A GUIDE FOR FINANCIAL FRAUD INVESTIGATION & PRECAUTION - SHIVANI SHARMA (i love reading books .TXT) 📗
- Author: SHIVANI SHARMA
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15)Criminal activity:-The use of bitcoin by criminals has attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, law enforcement, and the media.In the United States, the FBI prepared an intelligence assessment, the SEC issued a pointed warning about investment schemes using virtual currencies, and the U.S. Senate held a hearing on virtual currencies in November 2013.
Several news outlets have asserted that the popularity of bitcoins hinges on the ability to use them to purchase illegal goods.[104]HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin" In 2014, researchers at the University of Kentucky found "robust evidence that computer programming enthusiasts and illegal activity drive interest in bitcoin, and find limited or no support for political and investment motives".
16)In popular culture
A)Academia:-In September 2015, the establishment of the peer-reviewed academic journal Ledger (ISSN 2379-5980) was announced. It will cover studies of cryptocurrencies and related technologies, and is published by the University of Pittsburgh.HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin"The journal encourages authors to digitally sign a file hash of submitted papers, which will then be timestamped into the bitcoin blockchain. Authors are also asked to include a personal bitcoin address in the first page of their papers.HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin"]HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin"
B)Film:-The documentary film, The Rise and Rise of HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Rise_of_Bitcoin"Bitcoin (late 2014), features interviews with people who use bitcoin, such as a computer programmer and a drug dealer.
Literature.In Charles HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stross"Stross' science fiction novel, Neptune's Brood, "bitcoin" (a modified version) is used as the universal interstellar payment system.HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin"]HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
C)Television:-In November 2017, the American sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, dedicated an episode on bitcoins called "The HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bitcoin_Entanglement"BitcoinHYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bitcoin_Entanglement" Entanglement". In the episode, after hearing the price of a bitcoin had risen to $5,000, friends try to track down bitcoins they mined seven years earlier.
17)WHY SHOULD BITCOINS BE LEGAL?
⦁ ANS) This is neither the purpose of Bitcoin nor how it works. The point of Bitcoin is not to bypass governments - it’s to bypass banks. Bitcoin is a way to allow people to transfer value in a peer-to-peer fashion without having to trust, to depend on and to pay middlemen like banks and financial services companies. Its transactions are absolutely not untraceable; on the contrary, Bitcoin works through a decentralized, tamper-proof public ledger. Any transaction from the beginning of the system can be inspected, and funds movements between addresses can always be traced as accurately and as far as needed, by anyone.
What can be said is that Bitcoin offers a measure of anonymity, but it is not even really its purpose; Bitcoin is not especially designed to provide strong anonymity, and it doesn’t if you don’t take additional precautions. The fact that it can be anonymous is simply a consequence of bypassing banks. After all, your bank account number is anonymous too; what links it to your identity is that your bank knows your identity and required that you provide proof of identity, of address, etc. when you opened the account. They mostly to that to protect themselves (prevent you from scamming or swindling them somehow) and yourself (prevent someone else from taking your money). Since with Bitcoin everyone can be its own bank, there is neither need nor cause to do that.Bitcoin largely evade government regulation for the same reason : governments don’t directly regulate financial transactions, they regulate banks and finance companies, which must abide by the law. I agree Bitcoin is largely used for illegal activities, but I sincerely thinks it never was designed to do so, and its foremost interests as an experiment and alternative money system have nothing to do with it.
Bitcoin is decentralized, works in a peer to peer way, and does not requires much bandwidth (unlike, for example, peer to peer file transfer). It is technically difficult to block such a system. Sure, you can make it illegal, but by definition people using it for illegal applications don’t care that it’s illegal :) And on the other hand…Bitcoin also has legitimate applications and is at the core of a (modest, but growing) economic ecosystem, including startups, exchanges, miners, retailers, etc. which would be destroyed if you make Bitcoin illegal.
18)WHY bit-coin should not be allowed?
Ans)
A)The cryptocurrency will fuel laundering of black money and financing of terrorism. It will render monetary policy ineffective
Compelling arguments have been made to justify the existence and use of bitcoin. The currency has caught on in a number of countries to the extent that there are indicative exchange rates for bitcoin in almost all currencies in the market.However, for a nation that has launched an outright war against black money, which could also have meant compromising growth in the short run through demonetisation, allowing cryptocurrency (CC) would be a contradictory act. The concept of bitcoin has caught on in the world and there is evidence of its use in India, too. Also, the start of a new currency of a similar variety cannot be ruled out; hence, it is necessary to take a stance on the same..CC is a currency created from nowhere through intricate software which is foolproof. A certain sum is created independent of any central bank which is then allotted based on demand for a price which is fixed externally. A bitcoin trades at around ₹2.5 lakh and would be equal to around $3,800 or €3,200.
The advantage is that it works on algorithms and is not connected to how central banks and countries function and the ownership is anonymous. The fact that it is accepted by sellers is critical here and hence can be used seamlessly independent of monetary policies being pursued. Defenders claim it is some kind of an alternative asset like land or stocks and is legitimate (can be taxed in some jurisdictions as capital gains).
Many reasons to say ‘no’
The reasons that were given in support of demonetisation can be extended to not allowing CC in the country. Black money can proliferate easily with the use of a CC. People can automatically convert all earnings in dollars outside the country into a CC which can be used within the country or even outside where it is accepted. Drug money would get the biggest boost as it would be impossible to capture these transactions.Second, terror funding becomes easy once it is accepted as medium of exchange and the entire exercise of demonetisation would be defeated by allowing such parallel currencies to run. Third, counterfeiting was another strong reason put forward for removing high denomination notes from the financial system. If CC is permitted it is akin to the use of counterfeit currency, as transactions would take place in currency which is not recognised by the central bank. Therefore, in the context of the attack on black money, CC definitely not find space in the financial architecture of any country.
From the economic standpoint, CC makes no sense. A currency carries value because it is issued by a central bank on behalf of the government and the latter promises to pay the bearer the sum written on the currency. The moment one moves into the realm of CC there is no guarantor. In fact, given that no one has seen the face of the creator of bitcoin it is hard to even trace the same to the source. In a system of barter, which is still in force in some rural areas where payment is made in kind especially with respect to farm products, there is a physical back-up for the transaction. In the case of CC, it runs on the basis of mutual acceptance and trust.
RBI becomes ineffective
More importantly, monetary policy loses meaning once a CC comes into the frame. Economies run on the basis of a currency which serves as a medium of exchange. Hence the rupee is used for making transactions and the RBI through various measures attempts to control the supply of the same. This ensures macroeconomic stability. Hence if there is excess demand due to credit creation, then the RBI’s interest rate or open market operations can influence the overall demand conditions. Once a CC comes in, demand is unhinged from monetary conditions as long as CC is accepted by both the parties. Hence, it would make monetary policy weak and as a corollary, government policies would become ineffective as CC gains importance.It may be recollected that in the 1980s there was an acute shortage of coins of low denomination in Mumbai. This had led to the use of BEST (Mumbai’s bus transport run by the state) tickets as change. Hence, tickets for 10 (it did exist at that time!), 25, 50 paise and ₹1 were used as a mode of transaction even in restaurants. This did raise considerable controversy. The RBI was unhappy with this substitute as it violated the principle of the central bank being the only authority to issue currency.
Today, regulation ensures that there are limits to which one has access to foreign exchange and all transactions carried out by the people have an audit trail. Using CC will be destabilising. Further, with the government working towards extracting money from Swiss accounts, creating another window for CC would be self-defeating.Curiously, the exchange rates that can be viewed for the bitcoin roughly translate to the existing exchange rates prevalent in the market with a deviation of (+) (-)2.5 per cent (such as $3800 to ₹2.5 lakh). If this were so, then given that the government and RBI have put structures in place to foster electronic mode of transactions, for the country it would make such a currency irrelevant. If one can deal in CC, then the same could be done through the existing electronic mode.
Hence on all counts, allowing CC cannot be justified. It should not be considered, and should also be made illegal. If one wants ease of electronic payments, this has been accomplished by the government/RBI. Allowing such a currency will generate black money. And most importantly, the central bank will lose its control over the medium of exchange in the country as well as monetary policy formulation, which is the clinching argument against allowing cryptocurrency.
The writer is Chief Economist at CARE Ratings. The views are personal
19)7 reasons why you should not invest in bitcoins, cryptocurrencies :-
1. Extreme volatility:-Investing in cryptocurrencies involves very high risk, as prices have been extremely volatile. Many experts are sceptical about bitcoin as an investment primarily because there is nothing for them to analyse. Vivek Belgavi, Partner and Fintech Leader, PwC says, “There isn’t enough of an ecosystem surrounding bitcoins to allow fundamental analysts to study it as an investment. People are therefore investing with imperfect information and joining the herd ..
2. Neither commodity, nor currency:-The lack of clarity about its origin is another big issue related to bitcoin. In olden days, highly priced metals like gold, silver, etc. were used as currencies. Then came currencies printed by governments (or central banks) and these are called ‘fiat currencies’. Though its proponents claim that cryptocurrency is ‘mined’ using complex mathematical formulae, they are reluctant to call it a commodity. They also claim that it is not controll ..
3. Don’t invest if you don’t understand:-Some global bankers and experts have warned investors against investing in cryptocurrencies, because they are of the opinion that it is nothing but a bubble that is just about ready to burst. Jamie Dimon, CEO, JP Morgan, for instance, has recently expressed his doubts about the value of bitcoins, saying “It’s worse than tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going
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