One of the biggest threats of our time is terrorism. This plague upon the modern world comes in many shapes and forms. Crypto terrorism is something relatively new and it’s something which should be looked at very seriously.
Some people believe that governments and government agencies are funding terrorist organizations around the globe. Whether or not you share these believes is not important. These organizations are enemies of humanity and whatever a person’s views on the government are, the main priority should be wiping them off the face of the Earth. Stopping them from acquiring funds is something, which any anti or pro government citizen should focus on.
According to the official press release of the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on September 7th, the United States Congress Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance has discussed terrorism funding via cryptocurrencies.
The hearing considered major means of fund transfers by terrorists, including traditional financial institutions. This also included semi-formal methods like the hawala exchange system and crypto terrorism.
Crypto terrorism is highly valued, but fortunately not successful in terrorist organizations
The meeting concluded that ISIS and Al-Qaeda in particular had major aspirations towards fundraising via crypto. Their attempts however, were largely unsuccessful.
According to Yaya Fanusie, the director of analysis for the Foundation for Defense of Demcracies (FDD), jihadists don’t have access to crypto. The majority of ISIS fighters live on battlefields, which offer no real chance to use cryptocurrencies and fiat is largely preferred. He also pointed out that anonymity is highly valued when it comes to funding terrorism. This is why fiat is the most popular and anonymous means of funding.
Fanusie also mentioned that there have been multiple examples of crypto funding campaigns to no avail. He emphasized on the importance of United States government bodies, which are responsible for finance investigation to be better prepared when it comes to crypto transactions. This will further eliminate the potential success of terrorist crypto funding campaigns.
This is not the first bill this year, which was aimed at crypto terrorism. On January 10th, Rep. Tedd Budd (R-NC) of the House Financial Services Committee introduced a bill aiming to fight terrorism via rewards. The bill proposed that any information, which will lead to convictions of crypto or crypto-supported terrorism, should be rewarded.
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