bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, rose to prominence due to Silk Road, say some speculators while others disagree. A recent study by Chainanalysis reveals that the daily bitcoin transaction on the darknet has increased drastically.
As per the reports by Chainanalysis, the transaction volume for bitcoin on the darknet was at $700 million by the end of 2016 and it fell down to $700 at the start of 2018. The reduction in the transaction volume is attributed to the closing of major players like AlphaBay and Hansa in mid-2017.
AlphaBay and Hansa were both online darknet markets which operated on an onion service of the Tor network. Both of the mentioned companies shut down in July 2017.
Moreover, Kim Grauer, a senior economist at Chainanalysis, said that the volume began to rise steadily after this. He also stated:
“The reason for that drop is more law enforcement activity,” Grauer said. “It would be misleading to think that this year it (the volume) will go down.”
bitcoin is still being used in darknet due to the fact that the identities of the persons using them remain anonymous. bitcoin’s volatility and price fluctuation have dissuaded a lot of users in the institutions to step away from it.
Moreover, Grauer, continued:
“For someone who wants to buy something on a dark marketplace, the fact that bitcoin price is fluctuating doesn’t really matter.”
The report also mentioned that the darknet saw $2 million worth of bitcoin transactions per day, which was double the volume observed at the start of the year 2018.
Furthermore, 2019 could be a year when the rise in the volume of transactions on the darknet could reduce, said Grauer and it could be due to regulators and law enforcement stepping into the cryptocurrency market.
@RyanPafumi, a Twitter user, commented:
“Let’s not forget when Chase paid $2 billion in fines to settle the $76 billion they laundered for Bernie Madoff.
Deutsch Bank headquarters raided a year later on more money laundering through Panama and Virgin Islands…”
The post appeared first on .
Published at Sat, 19 Jan 2019 15:03:44 +0000
