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Bitcoin Is The Most Common Currency Employed In All Tor Hidden-Services Trade – Report

Since its inception, bitcoin has been growing at a fast rate, with more and more individuals and businesses accepting the digital currency as a payment mechanism. However, it is also true that several countries have taken anti-bitcoin stance, with many banning its use. These countries cite the potential of Bitcoin to be used for money laundering and terrorism financing purposes as the key reason behind their decision.

A latest study conducted by two professors at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London found that bitcoin is still the preferred digital currency for conducting a wide range of transactions in The Onion Router, or Tor, network, that makes it difficult to track the activity of online users, CoinDesk reported.

The report, entitled "Cryptopolitik and the Darknet”, has been authored by Thomas Rid, King's College professor and technology author, and Daniel Moore, a cyber-threat intelligence engineer in the Department of War Studies.

The study accessed about 300,000 web addresses within the Tor hidden-services network, thereby identifying 5,205 live websites, out of which 2,723 were classified as illicit with a “high degree of confidence.”

The results were classified into 12 categories including arms, drugs and finance. The report said that the financial category comprised primarily three prominent subcategories:

  • Bitcoin-based methods for money laundering
  • Trade in illegally obtained credit cards and stolen accounts
  • Trade in counterfeit currency

“Many of the sites we examined offered services for laundering money through Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the most common currency employed in all Tor hidden-services trade, often via reliance on third-party escrow services to alleviate concerns stemming from anonymous, unverifiable transactions between two unscrupulous parties. As Bitcoin transactions can be monitored even if not easily de-anonymised, however, services to blur the trail of Bitcoins have proliferated as well, for a nominal transaction fee”, the report said.

It went on to cite an example where coin-mixing services such as CleanCoin promises that users will receive Bitcoins that originate from a number of different transactions and wallet addresses, making it “almost impossible” for someone to track wallet activity.

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