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It's not fully anonymous even WITH crypto. They have call centers. Banning crypto won't make ransomware go away, it will just increase the cost of ransom.

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> Banning crypto won't make ransomware go away, it will just increase the cost of ransom.

That must be why ransomware demands were so much higher in the pre-bitcoin era. Unless you're including the cost of sending a cargo jet full of cash or gold halfway around the world?

Before bitcoin was still the early days of ransomware. It existed mostly as tech support scams. Now that the floodgates have been opened ransoms will go back to being high-risk western union payments and will be much higher. You can't put the cat back in the bag.

This is laughably naive. Western Union payments are high-risk for the ransomer, since they have to go pick the money up. Also, Western Union has pretty low limits on how much you can send ($10K for US->US transfers, less for international transfers). Getting a million dollars (a low ransom in today's ecosystem) via Western Union would require at least 100 pickups, each of which comes with a risk of getting arrested.

There is a reason ransom amounts skyrocketed when cryptocurrency entered the picture, and no, it's not because it was "the early days" pre-bitcoin.

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