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Offering average people an alternative to established financial systems is one of the main goals behind the introduction of cryptocurrencies. Notwithstanding these noble objectives, there have been serious ethical dilemmas brought about by bad actors who exploit the good intentions behind cryptocurrency. Join us as we explore some of the good intentions and bad actors in the cryptocurrency space in this article.
Crypto’s Well-Intentioned Goals
These are the noble goals of cryptocurrency that support its creation and continued existence.
1. Fostering economic growth
The promotion of economic growth is one of the noble goals of cryptocurrency. The economies of many countries have been plagued for some time by problems related to economic growth including financial inclusion, efficiency, and innovation. By promoting financial inclusion, transaction cost reduction and speed improvement, transparency and trust, capital access, monetary sovereignty, innovation and economic prospects, and data security and privacy, cryptocurrency tackles these problems.
Furthermore, a significant factor in promoting economic growth is the innovation present in the crypto ecosystem. These breakthroughs include facilitating DeFi, tokenization of assets, international trade, economic activity and job creation, adoption of blockchain technology, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
Noteworthy is the fact that the beneficial effects of this growth on the world economy will probably increase as technologies and regulatory frameworks advance. This will bolster the argument for cryptocurrencies’ revolutionary potential.
2. Resilience against inflation
Inflation is one of the main issues that nations throughout the world are currently dealing with. Unlike fiat currencies, the value of the dominant cryptocurrencies tends to go up over time.
By providing an alternative with a gradually increasing value, cryptocurrency aims to offer resilience against inflation. A stable supply, deflationary pressure, protocol trust, worldwide accessibility, hedging tools, improved mobility, and long-term value storage are some of the advantages for those seeking to escape fiat currency inflation.
3. Financial inclusion
The goal of financial inclusion is to guarantee that people and companies have access to financial services and products that are appropriate for their requirements, reasonably priced, and provided in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.
Enabling universal access to financial products and services, whether in developed or undeveloped areas, is one of the noble goals of cryptocurrency. The goals are to remove obstacles to conventional banking systems, offer services that are accessible and reasonably priced, empower small businesses, improve remittances, encourage financial literacy, and support economic resilience. The public can now easily buy Bitcoin with cash in person thanks to this financial inclusion.
4. Decentralization
Decentralization is the practice of distributing power, functions, and procedures away from a central location or body using specific principles. These principles include peer-to-peer networks, consensus techniques, and distributed ledger technology (DLT).
One of the main goals of cryptocurrency is to distribute power among a group of users instead of depending, as traditional financial systems do, on a single central authority. Blockchain technology is used to do this. The public gains a great deal from this. These benefits include a decrease in censorship and corruption, improved security and resilience, personal empowerment, creativity and adaptability, and worldwide accessibility.
Unscrupulous Crypto Profiteers
The following explains the malicious actors’ motivations in the crypto landscape.
1. Regulation dodgers
Different kinds of regulation evaders exist for cryptocurrencies. These consist of evading compliance, tax evasion, and jurisdiction shopping. These evaders establish their businesses in countries where there is little regulatory scrutiny or where the laws pertaining to blockchains and cryptocurrencies are unclear. The mechanisms leveraged by them are jurisdiction shopping, regulatory evasion, and exploitative practices.
Regulation dodgers’ actions have some side effects that go against the noble goals of cryptocurrency. These effects include undermining regulatory efforts, raising the risk of financial crime, regulatory backlash, market instability, ethical and legal problems, and an impact on innovation.
Every user, exchange, and governmental agency must collaborate to resolve regulation evasion difficulties. The goals of this alliance are to promote global cooperation, cross-border legal consistency, improved enforcement, public-private collaborations, and technology advancements.
2. Money launderers
Malicious actors use some of the characteristics of cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges to their advantage when it comes to money laundering. Pseudonymous potential, mixing services, privacy coins, and exchanges with lax KYC/AML standards are some of the features. Mostly, the tools used in crypto money laundering are mixers and tumblers, privacy coins, decentralized exchanges, chain hopping, and cross-border transactions.
Money laundering operations have a detrimental effect on the noble goals of cryptocurrency by encouraging certain procedures. These include the promotion of illegal conduct, regulatory oversight as a reaction, harm to the reputation of the sector, elevated security threats, and regulatory obstacles.
It is possible to successfully mitigate the problem of money laundering by putting certain procedures into place. Implementing technical solutions, industry collaboration, international cooperation, and regulatory frameworks are some of these measures. These remedies will severely restrict the actions of money launderers.
3. Cybercriminals and hackers
Hackers and other people engaged in cybercrimes are another negative force influencing cryptocurrency aspirations. These individuals profit from the weaknesses in cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges while seriously harming consumers and platforms.
Different kinds of cyberattacks exist. These consist of exploits for smart contracts, ransomware, phishing and social engineering, exchange hacking, and crypto jacking. Every one of these categories affects the cryptocurrency ecosystem differently. All in all, the effects of these cyberattacks include market instability, regulatory scrutiny, financial loss for cryptocurrency users, and a decline in the reputation and trust of exchanges.
Exchanges, governments, and cryptocurrency inventors can all take steps to counteract the consequences of cybercriminals. Developing stronger regulatory frameworks, providing decentralized solutions, enhancing security procedures, educating users, and creating efficient incident response and recovery programs are some of these actions.
Conclusion
The noble goals of cryptocurrency are focused on helping the population as a whole. However, the bad actors present significant difficulties and have an impact on how the public views cryptocurrencies. The strategies discussed in this article are effective at decreasing the negative consequences of bad actors. In addition to these tactics, the government must correctly carry out its duties. The general public should also be informed and empowered.
