Lead researcher of a group that says they have created an analysis tool for US law enforcement that can be used to overcome the challenges of criminals using Bitcoin for transactions has hinted that it could lead to greater Bitcoin adoption. Andrew Cox who is leading the work for Sandia , a US- Federally Funded Research and Development Center which has delivered essential science and technology to resolve most challenging security issues in the US for more than 60 years, said: “In many ways, figuring out how to effectively combat illicit Bitcoin commerce and reduce its perception as a tool of criminals can encourage more people and companies to adopt Bitcoin for legitimate purposes.” He explained that the work is in response to law enforcement’s most immediate need to reduce the time and resources necessary to trace illicit commerce. It would be handy for authorities because they have few battle-tested legal, policy, and technical tools to counter those illicit uses. This is based on the view that Bitcoin will likely spawn innovations that will enable new forms of both legitimate and illicit commerce. “Our job was to understand how Bitcoin works,” Cox said. “Bitcoin is a new semi-anonymous currency that holds the potential to change the way all sorts of transactions work in a way that might really benefit the economy.” The many benefits of Bitcoin adoption It can make monetary transactions much more efficient, drive down the costs of doing business, make transaction histories more transparent, which could help both financial markets and financial regulation, and — depending on who you ask — reducing the risks associated with inflation and reliance on centralized monetary institutions. On the other hand, criminals have been using Bitcoin for drugs, guns, child pornography etc. Criminal enterprises have used Bitcoin at least in […]
