<p>The most interesting part of the document isn't that long, as half of the pages explain some terminology and how Bitcoin works.</p>

<p>The main points made are:</p>

<ul>
<li>Bitcoin is the world's first decentralised currency, thus it is hard to audit and control it</li>
<li>Bitcoins can become popular among criminals as they offer a lot of anonymity</li>
<li>Bitcoins can be used to commit money laundering</li>
<li>It is very likely that people wanting to steal Bitcoins will target third-party services (such as exchanges), and users' wallets</li>
<li>It is hard to link user's identity to their Bitcoin address, but can be quite easy when they convert their Bitcoins into a fiat currency</li>
</ul>

<p>There are also a couple other, smaller points made and it is generally a good read. As a side note, the paper appears to have a small mistake on page 4 - listing Bitcoin's lowest price since the bubble as 4$, whereas it was <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/18/bitcoin-value-crash-cryptocurrency" rel="nofollow">as low as 2$ at some point</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-23T16:39:25.463Z
2012-05-23T17:33:44.583Z
2012-05-23T17:33:44.583Z
ThePiachu
<p>Also related: <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3766/the-context-of-fbi-involvement-with-bitcoin">The context of FBI involvement with Bitcoin</a></p>

<p>The <a href="http://cryptome.org/2012/05/fbi-bitcoin.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FBI document regarding Bitcoin</a> that <a href="http://betabeat.com/2012/05/14/fbi-that-bitcoin-report-was-authentic-but-it-wasnt-leaked-by-us/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">was leaked in May 2012</a> is very long. Is there a brief summary of the most important points somewhere?</p>

<history><legal>
What does the FBI think about Bitcoin, in brief?
Highly Irregular
# What does the FBI think about Bitcoin, in brief?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-05-23)

Also related: [The context of FBI involvement with Bitcoin](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3766/the-context-of-fbi-involvement-with-bitcoin)

The [FBI document regarding Bitcoin](http://cryptome.org/2012/05/fbi-bitcoin.pdf) that [was leaked in May 2012](http://betabeat.com/2012/05/14/fbi-that-bitcoin-report-was-authentic-but-it-wasnt-leaked-by-us/) is very long. Is there a brief summary of the most important points somewhere?

**Tags:** history, legal


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2012-05-23. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

The most interesting part of the document isn't that long, as half of the pages explain some terminology and how Bitcoin works.

The main points made are:

* Bitcoin is the world's first decentralised currency, thus it is hard to audit and control it
* Bitcoins can become popular among criminals as they offer a lot of anonymity
* Bitcoins can be used to commit money laundering
* It is very likely that people wanting to steal Bitcoins will target third-party services (such as exchanges), and users' wallets
* It is hard to link user's identity to their Bitcoin address, but can be quite easy when they convert their Bitcoins into a fiat currency

There are also a couple other, smaller points made and it is generally a good read. As a side note, the paper appears to have a small mistake on page 4 - listing Bitcoin's lowest price since the bubble as 4$, whereas it was [as low as 2$ at some point](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/18/bitcoin-value-crash-cryptocurrency).


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