Bitcoin has always been known to be anonymous with transactions, therefore, it is difficult to trace. But how difficult is it to track Bitcoin transactions compared to Monero transactions? Cybersecurity Author Andy Greenberg shared this in an interview with renowned crypto journalist, Laura Shin.
Using Alphabay, a marketplace on the darknet, as a case study, Greenberg said, “Alphabay is back online and now only accepts Monero.” This means that the darknet market can rise again and resume operations after finding a more suitable private way to receive payments.
Is Monero Harder To Track Than Bitcoin?
Undoubtedly, Bitcoin transactions can be anonymous, one will find it difficult to know the sender or receiver of the assets using a public address mixed with random numbers and letters. But, Monero transactions more private because the transaction is hidden from anyone searching the block explorer with only the Monero address.
In recent years, there have been more and more cases of Bitcoin transactions being tracked. Although the transaction does not show the name of the sender and recipient, it is recorded in the public ledger where the wallet address and the amount received are revealed in the block explorer.
According to Greenberg, Monero’s privacy features make it “far harder” to trace of Bitcoin have ever Compared to Bitcoin, XMR speeds up transactions and hides the amount spent, making it difficult for law enforcement or anyone else to track the payment of the asset.
“Maybe it seems like this golden age of cryptocurrency tracking is coming to an end and people are aware of it, but I think it’s only accurate to see it as another phase, another step in this cat-and-mouse. [crypto tracing] game,” Greenberg said.
Is XMR Traceable?
When XMR won the most non-tracked transaction debate, Greenberg in another interview with Paul Ducklin indicates that it does not mean that asset transactions are untraceable. According to Greenberg citing a leaked Chainalysis document, Monero transactions can be traced in 60% of cases to get actionable leads. This revelation has been asked public trust of Monero it becomes an untraceable asset.
The leaked Chainalysis document told Italian law enforcement they were able to trace XMR transactions in the majority of cases, suggesting that while Monero transactions are difficult to trace, they are certainly not impossible.
In particular, Monero’s privacy features are not only popular in the crypto community but also among individuals and groups involved in illegal activities. With current reports that asset transactions may be untraceable, the act of using cryptocurrency for illegal purposes may be another shaky alternative.
Meanwhile, over the past 24 hours, the Monero tokens also known as XMR has been in a bullish trend up by 1.1% along with the rest of the crypto market. At the time of writing, Monero is currently trading at $152 after falling from a high of $186 on January 29.
In particular, despite the significant increase of XMR since the beginning of the year after the bearish trend everywhere last year, XMR is still down 71% from the all-time high of $542 seen 5 years ago on January 9, 2018.
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