An interesting article on Forbes for anyone who read recent media reports about the latest Mueller indictment of 13 Russian officials, saw the repeated references to how the accused used Bitcoin to fund their hacking/phishing operations, and thought: "Here we go with the anti-crypto narrative again." This article correctly observes that the very fact that prosecutors were able to trace the transactions demonstrates that coins like Bitcoin "may not be the best economic instrument for criminals."
"The 29-page indictment clearly outlines the concerted efforts carried out by Russians operatives, including such commonplace cyber threats as spear phishing, malware, spoofing, virtual private networks (VPN), social engineering, and the use of bitcoin as a means of payment. It is perhaps this last area, the use of bitcoin and the perception of anonymity the agents relied on, that left the clearest trails of their financial movements and wherewithal.
This much is shown in the indictment, which devotes substantial passages to outlining how bitcoin’s public blockchain registry served to trace back $95,000 and the perceived anonymity the perpetrators relied on. While the bitcoin blockchain does provide “identity shelter” in the form of pseudonymous addresses, it is nevertheless a highly traceable transaction registry, much more so than the U.S. dollar for example, which only triggers red flags at large transaction thresholds. These anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) rules in traditional banking also rely on often spotty compliance from a vast global banking network (one that is often culpable), wherein transactional information is stored in a one-sided manner and may be typically accessed through subpoena. The bitcoin blockchain by contrast is a public ledger and the movements of capital and their destinations, albeit in hashed digital addresses or wallets, are highly traceable, widely known and at a much lower transaction value. In effect, these properties enables law enforcement officials to quickly ring-fence a suspect transaction, set up trip wires and follow a veritable digital crumb trail if bitcoins are liquidated. This much held true in the WannaCry ransomware attack, where despite the vast ransom drag net, the cyber criminals only absconded with $65,000 worth of bitcoin.
While crypto crime fighting clearly taps a new set of forensic and technological approaches, such as Bitfury’s Crystal, the indictment, like the limited haul of the vast WannaCry ransomware attack, which spread to over 150 countries over a weekend affecting thousands of organizations, shows that bitcoin may not be the best economic instrument for criminals."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dantedisparte/2018/07/15/does-the-russian-indictment-exonerate-bitcoin/#7a6376ad418aThanks for sharing. I agree with this statement, “Bitcoin may not be the best economic instrument for criminals.”
