Digital Currency: The Importance of Knowing

• In Event: The Application of Computer Technology to Crime and Criminal Justice

Abstract

Digital Currency has been a popular innovation in the 21st century that just keeps growing. Most digital currency can be exchanged without being able to be traced, making it very threatening. Digital currency gives criminals the opportunity to easily move and conceal very large amounts of money anonymously online. This gives criminals a way to participate in activities such as money laundering, terrorist funding, illegal purchases of drugs, guns, and assassins, human trafficking, and child exploitation without being seen by law enforcement easily. Most websites using digital currency for illegal activity are concealed through the use of the deep web or the dark web, in which the URL cannot be accessed unless previously known or without the help of downloading TOR software. TOR software hides all activity of any person wanting their actions to be concealed. The most used form of digital currency, though there are many, is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a de-centralized digital currency, meaning there is no group or agency controlling the activities of its users. This also means it is very difficult to “shut down” someone’s bitcoin wallet who is using their currency for illegal activities. All information is gathered through scholarly articles, white papers, and interviews.

Author

• Brooke Alexis Protos, Penn State University