Bitcoin has always been known to be anonymous with its transactions, so this makes it hard to track. But how hard is it to trace a bitcoin deal versus a monero deal? Cybersecurity author Andy Greenberg reveals this in an interview with prominent crypto journalist, Laura Shin.
Using alphabay, A deal about the darknet, for case study purposes, greenberg said, “alphabay came back online and now only accepts monero.” This means that the black market has been able to recover and continue to operate with a more appropriate private means of accepting payments.
Monero more difficult to plot than bitcoin?
No doubt, Bitcoin transactions can be so anonymous one would find it hard to know the sender or the receiver gave the asset method of using a public address mixed with random numbers and letters. However, Monero transactions are more private as its transactions are hidden for anyone looking on the block explorer with only a Monero address.
In recent years, there have been more cases of Bitcoin transactions under investigation. Even if the transactions do not contain the name of the sender and receiver, it is entered in a public register where the address of the portfolio and the amount received are indicated on the block browser.
According to Greenberg, Monero’s privacy features make it “far far harder” to trace than Bitcoin has ever been. Compared to Bitcoin, xmr confuses transactions and hides the amount involved, making it difficult for law enforcement or anyone else to track asset payments.
“it may seem that this golden age of cryptocurrency tracing is coming to an end and that people are wising up but i think it’s maybe just accurate just to see it as another phase, one more step in this cat and mouse game [crypto-tracing],' said Greenberg.
Does xmr get traceable?
While XMR won the debate of most non-traceable transactions, Greenberg in another interview with Paul Ducklin indicates that does not mean the assets’ transaction is not traceable at all. According to Greenberg quoting a disclosed chain analysis document, monero transactions can be traced in 60% of cases to obtain a usable advance. This revelation has questioned the common belief of Monero being an entirely non-traceable asset.
The leaked Chainalysis document which tells Italian law enforcement they can trace XMR transactions in the majority of cases, suggests that while Monero transactions are indeed difficult to trace, it is definitely not impossible.
In particular, Monero's privacy characteristics have made him not only famous in the crypto community, but also among individuals and groups involved in illegal activities. With reports now indicating that asset transactions are perhaps not impossible to trace, using cryptocurrency for illegal purposes can simply be another fragile alternative.
Meanwhile, over the past 24 hours, the Monero token also known as XMR has been in a bullish trend up by 1.1% along with the rest of the crypto market. As of writing, Monero is currently trading at $152 after dropping a maximum of $186 on January 29.
Notably, despite the sharp rise in XMR since the beginning of the year following last year's pervasive downward trend, XMR continues to decline 71% from its record of $542 5 years ago on January 9, 2018.