BITCOIN – THE BAD BOY

Owning  Bitcoin these days seems a good place to hide funds. In a recent investigation case where two parties are in the process of getting divorced this became an issue. How do you track bitcoin assets if they are not declared but the other party knows that you have them. Where do you start?

According to “http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/why-criminals-cant-hide-behind-bitcoin” people cannot hide. The transactions are not as anonymous as previously believed. As the writer of the article puts it “The paradox of cryptocurrency is that its associated data create a forensic trail that can suddenly make your entire financial history public information.”

How does this help the investigator though?? We all know that the identity of the owner is totally secret in selling and buying of the cryptocurrency due to a randomly generated private key ,numbers used to generate a digital signature. And as long as the owner does not reveal this key the money is save against theft.

But like with all money it is there for the spending. Not True!!

So this is where we as investigators must use our investigative skills and think out of the box to back track the spending portion because this is where we will find our evidence.

Follow me and as we explore all the ins and outs of investigating Bitcoin.