Why don't corrupt officials use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for bribery?

Bitcoin is also not secure. The safest case is a leader in Zhuzhou, Hunan, who only takes care of the businesses of trusted friends and brothers, without accepting money. He only mentions that when he retires, he might need their help and will take care of them accordingly, without specifying exact amounts.

Therefore, many projects are directed towards him, but ultimately investigations found no money exchanged, resulting at most in some verbal warnings.

His problem is that after retirement, when these brothers and friends give him money, he travels around the world continuously for 3-5 years. This behavior was too conspicuous and was eventually discovered by the disciplinary commission.

Imagine if, after retirement, he didn't do such things—just took small trips or only gave money to the next generation when he was about to die—that would be much harder to detect.

Or, this money could be intended for the next generation. Having been a leader all his life, he has enjoyed everything he wanted; he doesn't spend it himself. When he's about to die, he gives it to the next generation—how can that be checked?

Because those who are willing to give money to his friends and brothers after retirement are very trustworthy—they wouldn't report him because they could simply choose not to give him anything. Since he's already retired and has no way to enforce it.

It can also be made more secure—very simple. For example, I could give my government’s IT projects to the telecom operators, and I could recognize a certain leader within the operator, so he often gets large projects and gets promoted quickly. The projects are strictly not given to private companies. As for whom the operator leader gives the projects to, I don't care.

But inside the telecom operator, there are very profitable businesses, such as SP (Service Providers), relay services, internal IT infrastructure, equipment procurement, or relatives and friends wanting to work at the operator.

At this point, you can simply tell the operator leader that you have a friend interested in doing some business with them. Would they refuse? These arrangements don't need to be formalized, and there's no way to investigate. It's a matter of mutual face—an understanding that can't be openly expressed.

Then, combining this with the delayed acceptance after retirement I mentioned earlier makes it even harder to detect, because the corrupt official's friends earn money from telecom business, not from government projects.

In this process, you are bound to make mistakes—if the other side refuses, there's nothing you can do. But since they've been a leader for so long, they probably aren't bad at judging people, and there are definitely grateful people who understand reciprocation.