After the first entrance on this blog related to criptocurrencies, today it is time to write about the relatioship between criptocurrncies and cibercrime, because they are so different but so close. Why? Because cibercriminals ask for criptocurrencies as a form of payments, Bitcoins mainly.
Criptocurrencies are ‘on fire’
Yes, criptocurrencies (especially BitCoin) are closely linked to cybercriminal actions, since in many cases, the ransoms that are requested are in cyber-currency. This has several effects, such as the “publicity” of virtual currencies, outside the legal course, and which has the governments of many countries concerned.
Criptocurrencies belong to no country, so there is nobody to control, benefits (or losses) has no fees to pay neither , and exchange doesn’t imply any extra fee, and that’s why goberns don’t like criptocurrencies anymore.
Recently event the European Union itself has chosen to include greater penalties (you can read this article in spanish http://www.abc.es/tecnologia/informatica/soluciones/abci-ordago-europeo-contra-bitcoin-endurece-lucha-contra-ciberataques-y-delitos-monedas-virtuales-201709200943_noticia.html) trying to persuade for this habbits.
On other part of the world, China, the Chinese authorities has dealt a hard blow to the cyber-currencies by prohibiting placements in cryptocurrencies (the article in spanish), which until now allowed to be a great source of funding for start-ups. The matter is not simple: a company creates a cryptocurrency and sells it to the public, and instead of obtaining shares of that company, the investor receives ‘tokens’ or currencies created by the company that, in the future, may have real value, in a kind of crowdfunding backed by imaginary coins.
As you can imagine, these operations are highly volatile (and very risky), and for now, is what has been banned in China, in addition to strictly penalize the sale of invented coins and pursue possible irregularities in operations already closed.
The consequences of China’s decisions: brutal drop in the price, up to 40% in a few days, although, with the passage of days have regained much of its value.
From January 2017 to September 2017, the BitCoin price has gone from not reaching 1,000 dollars to almost 20,000 (here you can see the historic data).
But BitCoin has not been the only cryptocurrency to revalue itself. Ethereum or Monero have also suffered spectacular increases in prices, largely due to the shelter of cybercrime.
La financial crisis was the starting point
Maybe, you can think that the financial crisis in 2008 has no direct relationship with the state of the criptocurrenci worls, but indeed, it has: a consolidated form of payment, outside the strict rules of financial regulators.
And, that’s all for today! Happy coding!