Zooko Wilcox, the founding father of privateness coin Zcash, isn’t keen on anybody suggesting that Zcash is utilized by criminals. In a bid to rid the Web of these nasty sentiments, he employed the Rand Company to hunt out the information and make them public.
In a 65-page report launched immediately, the assume tank and authorities contractor revealed that Bitcoin nonetheless reigns supreme amongst felony components. The research was commissioned final yr by the Electrical Coin Firm, the corporate behind Zcash.
Rand, which examined using Zcash in three areas—cash laundering, commerce in illicit items and providers, and terrorism financing—discovered “no evidence of widespread illicit use of Zcash.”
“Zcash has only a minor presence on the dark web, indicating that Zcash is seen as a less attractive option to dark web users and is used less often compared to other cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin and Monero,” the report said.
Nevertheless, the research made it clear that this doesn’t imply that Zcash is not used for illicit or felony functions on the darkish net. Solely that it’s seen as a much less enticing choice to darkish net customers, in comparison with Bitcoin and Monero.
In its research, Rand discovered that just one% of the unlawful and illicit choices that talked about cryptocurrency even accepted Zcash. In contrast, 59% accepted Bitcoin, 27% accepted Monero, 12% accepted Ether, and 1% accepted Litecoin. Additional, an examination of Zcash mentions in market listings revealed {that a} majority of Zcash mentions originated from simply three sellers, The Store, Skyscraper, and Cyberzen.
“Bitcoin is still perceived to be the dominant cryptocurrency for illicit or criminal activities on the dark web,” the researchers concluded.
Conflicts with previous studies
You possibly can perceive why criminals is likely to be drawn to a privateness coin. Bitcoin is standard as a result of it leaves much less of a monetary path than, say, wiring cash from a checking account. However as a result of transactions on the blockchain might be tracked, Zcash and Monero, one other privateness coin, usually tend to throw forensics off their tracks, as criminals on or offramp into the fiat world—factors the place they’re most weak of getting caught by authorities.
Nonetheless, the Rand report conflicts with different research prior to now. In 2018, Europol mentioned that ISIS, particularly, most popular Zcash. And that very same yr, blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis reported that Zcash was changing into more and more standard on darknets. In each case, Zooko has taken to Twitter to dispute the studies.
Zooko and the Electrical Coin Firm have all the time maintained that cryptocurrency was meant for monetary freedom, and the Rand report might be thought-about an enormous win for them.
It paints a a lot rosier image for the privateness coin. In a weblog publish revealed Wednesday, Josh Swihart, the Electrical Coin’s vp of development, mentioned that individuals are utilizing Zcash to purchase film tickets and ice-cream and sending cash to charities.
“So please continue to sing in the shower, share with loved ones, and transact securely,” he wrote.
