Bitfury, a blockchain technology company, published a press release on January 30 introducing “Crystal”; a tool designed to probe the Bitcoin blockchain of suspicious activities. It seems Bitfury will not wait for the regulators to investigate illicit activities but taking things into its own hands.
The Crystal tool will permit Bitcoin blockchain users and enforcement agencies to distinguish and recognize any criminal activity on the shared digital ledger. It took about two years for the company to develop the tool with reviews from senior-level government officials. The move will transform the image of Bitcoin and break all its association with illegal activities.
Bitfury Group CEO, Valery Vavilov, highlighted that Crystal would serve as a solution for Bitfury customers. He said, “The industry needs some very user-friendly tools so that you can track bitcoin transactions and see if this bitcoin address that you’re getting money from is green or black.”
On January 30, 2018, the new revolutionary tool will be available at zero cost for individuals. However, web and enterprise membership fees are expected to kick in from March.
Crystal works by gathering information via analytics and data scraping to give a score on the legality of a transaction or the address. The toolkit is designed such that it shall generate scores on how likely a particular address is linked to criminal activities. The main function is to trace bitcoin transactions till the point of withdrawal or the final address where the digital asset is stored. Therefore, it will signal any suspicious activity on the blockchain.
The Bitfury press release stated:
“Crystal was designed to be used by law enforcement agencies to track suspicious bitcoin transactions to real-world entities and determine relationships between criminal actors, and by financial and other institutions engaged in compliance and due diligence activities.”
Some Bitcoin advocates have voiced their disapproval of Bitfury’s move, suggesting that since bitcoin are never destroyed (unlike fiat), coming to the conclusion that all of the circulating cryptocurrency will eventually become tainted. However, improvements to the fungibility of the cryptocurrency will counter these efforts, with upgrades such as Confidential Transactions and Schnorr signatures to reclaim privacy for bitcoin users.
The software caters independent tracking which allows users to track a transaction to its roots. The advanced version of the software, Crystal Pro, is designed with an intent to employ within the organization. Therefore, the pro version will be available to Bitfury customers where not only can they track bitcoin transactions but also shield themselves from numerous floating illegal payments on the network.
Valery Vavilov, CEO of Bitfury Group, said:
“Unfortunately, there are people who exploit public blockchains and take advantage of their pseudonymity to commit crimes. Bitfury’s new Crystal tool will make it much easier to identify and track criminal activities on the blockchain.”
In July 2017, Bitfury entered the blockchain space with its enterprise-grade blockchain, Exonum. Exonum is competent to tackle 3,000 transactions per second. The company also partnered with Hut 8, a mining company to layout the biggest mining center in North America. It seems Bitfury wants to dominate the entire crypto space.
