The FBI is scared...and they should be.

Is $8.7 billion a large enough budget?

Not quite...

As many have suggested, the FBI is joining other regulators and lawmakers in jumping on the crypto bandwagon. On June 21st, the Director of the FBI submitted a budget request for 2018 that included $21m and 80 new employees for combatting cyber crime.

Specifically, the agency referenced $21.6 million to combat something they term the 'Going Dark Initiative'...

If this sounds like a Crypto Noir novel, you're right.

I decided to dig a little further into this sexy new budget line item.

It didn't take long to find a clever little bit of propaganda designed to illicit subconscious shrieks of fear in the hearts of fine law abiding Americans everywhere.

In the FBI Operational Technology publications, this image is used when describing the 'Going Dark' problem...

(Argh! The dreaded unplugged ethernet cable! Shocking!)

They go on to describe the scope of their problem:

"Law enforcement faces two distinct Going Dark challenges. The first concerns real-time court-ordered interception of data in motion, such as phone calls, e-mail, text messages, and chat sessions. The second challenge concerns “data at rest”—court-ordered access to data stored on devices, like e-mail, text messages, photos, and videos. Both real-time communications and stored data are increasingly difficult for law enforcement to obtain with a court order or warrant. This is eroding law enforcement’s ability to quickly obtain valuable information that may be used to identity and save victims, reveal evidence to convict perpetrators, or exonerate the innocent."

https://www.fbi.gov/services/operational-technology/going-dark

The most interesting line in the article refers to their growing problem with encryption...

"Make no mistake, the FBI supports strong encryption, and we know firsthand the damage that can be caused by vulnerable and insecure systems."

What are the primary threats they use to scare the audience? The usual...

Terrorists
Criminals
Child Predators

James Comey, on May 2, went as far as to tie crypto currency directly to the most hated of all criminals, Online Pedophiles...

“Some of our criminal investigators face the challenge of identifying online pedophiles who hide their crimes and identities behind layers of anonymizing technologies, or drug traffickers who use virtual currencies to obscure their transactions,” Comey reveals.

What can we expect in the future, and what does this mean for fans of Cryptocurrency?

Certainly this is just the beginning. Government agencies seeking increased budgets will seek out high profile cases in which cryptocurrencies were used. Most likely by terrorists. They will then work to scare up more budget, and use their influence wherever possible to get access to private data.

As an American, I am already severely limited in my ability to register for many exchanges or deposit US dollars.

Here is a list that currently do not support US buyers:

BTCC
Bitfinex
Bitpanda
Wirex

This trend will likely continue as the government seeks to increase the difficulty and stop the spread of crypto growth...

For speculators this is concerning. Mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrency is skyrocketing, but if exchanges and ecommerce businesses are deterred from accepting crypto, the effects will be felt and growth will be hindered to some degree.