If you have not heard of or understand cryptocurrencies, you are not alone; but that had better change. Cryptocurrencies — a technology whose time seems to have come — has grown significantly as of late. The total dollar value of all cryptocurrencies exceed the gross domestic product of all but 84 countries in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook. That means the total value of all cryptocurrencies exceed the GDP of 145 individual countries, based on the CIA World Factbook! While many have not heard of or understand cryptocurrencies, you had better take notice — that is for sure! This is a powerful technology whose ramifications mandate that military, intelligence organizations and law enforcement must monitor and understand it.

According to Investopedia, a cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature. A defining feature of a cryptocurrency, and arguably its most endearing allure, is its organic nature; it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

You can track the cumulative total U.S. dollar value of each individual cryptocurrency and the sum of all 863 individual cryptocurrencies using this online source.

About six weeks ago, the delivery of a cryptocurrency training webinar attracted a few thousand professional participants worldwide and was highly rated. That is a clear indicator of the interest in this subject matter, for sure. It is extremely difficult to calculate the military and intelligence ramifications.That being said, one has to wonder how much human trafficking, illegal drugs sales, arms sales, militia financing and terrorist activity support is represented in the figures above. One has to wonder about the cryptocurrency dollar value on the dark web. It is surely a national security issue!

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