Europol: Bitcoin Used in Child Abuse

Europol, Europe's international and largest police organization, is looking into suspicions of Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term being used to pay for child abuse of the internet.

Rob Wainwright, Europol's director, believes that cryptocurrency is being used to pay for images and webcam videos from pedophiles so that their activities cannot be traced. Indeed, Wainwright himself believes that this makes it much harder, if not impossible, for his team to catch the criminals:

"Sorry, but it’s happening online and it’s extremely difficult for us to identify.....The level of depravity seems to be descending year on year, frankly, including what seems to be in vogue now, which is live webcam ‘shows’ of toddlers not just being raped but being burnt with cigarettes.”

Wainwright has criticized the slow response of authorities to tackling the curve ball thrown by Bitcoin's anonymity, saying that equivalent levels of crime in the real world would be front page news: "It is frustrating that we are not getting the message out, at least not loud enough for legislators to hear it."

To be sure, there are pros and cons when it comes to tracing crypto activity. While transactions are technically anonymous, they are entirely traceable- the missing link is connecting ID's and addresses with names.

In the arrests of Charlie Shrem and Robert Faiella, police managed to infiltrate their online activity and monitor the two's activities. In February, two men from southern Florida were arrested for Money Laundering Money Laundering Money laundering is a blanket term to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to be derived from a legitimate source.Money laundering is an issue that traverses countless industries and sectors, which includes the financial services space. Though criminal money may be successfully laundered without the assistance of the financial sector, billions of dollars’ worth of criminally derived money are laund Money laundering is a blanket term to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to be derived from a legitimate source.Money laundering is an issue that traverses countless industries and sectors, which includes the financial services space. Though criminal money may be successfully laundered without the assistance of the financial sector, billions of dollars’ worth of criminally derived money are laund Read this Term activities using Bitcoin by undercover cops.

Following the Silk Road arrests, former policeman, now computer security consultant Nigel Phair said:

"There is a perception among many law enforcement and regulatory agencies that it is all too hard to conduct investigations involving TOR, so never start. There needs to be much more training of general investigators in conducting technical lines of inquiry, including the purchase of forensic discovery equipment if we are going to make a dent in this problem.''