a site that hosts child pornography, Considered one of the largest on the internet and in the world, it was shut down thanks to authorities tracking it down. blockchain transactions (blockchain), a method used by cryptocurrencies.

The story that happened in 2017 will be told in detail in the book. Followers in the Dark: The global hunt for cryptocurrency crime lords It has been commented on by Andy Greenberg in magazines like, which is on pre-sale and will be released in November 2022. Wired.

It should be noted that cryptocurrencies are based on the blockchain, secure, decentralized and public technology. Your database is only visible to participants who have access to all data, and track every transaction which they did.

However, the researchers were able to detect a user’s or organization’s information by tracking the blockchain of the porn site’s transactions. They managed to connect “millions of accounts”.

Place Welcome to the VideoIt was a platform. Large catalog of child abuse contentl where there are photos and videos They were sold for bitcoin. Chainalysis tracked the website’s customer payments from a single address.

At least 8 TB file with more than 250 thousand videos and presented as evidence. According to US Washington DC District Attorney Jessie Liu,Tracked various bitcoin payments via blockchain informationmanages to identify the administrator of the pedophilia site they guessed It has been in operation since mid-2015.

Most of the contentprepubertal children, toddlers, and infants engaged in sexual behavior. ” The site administrator processed the transactions with bitcoin, for which he used his real name, phone number and email. Thanks to this, the initial investigation was simple.

And United States Law requires it for transactions. Identifiable information is collected from customers and their identity is verified. The process is known as KYC, For its English acronym, Know Your Customer.

The prosecutor explained Some agents have infiltrated the site and traded with bitcoin several times. Track payments to pass as the average customer and determine the digital wallet they are hosted on. In this process, they found a wallet in the name of Jong Woon Soon, the alleged administrator of the platform Welcome to the video.

On tracking, they found the phone number and email that matched Woon Soon’s identity. And if that’s not enough, identified a bitcoin transaction to a bank account in their own name, which they can confirm to be linked to the child abuse platform.

Because cryptocurrencies are decentralized, users trusted that their blockchain could not be traced and did not hesitate to use their real identities in their wallets. bitcoins. However, the experts’ analysis allowed them to see how far the money went, including those who purchased subscriptions to view the content.

After authorities identified those involved in the consumption and sale of child pornography, Arrest of 337 pedophiles, among them the vice principal of a school in the United States and the husband of a nursery principal. They found more than 450,000 hours of child abuse videos in someone’s home.