Those who still believe that Bitcoin offers anonymity and privacy, and therefore favors illegal activities, are wrong, as Europol has just dismantled a gang of criminals who were dedicated to stealing fiat money and cryptocurrencies through SIM swaps.
The absolute transparency of many networks cryptocurrencies, , and especially Bitcoin, are breaking away from the fears and unfounded judgments that were established at the beginning of the history of cryptocurrencies. Recently, Europol, the highest police and investigative authority in the European Union, announced the dismantling of a criminal gang, where nearly a dozen criminals operated, who were dedicated to SIM swapping, to steal private data and money, in fiat and cryptocurrencies, from their victims.
Europol has been conducting a coordinated investigation with law enforcement authorities in other countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Belgium, Malta, and Canada, and several exchanges, seizing around $100 million in cryptocurrency.
In less than 30 days, this is the second investigation that the authority has successfully completed. By the end of last January, Europol stopped 6 suspects of promoting a cryptocurrency investment scam. The detainees, who claimed to work for an alleged crypto investment company, were promoting the scam internationally, tricking their victims into depositing their money on the platform. This procedure was carried out successfully, and Europol was able to confiscate more than 84 thousand dollars in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, among others.
During this investigation, the transparency of Bitcoin and technology blockchain also played a very important role. The authority revealed that the records of the transactions and commercial operations that were carried out with cryptocurrencies, and the collaboration of the exchanges cryptocurrency, helped locate the illegal funds for confiscation.
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Bitcoin, a transparent electronic cash system
Every day that passes, it is more demonstrable that Bitcoin is a transparent and immutable electronic cash system, which does not in any way favor criminals who engage in illegal activities. Contrary to what some still think, Bitcoin is a blockchain network that records every transaction that is made, and once this happens, it cannot be deleted, manipulated or altered ever, nor can it be hidden. In addition to all this, the Bitcoin blockchain is public and open source, so any authority, entity, company or individual has access to it from anywhere in the world.
However, despite this, Europol still considers Bitcoin's privacy and pseudo-anonymity to be a threat. On the other hand, blockchain intelligence and forensics firm, Chainalysis, reveals that Less than 0,5% of bitcoins in circulation are being used to commit financial crimes and other illicit activities, such as terrorist financing and money laundering. This intelligence firm has a platform which provides real-time data on the movements of the main cryptocurrencies on the market.
In fact, recently, dark.fail, a provider of verified links for darknet markets, protested the actions of Chainalysis and several cryptocurrency exchanges, which are closing the Bitcoin accounts of users who have donated bitcoins to this provider. On its Twitter account, dark.fail, it explained that the addresses of two users who made recent donations were blocked on the exchanges, after Chainalysis labeled them as suspicious.
This is further proof of the absolute transparency that Bitcoin offers at all times.
Darknet markets shut down Bitcoin option
On the other hand, illicit markets on the dark web are closing off Bitcoin payment options, again because this cryptocurrency does not offer absolute privacy, and is “too transparent.” White House Market, the largest darknet market in existence today, reported to its users that it will no longer accept bitcoins as a means of payment.
Important: Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, like the fiduciary money we handle every day, have no conscience, morals, or ethics, and are only an instrument for carrying out commercial operations. Therefore, they can be used to carry out legal and illegal activities without distinction. However, one of the advantages that Bitcoin offers, and that we always highlight at Bit2Me, is that it leaves unalterable and public traces within its blockchain network, traces that can help investigation companies and authorities discover who is behind these activities. Transparency, accompanied by the immutability of blockchain, are two properties that make Bitcoin an unattractive form of money for criminals and offenders.
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