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Bitcoin Businesses The Almighty Buck

Bitcoin Won't Be the Dark Web's Top Cryptocurrency For Long (cnet.com) 79

Posted by msmash from the other-side-of-the-coin dept.
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.
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Bitcoin Won't Be the Dark Web's Top Cryptocurrency For Long More

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

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  • Nothing to do with transaction fee.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ZiakII ( 829432 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:05PM (#56091449)
    I'm sure it has nothing to do with transaction fee costing anywhere from $5 to $50 in the past 3 months.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by higuita ( 129722 )

      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

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

    • 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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Artemis3 ( 85734 )

      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.

    • As mentioned in the FA.

  • Not Anonymous (Score:5, Interesting)

    by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:05PM (#56091459) Homepage

    "...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 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MikeDataLink ( 536925 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:11PM (#56091491) Homepage Journal

      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.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by mysidia ( 191772 )

        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 (Score:4, Informative)

        by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @07:37PM (#56092343)

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

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by 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

    • 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?
      • 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.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        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
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Clearly a shill for Dogecoin (Score:5, Funny)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:07PM (#56091463)
    >> Bitcoin Won't Be the Dark Web's Top Cryptocurrency For Long

    Clearly, the author is a shill for Dogecoin.

  • bitcoin always sucked (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NynexNinja ( 379583 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:10PM (#56091483)

    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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mentil ( 1748130 )

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

  • Markets are crashing, tulip farms burning (Score:3, Insightful)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:14PM (#56091501) Homepage Journal

    Look, you're going to be regulated.

    In China they're executing bitcoin traders.

    It's a thing.

  • The good ole days (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    When the REAL internet commerce was pr0nz collections!

  • Don't Worry Dark Webbers! (Score:3)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:24PM (#56091557) Journal

    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..

  • Stop misleading people! (Score:3)

    by duke_cheetah2003 ( 862933 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:31PM (#56091585) Homepage

    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... (Score:5, Funny)

    by internet-redstar ( 552612 ) on Thursday February 08, 2018 @05:37PM (#56091613) Homepage
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

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

  • 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

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      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

  • 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.
  • 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.

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