Bitcoin Won't Be the Dark Web's Top Cryptocurrency For Long

Bitcoin has essentially become the poster child for cryptocurrencies, and that's a problem for cybercriminals dealing on the dark web. From a report: Researchers from Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company, looked through 150 of the dark web's top marketplaces and forums and found that bitcoin's boom is driving shady characters away from the cryptocurrency. The rise of bitcoin has brought cryptocurrency -- digital alternatives to government-issued money -- to the mainstream, enticing people who are looking to get rich quick. Last December, bitcoin hit its all-time high at nearly $20,000, but it has since slumped and as of Thursday is trading at a little over the $8,000 mark. But before it was a massive investment that millionaires bought, it was the dark web's currency of choice, thanks to its decentralized and anonymous structure.

Nothing to do with transaction fee..

[ZiakII]

I'm sure it has nothing to do with transaction fee costing anywhere from $5 to $50 in the past 3 months.

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[higuita]

THIS!!

also, with the value always climbing, everyone wanted to keep the bitcoins for a few more weeks, so they value would increase... now they do not want to sell because they are probably losing money and spend it is still to expensive

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[turbotalon]

Sorry, transaction fees are currently in the $1 range.

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[Bob-Bob Hardyoyo]

My last one just yesterday was closer to $2.50, so no, they aren't.

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[91degrees]

Which is more than any other crypto-currency, and it fluctuates pretty wildly.

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[Hal_Porter]

Exactly. When you're doing Dark Web stuff $50 non negligible amount of money. You could pay a crackhead to bumrape someone for that, or buy some heroin or get a Saturday night special. Or half to two thirds of a pony.

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[Hal_Porter]

XPP - Partial Pony has been volatile recently.

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[Artemis3]

Funny you made that comment just when the fees went back down [earn.com], and soon Lighning.Network [gaben.win] will put a definitive end to the problem.

Unlike other coins (and fiat), Bitcoin actually leaves more traces for authorities to track. Darkcoin (renamed Dash) and a few others are trying to address that.

These could be important if a government, such as China, becomes hostile to cryptocurrencies.

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[guyniraxn]

As mentioned in the FA.

Not Anonymous

[XXongo]

"...the dark web's currency of choice, thanks to its decentralized and anonymous structure."

Decentralized, yes, anonymous... not quite so much.

Every single transaction of bitcoin is recorded, and the record stored in the blockchain. It's "anonymous" nature relies on you keeping your bitcoin wallet isolated from your identity. Which may be possible. Or, with enough sorting through transactions and linking transactions to actual individuals, may not be.

Re:Not Anonymous

[MikeDataLink]

Or, with enough sorting through transactions and linking transactions to actual individuals, may not be.

THIS! People think cryptocurrency is a way to trade money secretly and anonymously. And it can be, but the fact remains that if you use the same wallet over and over and don't take precautions to remain secret you will be found.

This is no different that the drug dealer who gets caught by the IRS for owning 20 Ferrari's and only reporting 10K of income. It takes work to remain anonymous and launder your money.

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[mysidia]

And it can be, but the fact remains that if you use the same wallet over and over and don't take precautions to remain secret you will be found.

Yeah.... that's what I expect will eventually drive certain groups to coins such as AEON and MONERO; which conceals what the address is that receives coins; You need a wallet's View-Key to even see what the balance of a particular wallet is..... whereas with Bitcoin; you can see all the transactions related to any wallet, and you can see the balan

Monero

[ArchieBunker]

Maybe you should read up on Monero. It was designed to be anonymous.

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[Anonymous Coward]

With all the money government intel and law-enforcement agencies are putting into connecting the dots, Bitcoin is a big honking trap. It not just help finds scofflaws, but proving that someone did a transaction by showing how secure the blockchain is, makes convictions inevitable.

This makes me wonder who Satoshi was. The fact that early adopters received a lot of perks (cash for transactions, ease of mining without specialized hardware), while the people coming in have a substational equipment and energy

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[sdinfoserv]

I was going to make this same point, but you beat me to it... It does however beg the question, if every single illegal transaction is track able (which it is via blockchain) , and authorities know exactly where illicit proceeds are sitting, ie, which wallet, why are cyber criminals still not in jail?

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[houstonbofh]

They can trace the money, but may not be able to tie it to a specific person. All they know is that this address (who we think is bob) paid this address (that is associated with EliteHackor) on this date.

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[AHuxley]

Re 'why are cyber criminals still not in jail?"
None of the really smart law enforcement want to tell the other side or their own corrupt staff the "how" of collect it all.
Law enforcement like to tell the media that they gave a bad person a million US$ and watched the money move around the bad banking world.
Not that collect it all had the crypto to all their banks in real time for the past decades.
Governments like to map out all the bad people, see who has skills, who is evil, who is political, who is g

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Clearly a shill for Dogecoin

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Bitcoin Won't Be the Dark Web's Top Cryptocurrency For Long

Clearly, the author is a shill for Dogecoin.

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[Smidge204]

Laugh all you want, but Dogecoin has been a consistent performer for years now.

=Smidge=

bitcoin always sucked

[NynexNinja]

Anyone who has spent even a small amount of time looking into crypto-currencies would know that Bitcoin is the most traceable, least anonymous, highest priced, transaction fees are super high, half the time it takes multiple hours for the transaction to go through, if at all. Anyone who wants real anonymous transactions would think about using Monero, or something like it.

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[mentil]

Monero may have an encrypted blockchain, but its transaction fees are nearly as ridiculous as Bitcoin's.

Markets are crashing, tulip farms burning

[WillAffleckUW]

Look, you're going to be regulated.

In China they're executing bitcoin traders.

It's a thing.

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[WillAffleckUW]

The most amazing thing is you don't realize the non-statist people you idolize are the worst statists ever.

You'll learn.

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[MrL0G1C]

I checked, it's not a thing.

I could find no mention of any executions.
http://fortune.com/2018/01/17/... [fortune.com]

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[sysrammer]

Ah I was waiting for that tulip comment. Please explain how similar tulip bulbs and bitcoins are.

I hear there's a newsletter you can subscribe to.

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[fabriciom]

There are cases in the USA where the FBI has traced the transactions in the blockchain wallet to the bitcoin exchange. Thus tracing the criminal from say a dark market to his actual data in the exchange account information.

The good ole days

[Anonymous Coward]

When the REAL internet commerce was pr0nz collections!

Don't Worry Dark Webbers!

[PopeRatzo]

The price of Bitcoin is less than 1/2 of what it was at the beginning of the year. And falling. At this rate, it will soon be cheap enough for you to use, once again, to pay for heroin, weapons, human slaves and contract murders. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure you'll be OK using personal checks..

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[ArchieBunker]

100% of the time if someone claims they are a hitman it really means they are a cop.

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[ArchieBunker]

Still double what it was six months ago.

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[PopeRatzo]

Still double what it was six months ago.

Yeah, but you bought it around Christmas.

Stop misleading people!

[duke_cheetah2003]

thanks to its decentralized and anonymous structure.

Inaccurate. It's the exact opposite of anonymous. Every transaction is recorded, from the beginning of bitcoin's existence.

Only one answer...

[internet-redstar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

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[rwyoder]

That was *great*!!!
ROTFL!!!

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[sysrammer]

Basic to asic, I liked his comp, with "two fans like a Charger game!"

All cryptocurrency ultimately in same boat...

[Junta]

Sure, people can identify technical flaws/merits of different cryptocurrency, but when all is said and done, the fate of all of them is tied together.

If Bitcoin ultimately fails, it'll bring the whole decentralized cryptocurrency concept with it. The non-technical aspects are more relevant to a currency and all the cryptocurrencies are approximately the same on that front: not vaguely representative of anything concrete nor backed by any organization. Sadly, the consensus of the people is fickle and lacks

Currency

[dohzer]

Currency? I thought it was gamb... I mean, investing?!

Bitcoin isn't the wave of the future.

[shellster_dude]

Bitcoin should be lauded for what it is/was. It was the first crypto-currency. It created a paradigm. It has too many problems to remain the crypto-currency of the future. It is not truly anonymous, something that Monero and to a lesser extent, ZCash have solved. It chokes under large transaction volumes and has high transaction costs. It has no way to easily be converted to proof-of-stake in the future, once enough mining has been completed. For all of these reasons, it is unlikely to remain king. Al

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[tlhIngan]

It has no way to easily be converted to proof-of-stake in the future, once enough mining has been completed

Bitcoin is proof of work, and will remain so. New bitcoin production will end one day, but mining will not - the miners will switch from creating bitcoins to locking the blockchain.

Where do you think the transaction fees go? They don't disappear - they simply go to the miners who lock the block in, and more is made now on transaction fees than on making new bitcoin. It's how the network is supposed to

Pseudonymous NOT Anonymous

[turbotalon]

Please, please stop calling Bitcoin 'anonymous'. It is the exact opposite of anonymous, as every single transaction can be tracked. It is pseudonymous because each transaction can be tracked to infinity, but cannot be linked with a real-life person until one in the chain is known.

Bitcoin was designed for anonymity not value

[maxcelcat]

As I recall from back when Bitcoin was created, it's point was to allow anonymous transactions. The stupidly large increases in prices and the wild fluctuations are totally counter to it's intended role.