4 ms·

Titanium: Project to prevent criminal use of the dark web and virtual currencies

43 points by mbgaxyz 9y ago

RichardHeart 9y ago
tldr: "...develop efficient and effective forensics tools enabling the reasonable use of different types of data from different sources including virtual currency ledgers, online forums, peer-to-peer networks of underground markets, and seized devices."
whatnotests 9y ago
Will they require some kind of license to purchase and/or sell crypto currency? This de facto criminalization ad then licensing the privilege (nay right) to utilize these tools is a step in the wrong direction.
- milansuk 9y ago
  To me It sounds more like a some kind of AI which will scan public ledgers, compare them to dark forums/markets and try to figure out who are people behind transactions.
- dogma1138 9y ago
  You need a license to operate a currency exchange why would digital currency be any different? The large bitcoin exchanges already comply with many if not most financial regulations. You can't setup a shadow economy valued in the billions without governments taking note and moving to regulate it.
djsumdog 9y ago
Bitcoin isn't really anonymous. Transactions are in a ledger. Isn't think why people use rollers to redistribute coins?
- tribby 9y ago
  this is why I'm surprised zcash and monero haven't taken over the markets.
  - ktta 9y ago
    Zcash is anonymous by option only (transparent addresses and secret addresses). If you ask me that kind of defeats the point. It will raise questions like 'why did you choose an anonymous address?'. Optional privacy hurts the people who need to be private.
    - Casseres 9y ago
      Zcash also relies on a trusted setup: a master private key was used to initiate it, and that you have to trust the key was destroyed. If someone had a copy of that key, they could create infinite coins without detection. People have to decide whether they want to trust that a copy of the key wasn't made, or if they want to use a trustless setup. Monero doesn't require trust, and it's also private by default.
      - ktta 9y ago
        There are actually more problems, but I didn't want to go off topic. Like about how the developers get paid a certain percentage. Someone made the calculations to be about $3m a year for all the developers combined each year. I know that they deserve to get compensated, but that goes completely off what cryptocurrencies stand for. Like the whole thing seems to be riding on the concept of zk-SNARKS, but the fact of the matter is, there is already Monero which offers the privacy aspect that zcoin advertises (but fails to deliver on that too)
        Casseres 9y ago
        What ktta is talking about is the 10% Founders Reward that goes to the company and its investors. For those that may read this who don't know, Zcash is a company. It's Founder and CEO wrote this on Twitter: > I think we can successfully make Zcash too traceable for criminals like WannaCry, but still completely private & fungible. https://twitter.com/zooko/status/863202798883577856 https://twitter.com/zooko/status/863202798883577856
- tezza 9y ago
  buy bitcoin for cash to a paper wallet. anonymous also for the adventurous there is tumbling where you send your btc to a service which mixes them all up with others to make it more difficult to trace. exit scammy so choose wisely
lightbyte 9y ago
>funded by the European Union aimed at developing technical solutions for investigating and mitigating crime and terrorism involving virtual currencies and underground market transactions. Has there EVER been a terrorism situation that involved the dark web and/or bitcoin? This smells like a power grab feeding on fear.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

43 points by mbgaxyz 9y ago

tldr: "...develop efficient and effective forensics tools enabling the reasonable use of different types of data from different sources including virtual currency ledgers, online forums, peer-to-peer networks of underground markets, and seized devices."

whatnotests 9y ago

Will they require some kind of license to purchase and/or sell crypto currency? This de facto criminalization ad then licensing the privilege (nay right) to utilize these tools is a step in the wrong direction.

milansuk 9y ago
To me It sounds more like a some kind of AI which will scan public ledgers, compare them to dark forums/markets and try to figure out who are people behind transactions.
dogma1138 9y ago
You need a license to operate a currency exchange why would digital currency be any different? The large bitcoin exchanges already comply with many if not most financial regulations. You can't setup a shadow economy valued in the billions without governments taking note and moving to regulate it.

djsumdog 9y ago

Bitcoin isn't really anonymous. Transactions are in a ledger. Isn't think why people use rollers to redistribute coins?

tribby 9y ago
this is why I'm surprised zcash and monero haven't taken over the markets.
- ktta 9y ago
  Zcash is anonymous by option only (transparent addresses and secret addresses). If you ask me that kind of defeats the point. It will raise questions like 'why did you choose an anonymous address?'. Optional privacy hurts the people who need to be private.
  - Casseres 9y ago
    Zcash also relies on a trusted setup: a master private key was used to initiate it, and that you have to trust the key was destroyed. If someone had a copy of that key, they could create infinite coins without detection. People have to decide whether they want to trust that a copy of the key wasn't made, or if they want to use a trustless setup. Monero doesn't require trust, and it's also private by default.
    - ktta 9y ago
      There are actually more problems, but I didn't want to go off topic. Like about how the developers get paid a certain percentage. Someone made the calculations to be about $3m a year for all the developers combined each year. I know that they deserve to get compensated, but that goes completely off what cryptocurrencies stand for. Like the whole thing seems to be riding on the concept of zk-SNARKS, but the fact of the matter is, there is already Monero which offers the privacy aspect that zcoin advertises (but fails to deliver on that too)
      - Casseres 9y ago
        What ktta is talking about is the 10% Founders Reward that goes to the company and its investors. For those that may read this who don't know, Zcash is a company. It's Founder and CEO wrote this on Twitter: > I think we can successfully make Zcash too traceable for criminals like WannaCry, but still completely private & fungible. https://twitter.com/zooko/status/863202798883577856 https://twitter.com/zooko/status/863202798883577856
tezza 9y ago
buy bitcoin for cash to a paper wallet. anonymous also for the adventurous there is tumbling where you send your btc to a service which mixes them all up with others to make it more difficult to trace. exit scammy so choose wisely

lightbyte 9y ago

>funded by the European Union aimed at developing technical solutions for investigating and mitigating crime and terrorism involving virtual currencies and underground market transactions. Has there EVER been a terrorism situation that involved the dark web and/or bitcoin? This smells like a power grab feeding on fear.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]