Lately I have seen another news of some kidnappers demanding ransom in bitcoin. Then the family seems to be really bought $1.7M worth of BTC (about 5.5k BTC as my estimate). This would be one of the reason for the recent price increase ($1.7M is a lot of money!). However medias keep spreading false information on bitcoin, like stating 'bitcoin is using widely in criminals' etc.
So how do you think? Does the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
This is a very controversial question and it is mainly an ethical matter than an economic one. If it will be handled only as economical one for sure make good. The big demand rise the price of bitcoin and this show and strength the power of it. But if we go further and see for what this bitcoin is used and who buy it then the things changes. That big amount of bitcoin is bought by a criminal (or some of those) and its use (or even part of it) will be for sure used by this criminal (or criminals) for bad purposes (even if it will be used only to feed him or those). In this kind of view the opinions are divided. Some people don't care about this second part of interpretation and think that their action do good to bitcoin. The seconds ones, which put in balance what is right and what is wrong and then decide choosing the right, think that their action do bad to bitcoin making the others to think that bitcoin is used mostly by the criminals and for doing bad things. I'm part of the second group.