Chainalysis: So terrorists Bitcoin have used in the past year

Bitcoin as a tool that can make people under authoritarian regimes, the help, is a wide-spread idea. However, there is also a dark side to this story. Due to their decentralised character, the crypto-currency can also be used as a means to Finance terrorist activities.

This aspect of the crypto-currency has been recently analysed in a report of Chainalysis, the company noted that “of particular concern is the progress in the technical sophistication, which have enabled a successful campaign for the financing of terrorism”. The report highlights the terrorist organization, the Ibn Taymiyya Media Center, which called on crypto-currencies launched a campaign that was referred to in Arabic as “Equip us” (equip) and the Muslims around the world from a “religious obligation” to donate. From June 2016 to June 2018, the campaign on various Social Media, was promoted on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, where a Bitcoin address was posted, to accept donations. In the report it is stated:

The median value of the donations amounted to $164. The largest single donation was just under $ 2,500, and only two other donations in excess of $ 1,000. 14% of donations were between 500 and 1,000 USD, and almost all the others between 100 and 500 USD, with most between 100 and 250 USD positions.

The report then went on to throw light on a different terrorist organization began, the Bitcoin in the Form of donations to accept, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades [AQB]. This organization is used in contrast to its predecessor, various types of Wallets to the acceptance of funds, where the organization for a System that would generate for every donor a new address. The report noted that it was one of the “most sophisticated, on cryptocurrency-based campaigns to the financing of terrorism”, ever.

Kimberly Gray, research Director for Chainalysis, recently explained the issue in an Interview for the Unchained Podcast. You said:

Looking at the campaign in the year 2018 in comparison to 2019, so the campaign was much more successful in raising more money in a shorter amount of time, and they used a more advanced Wallet Software, and so we have seen just how this story continues also in this type of crime, where the Criminals increase their sophistication and their use of crypto-currencies.

Chainalysis divided up the entire development of the terrorist organization in three parts, the first of which was the acceptance of Bitcoin donations, with a single address via a QR Code. This failed, however, as soon as the address has been associated with a US-based regulated exchange, in connection, with the result that funds frozen and an investigation against the account holder was initiated.

The second action began, as the AQB replaced the wallet address with a new address that was associated with a private, non-Depot-based Wallet, the need for increased anonymity, it was argued […] the third sub-action in your site built-in Bitcoin Wallet for each donor a unique Bitcoin address generated, at which he was able to send contributions.

To said the activities of the AQB Gray,

We have a variety of heuristics, which we use for tracking of funds and the addresses can connect to one another […] it is crucial that we know the investigator [ … ] that can provide us with addresses that we can connect through these investigations with each other and allow us to go beyond what we see on the Blockchain […]“

The company stated that it a Chance that in this and the coming years, more terrorist organizations for this fundraising strategy will decide, where the report added that it “will give an impetus for further progress, which will enable you to more resources and to improve their privacy was”.

Jonathan Levin, co-founder of the Chainalysis said:

When it comes to different types of terrorist organizations, which actually need money urgently, you will see more experiments, you will see more of these campaigns, fortunately we have experts […], in order to identify this kind of activities really quickly, and ensure that these campaigns can be ineffective when it comes to the procurement of funds“.

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