Dark web child porn bust leads to 338 arrests worldwide

submitted by Mnemonic from reuters.com

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[–]FormosaOolong 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

Yes, while it's great that these fucks have been caught, it is telling that crypto isn't crypto after all.

[–]Mnemonic[S] 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Crypto is the opposite of anonymous, the blockchain is all transactions ever done. You can make it difficult to trace but to be reasonably secure you need mule-systems, just scrambling doesn't even bother the IRS if they caught a hint of suspicion.

Deep learning algorithms on the blockchain poop out suspicious 'flows' and the interesting ones get a follow up by [insert interested parties]. I won't be surprised if criminals use the transactions to seek out underling who to rob, as the xkcd goes, any encryption (from a BCwallet) can be broken with a $5 wrench [And that encryption has nothing to do with being anonymous/untraceable].

Though in this case they got the link to the darkwebsite via a convicted peadopile's computer and so got on the bitcoin payment trail etc.

[–]magnora7 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I guess they used a "mixer" program though which is supposed to hide the chain of addresses so it's not traceable. But that obviously didn't work

[–]Mnemonic[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

A mixer (I called it scrambler) just makes it 'difficult', they use the marketing term 'anonymous' to lure money for peeps.

Though I wouldn't share your guess.

[–]magnora7 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I was using "I guess" in the sense of "this seems likely to be true" because it was reported elsewhere, sorry for the lack of clarity

[–]Mnemonic[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Ah :p Yes, well, then I guess so too.