Cybersecurity in 2019: Ransomware up 41% in the US Alone, Average Decryption Price in December 2019 set at $190,946

[TheUn4seen]

Government has cracked down on spam calls that exploit old people, it still happens but not as frequent.

My argument is the same here, yeah it won't fix the problem, but it will reduce the amount overall, (...)

Not really. Drug and weapon sales, as well as human trafficking are still the most active parts of the global economy (growing steadily each year), and mainly use USD and EUR. What the governments do is often referred to as virtue signalling, since they don't really care and often indirectly benefit from such activities. And tricking old people into giving away money just moved to Facebook, nothing really changed.

You should take a stats class, perspective of ratios and percentages is important.

You see, here is the fun part, I actually spent a few years lrarning about statistical data analysis. So, in turn. I suggest you familiarize yourself with basic economy and scale of the global economy. All the bitcoins in the world wouldn't be enough to use for a year in the human trafficking business alone.

 

[TheUn4seen]

If all cryptocurrency was banned from use in marketplaces and exchanges ransomware would be less common. I know it will never happen since politicians barely know how to use an iphone, but eh.

So, i just checked.
I june 2019 the total supply of Bitcoin was 17,754,100, worth about 176 billion USD with today's rate. Human trafficking alone is a market generating 160 billion USD per year for traffickers, according to the ILO report from 2014. So, all of the BTC in the world would barely be enough for a year of human trafficking, let alone other criminal activities. Which is my point, currency is not the problem, bitcoins are just easier to use. I can guarantee you that if BTC didn't exist, people would have to pay ransom in form of mailing gold to a p.o. box in Ukraine. Bitcoin is, if anything, a convenience for the victims.

Also, according to the Business Insider, "ransomware generates over $25 million in revenue for hackers each year." This is a tiny niche, worth less than some companies spend on coffee.
As a bonus fact, according to the same report, only about half of ransoms are paid in cryptocurrencies. The rest is your USD/EUR, piped through countries where banking confidentiality is treated seriously.

 

[Wshlist]

I guess they really should set a stiff punishment for people trying to pay those assholes.