Someone Stole Your Bitcoin, Now What?

#DigitalCurrency has been shaping the world since it was introduced, but it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. Due to the nature of the crypto-world, this anonymous, untraceable way of moving money has caught the attention of those with a more sinister agenda.

We are happy to inform our readers that there are indeed a few businesses that have constructed the software able to track coins. Companies like Chainanalysis and CipherTrace have been growing at a rapid pace as they assist individuals who were hacked on an exchange, as well as assisting law enforcement with illegal movements of money.

Chainanalysis, with their head office in New York city, employees a vast team of data scrapers and data scientists who have an unlimited amount of knowledge on Bitcoin’s blockchain. This team digs deep into Bitcoins public ledger that have all records of the transactions and tracks the “wallets” through their identifiers, to gain an idea of where the currency has gone.

The identifiers are in an erratic order of alphabetical strings and used to identify criminal and hacking activity, which is where law enforcement steps in and conducts an online search to connect the wallets to identities.

The most well known case was back in 2015 when Chainanalysis worked side by side with law enforcement to apprehend two federal employees that had been stealing cryptocurrency from an online drug cartel. So yes, this is a reputable company that will find out where your money has been transferred to.

Another service provider worth mentioning is a Californian company called CipherTrace. They work a little differently, by running searches automatically through ransomware payoffs to detect where exactly the money is. They track wallets, exchanges, and map common addresses which they pass onto a legal team to continue regarding restoration of stolen property.

Although these services exist, investing in “privacy” coins may not be the best option for future traders. Private coins like #Zcash and #Monero do not leave a transaction record the same way #Bitcoin does, making it harder for these services to track down your money.

So Chainanalysis and CipherTrace track down the bad guys. Is that their full-time job? No, if you happen to be working for a bank or hedge fund, these companies would be great to get into contact with. They help you and your company comply with anti-money #laundering laws and offer security to your clients.

#Security is the name of the game.

So if you’ve lost your Bitcoin on an #exchange or have been personally #hacked, you know who to call.