[E. Pluribus Unum]

THIS is why there is a demand for cryptocurrencies like BitCoin.

[palmer]

Actually I think the demand for Bitcoin comes mainly from extortion. I've been watching numerous addresses that have $800 (most popular amount) of payments being made to them. Average of 10 payments to the address from the many thousands of extortion emails sent out.

The payments are demanded from extortionists using, mainly, the stolen passwords from LinkedIn from over 10 years ago. But the bitcoin addresses are being reused in the extortion emails. Therefore people sending the money are merely sending money to a scam, there's no way the senders can be traced because it's all being sent to one address (although the address does change from time to time).

Would not surprise me if the extortionists are simply making up the address as they change the text of the extortion email to avoid spam filters. Then the money is being sent to addresses with no private key. The money (like the majority of Bitcoin) can never be redeemed and spent on anything. That also drives the price up.