After the latest "ransomware" attacks, in which hackers exploit known vulnerabilities in operating systems (known at least by the NSA), and given that most ransomware attacks are blamed on cryptocurrencies, one has to wonder why is the focus so much on cryptocurrencies instead of the incentives?
To be clear, I'm not talking about this case in particular - where the focus is more on the NSA rather than cryptocurrencies, but generally speaking it's always about a story that paints bitcoin in a negative light because bad hackers, who want this evil currency, go after hospitals, patient data, etc etc - which is a very damaging narrative.
Having said that, the incentive to blackmail is based on the possibility that the hacker can gain money. If it was made illegal to pay for ransomware attacks, then the incentive for such attacks should be eliminated.
If you can't blackmail a government or a corporation, because they are prohibited by law to pay the hacker, then the attack is dead-on-arrival (DOA).
But then how would they blame cryptocurrencies... right?