Cryptocurrency and criminality
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X16658927 |
| Date | 01 December 2016 |
| Author | Steven David Brown |
| Published date | 01 December 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Cryptocurrency
and criminality:
The Bitcoin opportunity
Steven David Brown
Abstract
Bitcoin has become the currency of choice for cybercriminals. Its distinctive charac-
teristics of decentralisation and pseudo-anonymity are also attractive to criminal actors
in general, and yet Bitcoin has been assessed as representing only a low money laun-
dering risk. In many respects, cryptocurrencies are still viewed as an unfamiliar, marginal
phenomenon restricted to the purview of specialists. This article seeks: to demystify the
Bitcoin concept; to demonstrate that, far from being low-risk, Bitcoin constitutes a
substantial danger in terms of criminal enterprise; and to promote the case for greater
awareness among criminal justice professionals and law enforcement officers in
particular.
Keywords
Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, cybercrime, money laundering
In January 2016, the criminals who took control of Lincolnshire County Council’s
computers with ransomware
1
unsuccessfully demanded a modest $500 in Bitcoin (Daily
Telegraph, 2016). In November 2015, three Greek banks were reportedly threatened with
dire consequences by a group of cybercriminals called the Armada Collective unless
they paid ‘hundreds of thousands of Euros’ in Bitcoin (Deutsche Welle, 2015) and, in
November 2015, the hackers of the mobile telephone provider TalkTalk sought to
extort £80,000, also in Bitcoin, in return for not publishing the company’s hacked
customer data (Krebs, 2015). These are just a few recent examples of a growing
catalogue of criminal activity in which Bitcoin has been nominated as the preferred
method of payment.
There is nothing inherently criminal in the concept or development of a crypto-
currency – any more than there is anything criminal in the minting or distribution of
Corresponding author:
Steven David Brown, address not available.
Email: inzeit@outlook.com
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2016, Vol. 89(4) 327–339
ªThe Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permission:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0032258X16658927
pjx.sagepub.com
To continue reading
Request your trial