A cybercrime specialist from the European Union's police service, Europol, Jarek Jakubcek, told Business Insider that criminals have switched from bitcoin to alternative cryptocurrencies: Monero, ZCash and Dash, to more easily hide their criminal activities.
It is possible to achieve a higher level of privacy by using monero with a hidden address. Or dash, which do not have hidden addresses, but use a shuffle process that is part of the protocol. Jakubcek emphasized that the use of such cryptocurrencies simplifies criminal activity.
Contrary to the popular myth that Bitcoin is anonymous, this is not true. Using nicknames means that police simply have to link publicly tracked transactions under a particular nickname to real identities.
Criminals who believe that by using Bitcoin they are elusive leave digital traces, effectively helping the police. Jakubcek believes that the use of anonymous cryptocurrency by criminals proves their savvy and technical skills.
Last year, Bitcoinist reported that anonymous currencies such as Monero could be used by Bitcoin users to cover their tracks through exchanges, while Bitcoin anonymization tools such as Bulletproofs, TumbleBit and Mimblewimble are in development.
But the use of cryptocurrency in criminal activity remains remains just a drop in the sea. A European Commission report last year noted that while some criminals do hope to hide their crimes using cryptocurrency, “using virtual currencies requires technical skill, making them less attractive.”
Additionally, recent research has shown that while more anonymous types of cryptocurrency are available, bitcoin is most often used for transactions on the dark web. This means that Europol's concerns about coins providing higher levels of privacy are somewhat exaggerated, at least for now.
According to http://bitcoinist.com
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