5 ms·
why are ransomware groups transacting in BTC, which can be easily traced?
by whymauri 5y ago
why are ransomware groups transacting in BTC, which can be easily traced?
- spand 5y agoI would expect only Bitcoin markets to have the liquidity and depth where one can easily buy 5 million worth of coins. Similarly when the hackers want to sell the coins again.
- Taek 5y agoNah there are dozens of options where you could easily move 5 million a day. They are probably using bitcoin because it's easiest for the victim to pay in. I assume they would rotate it through zcash/monero before they spend it
- willvarfar 5y agoJust curious, what alternatives are there, and how would they work?
- lallysingh 5y agoMonero for transactions, then change back to BTC for value storage.
- angio 5y agoThey can also ask for ETH and use Tornado cash to launder it.
- chitowneats 5y agoCheck out Monero. I'm a lay person when it comes to cryptography and cryptocurrency, but supposedly an innovation in that currency, known as ring signatures, keeps the blockchain private.
- smoldesu 5y agoBecause even though the transactions can be traced, the accounts holding them are arbitrary. You can observe a Bitcoin transaction propagate through the blockchain, but you'll never really see any personal identifiers besides the address.
- ribosometronome 5y agoEase of access for the victims, I imagine. Going from owning 0 bitcoin to hundreds of thousands seems easier giving it's popularity than say, monero (or whatever the anonymous centric coin of the day is). And the ransomware guys can still wash it later by passing it through intermediate exchanges/selling it for a different crypto.
- ufo 5y agoIt's easier to launder and transfer the BTC than to do the same with real money. According to the article, the people behind Darkside were also behind a bitcoin "mixing" service that was recently shut down.
- whymauri 5y agobut... Monero. Mixing is fine, but there's fees and overhead that make it undesirable, IMO.