution to prevent hackers from getting their hands on the data, because the computer protection systems that we use are both too complex and too riddled with weak points.

To deter cybercriminals from launching ransomware attacks, the solution may lie in preventing them from receiving the ransoms. Chinese authorities are trying to ban cryptocurrency payments and trading. But given the financial stakes, it seems unlikely that Washington will go down this path, at least not at first. On the other hand, there are measures that the American authorities could take to limit the interest of cryptocurrencies for commercial transactions or, at the very least, to increase their cost.