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What Elliptic's methodology does is look beyond single transactions using clustering analysis to tie specific bitcoin identities - individuals can use large numbers to make life harder for investigators - to strings of transactions. This requires manual targeting of darkweb forums to trace identities which are then connected to transactions resulting in a risk score, zero being fine, 10 being a warning flag.
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Peering deeper into bitcoin transactions and the identities behind them is supposed to be extremely difficult but according to Elliptic co-founder and CTO Dr Tom Robinson the company found a way to do just that to service customers in financial services and, more recently, law enforcement.
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Patterns still exist. Criminals transact on a different scale and in a different way to simple currency investors and this in theory makes them traceable. After the hype about blockchain anonymity, the Achilles heel of the criminal is always identity. At some point criminals still need to cash out through an exchange.
A second market has been law enforcement agencies hunting down criminals using bitcoins to receive ransomware payments, mentions Robinson.
2 bucks bbmc is behind this start up.
=)