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According to Tom Robinson, co-founder of London-based blockchain investigative firm Elliptic, a tool named Antinalysis, has been most likely developed by an administrator of a darknet market or dark web to confirm whether a Bitcoin is dirty.
Antinalysis: A Tool That Checks For Dirty Bitcoin
Antinalysis, a dark web application, allows criminals to assess their level of risk before attempting to pay out cryptocurrency obtained via crime.
A newly uncovered dark web program allows thieves to check the purity of their Bitcoin.
When a wallet is linked to Antinalysis, the program deduces where the BTC in the wallet came from and how dangerous it is to retain it.
Bitcoin obtained through darknet marketplaces, ransomware, and theft is categorized as an “extreme risk,” but BTC obtained from exchanges and newly-mined coins are classified as a “no risk” asset.
Tor, a privacy-focused web browser that provides access to the dark web, powers Antinalysis. A risk report costs around $3 to produce.
However, It Is Useless, According To Tom Robinson, Who Supplies Analytics Tools To Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Elliptic evaluated the tool and discovered it is ineffective at discovering linkages to big dark web markets.
“This is probably unsurprising, providing reliable blockchain analytics necessitates considerable investment in technology and data collecting over extended periods of time,” Robinson explained.
According to security expert Brian Krebs' analysis of the program, the results supplied by Antinalysis are the same as those provided by AMLBot, an anti-money laundering detecting software.
According to Robinson, this indicates that the crooks developed the program using the AMLBot API.
Robinson identified the author of Antinalysis as one of the developers of Incognito Market, a dark web store specializing in drugs. Incognito Market, which launched in late 2020, takes Bitcoin and the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero.
Robinson believes the introduction of Antinalysis demonstrates how difficult it is for criminals to cash out their Bitcoin earnings, but it also makes crime-focused blockchain analytics available to the public for the first time.
After all, $3 is nothing to a criminal who is laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, paying for the service may raise concerns if it is discovered.