Bitcoin is considered to be the world's first peer-to-peer and unregulated crypto-currency which has received widespread popularity in the last few years. It is issued and controlled by the members of the Bitcoin system. The success of Bitcoin has spurred the launch of many other crypto-currencies. Despite being widely adopted by various large-scale businesses, Bitcoin transactions are still exposed to many known as well as zero-day attacks due to various vulnerabilities being exploited by the malicious entities. In order to achieve reliable and secure transactions, extensive research needs to be carried out to critically examine Bitcoin architecture and its level of security. In this regard, this chapter presents a holistic analysis of Bitcoin architecture and a survey of the attacks prevalent to its transactions. As an evaluation of the Bitcoin system, a comparison of different crypto-currencies has been presented, based on their features, possible attacks, disadvantages, and the advantages which they possess over Bitcoin.
The chapter sets out to show a chain between the many aspects of Bitcoin as a regime of exchange and contract-based transactions, and to lay a basic groundwork of understanding for Bitcoin as a framework for transactions. Relevant aspects are Bitcoin’ s status as money, the different and functional qualities that it shares with other types of money, its distributed technical nature and structural integrity, as well as its ideological roots incorporated in technology. An exciting addition onto the open final link of this chain is the advent of new decentralised Bitcoinbased marketplaces where the goal is to include the transactions themselves inside Bitcoin's ‘blockchain’ – the foundation of this digital regime of exchange. Historical lines are drawn between Bitcoin and the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia in 3000 BC. While the attributes of the monetary system used in the Cradle of Civilisation are the antithesis of Bitcoin when it comes to the dichotomy of geographical centralisation/decentralisation, it evinces strong similarities concerning the relative unimportance of material tokens. A further shared trait is traced, one that is likely to prove revolutionary in the future: the intimate connection between the monetary system itself and the transactions performed using it. The Silk Road was launched in 2011. That is to say, this was when an online marketplace that called itself the ‘Silk Road’ was launched. The principal items on sale at this digital market were, unsurprisingly, various illicit substances, and the parties frequenting this marketplace settled their transactions by a direct transfer of something called ‘Bitcoin’. In this online version of buying drugs for cash in dark back-alleys, there were no banks or bank-backed payment systems involved, only this money-like thing called ‘Bitcoin’, which purported to sustain its integrity upon a technology without a central point of control. Now, years after the new Silk Road was shut down, Bitcoin is being used by wholly legal online stores as well as some banks and even state authorities. HIGH PRIEST NAKAMOTO The key realization was that there’ s no difference between modern culture and Sumerian. We have a huge workforce that is illiterate or alliterate and relies on TV – which is a form of oral tradition. And we have a small, extremely literate power elite … who control society because they have this semimystical ability to speak magic computer languages.
Various crimes using Bitcoin are highlighted. Among various crimes using Bitcoin, this paper suggests a method to detect money laundering focusing on mixing service that provides Money Laundering. This is part of the anti-money-laundering (AML) strategy, which can determine whether the mixer service is used in certain transactions by using transaction sample data using mixer. Money laundering using Bitcoin is often used to avoid fund tracking in the underground world and analyzing it is essential in situational awareness of fund tracking.
Purpose This purpose of this paper is to illustrate how terrorists finance their activities through cryptocurrencies. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative content analysis of 30 semi-standardized expert interviews with both illegal financial service providers and prevention experts developed understanding of the concrete techniques of financing terrorism through cryptocurrencies. Findings Terrorists could use Bitcoin to receive donations from their supporters. Research limitations/implications As the findings are based on semi-standardized interviews, they are limited to the perspectives of the 30 interviewees. Practical implications The identification of gaps in current prevention mechanisms is intended to provide legislators and intelligence agencies with insights into the operations of terrorism financers. Originality/value While the existing literature focuses simply on identifying areas that could play a role in financing terrorism, this paper describes concrete methods, taking both prevention and criminal perspectives into account.
Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
Bitcoin has enjoyed wider adoption than any previous cryptocurrency; yet its success has also attracted the attention of fraudsters who have taken advantage of operational insecurity and transaction irreversibility. We study the risk that investors face from the closure of Bitcoin exchanges, which convert between Bitcoins and hard currency. We examine the track record of 80 Bitcoin exchanges established between 2010 and 2015. We find that nearly half (38) have since closed, with customer account balances sometimes wiped out. Fraudsters are sometimes to blame, but not always. Twenty-five exchanges suffered security breaches, 15 of which subsequently closed. We present logistic regressions using longitudinal data on Bitcoin exchanges aggregated quarterly. We find that experiencing a breach is correlated with a 13 times greater odds that an exchange will close in that same quarter. We find that higher-volume exchanges are less likely to close (each doubling in trade volume corresponds to a 12% decrease in the odds of closure). We also find that exchanges that derive most of their business from trading less popular (fiat) currencies, which are offered by at most one competitor, are less likely to close.
El objetivo de esta investigación fue saber si realmente las inversiones en el Bitcoin son riesgosas o no, y conocer más acerca de este nuevo mercado de Monedas Virtuales. Esta investigación se llevó acabo de manera documental, analizando la información disponible en el campo para así buscar la principal causa de incertidumbre de este mercado internacional, y conocer así sus principales ventajas y desventajas, con esto identificar si son riesgosas o no, y así poder ayudar a los lectores a tener una mejor y más sencilla idea, sobre este mercado para saber si la inversión resultara o no. Los resultados mostraron que invertir en este momento en Bitcoins no es lo más indicada, pero en un futuro, no muy lejano, este mercado será más estable y seguro para hacer cualquier tipo de inversión y transacción.
With dramatic developments of blockchain technology, a number of blockchain-based applications emerge rapidly, among which the incorporation of blockchain into Internet of Things is one of the most valued research direction. Such powerful incorporation is a double-sided sword, i.e., it can benefit both individuals and society but has the vulnerability to coin hopping attack that is a new type of pool mining attack and hard to happen in traditional blockchain networks. In this paper, we theoretically prove the feasibility of coin hopping attack, deeply analyze the conditions of attack implementation, and comprehensively investigate the impacts of coin hopping attack. Moreover, some defense strategies are addressed. To our best knowledge, this paper is the first work targeting coin hopping attack.
Abstract The oil and Gas industry has recently transformed itself into a data-intensive industry – artificial intelligence, machine learning and internet of things. With such growth and expansion, distributed ledger technology, commonly known as blockchain, can carry the industry's transformation forward. This technology can help the industry to overcome various challenges such as price volatility, supply chain, accounting, data management and security. It can also help in streamlining various engineering and technical decisions. Technologically, the oil and gas industry has been very innovative – 3-D seismic, hydraulic fracturing, geosteering, imaging beneath salt, etc. However, the administrative and managerial functions are still done in a somewhat traditional way. The Blockchain technology can help the industry become more efficient by streamlining these traditional methodologies. This paper presents the four major areas where the blockchain technology can help the industry overcome various day to day challenges – (1) Supply Chain and Trading, (2) Regulatory, (3) Database Management and (4) Cyber Security. Like any new technology, the blockchain technology might not get a full embrace at the beginning, but the idea is to present a qualitative study about its benefits. The industry currently has little or no knowledge about this technology, which is expected to bring transparency, security and convenience in one place. The objective of this paper is to help the industry peers understand the idea behind this technology and how it can transform the way the industry currently operates. It provides a frame of reference for the industry to realize the potential of this technology and assess its benefits.
Abstract Blockchains combine digital encryption and time stamping technologies to enable digital exchange to occur in manners celebrated by proponents as ‘trust‐free’. Yet, an increasing range of scholars argue that actual applications of the peer‐to‐peer technology shifts, rather than eliminates, trust. In this article, we draw on organizational theory to argue that efforts to remove trust reorganize the action nets that underpin payment systems in manners that extend rather than eliminate longstanding pathologies afflicting financial globalization. Our analysis supports and extends the critiques that blockchain applications are far from ‘trust‐free’. By tracing how efforts to reconfigure the socio‐technical composition of the humans and objects that underpin payment systems, we illustrate how blockchain applications shift the location and character of the technical vulnerabilities that create market instabilities and concentration, as well as elite‐led governance.
Cryptocurrencies are often thought to operate out of the reach of national regulation, but in fact their valuations, transaction volumes and user bases react substantially to news about regulatory actions. The impact depends on the specific regulatory category to which the news relates: events related to general bans on cryptocurrencies or to their treatment under securities law have the greatest adverse effect, followed by news on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and on restricting the interoperability of cryptocurrencies with regulated markets. News pointing to the establishment of specific legal frameworks tailored to cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings coincides with strong market gains. These results suggest that cryptocurrency markets rely on regulated financial institutions to operate and that these markets are segmented across jurisdictions, bringing cryptocurrencies within reach of national regulation.
Libing Fang, Elie Bouri, Rangan Gupta, David Roubaud
We assess whether the long-run volatilities of Bitcoin, global equities, commodities, and bonds are affected by global economic policy uncertainty. Empirical results provide evidence supporting that, except for the case of bonds. We further examine whether the correlation between Bitcoin and global equities, commodities, and bonds are affected by global economic policy uncertainty and the results reveal that global economic policy uncertainty has a negative significant impact on the Bitcoin-bonds correlation, and a positive impact on both Bitcoin-equities and Bitcoin-commodities correlations, suggesting a possibility for Bitcoin to act as a hedge under specific economic uncertainty conditions. Interestingly, the hedging effectiveness of Bitcoin for both global equities and global bonds enhances slightly after considering the level of global economic policy uncertainty. Implications for investors and policy-makers are discussed.
Aug 1, 2018·2018 IEEE 16th Intl Conf on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, 16th Intl Conf on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, 4th Intl Conf on Big Data Intelligence and Computing and Cyber Science and Technology Congress(DASC/PiCom/DataCom/CyberSciTech)
Risk and Information System Control Framework in business includes the methods and processes to manage risks and seize opportunities which involve identifying particular risk events relevant to the objectives, assessing them in terms of likelihood and magnitude of impact, determining a response strategy, and monitoring progress. In order to provide better support for the backtracking, traceability, irreversibility, and credible requirements of risk registration table data in the framework, this paper proposes a blockchain-based risk and information system control framework. A risk association tree is designed for combining summarized risk item ledgers with risk assessment ledgers and risk response ledgers based on the Merkle Tree. Three proposed smart contracts are used in risk identification, risk assessment, risk response and mitigation, and risk and control monitoring and reporting processes. We implement a prototype for this framework.
Virtual currencies are on the rise and so is money laundering. While there are efforts to combat money laundering through various intergovernmental bodies, many have expressed concern over the rise of virtual currencies. Some cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have played a major role in the proliferation of online money laundering as it possesses characteristics that criminals are fond of. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are decentralised, anonymous/pseudonymous and irreversible. They provide the means to skirt the Anti-Money laundering safeguards that have been put in place. \nThis paper discusses the intersection between Anti-Money Laundering efforts and the challenges that are introduced by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. It also looks at the case of Liberty Reserve to highlight these challenges.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin not only provide a decentralized currency, but also provide a programmatic way to process transactions. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency next to Bitcoin, is the first to provide a Turing-complete language to specify transaction processing, thereby enabling so-called smart contracts. This provides an opportune setting for attackers, as security vulnerabilities are tightly intertwined with financial gain. In this paper, we consider the problem of automatic vulnerability identification and exploit generation for smart contracts. We develop a generic definition of vulnerable contracts and use this to build TEE THER, a tool that allows creating an exploit for a contract given only its binary bytecode. We perform a large-scale analysis of all 38,757 unique Ethereum contracts, 815 out of which our tool finds working exploits for—completely automated.
Banking malware is malicious software that aims to steal money from victims via manipulated bank transfers in online banking. This paper describes how the profits of banking malware are generated and subsequently laundered, with a particular focus on the use of bitcoins and other digital payment methods. Computers are infected with banking malware via phishing emails, in which people are persuaded in various ways to click on links or open attachments, or via exploit kits, programs that try to find weak spots in the security of computer systems. After infection, bank transfers of the online banking accounts of victims are manipulated via fake website screens (web injects). Behind the screens the amounts and beneficiaries of transactions are modified, emptying the victims’ bank accounts. In the next step, the banking malware profits are laundered. In this paper we describe two models that are used in particular (next to more traditional money laundering methods). The first model involves the use of money mules and a quick cash-out. The second model focuses on direct spending via (a) direct purchases of products via online shopping, (b) direct purchases of bitcoins via Bitcoin exchanges or (c) direct purchases of luxury goods. Bitcoins can be further laundered via so-called mixing services. All in all, these methods allow criminals to launder profits in relative anonymity and prevent seizure of the illegal profits.
The advent of crypto currencies like bitcoins has raised questions about the continuing relevance of fiat money and centralized financial institutions run by Leviathan States. Bitcoin is a crypto-currency engendered by new computation technology which relies on a distributed network of peer-to-peer computing agents referred to as ‘miners’. These agents earn bitcoins by successfully settling and securing economic transactions in electronic ledgers called blocks. Successive blocks are stringed together to form blockchains. This radically different world of alternative currencies heralds a change that leaves Leviathans nonplussed for four reasons. First, bitcoin miners, who function as neo-Spinozian multitudes, squarely challenge the prerogative of the State to issue fiat money. Second, these distributed communities usher in a new philosophy of time in order to measure their mining efforts objectively. Third, these communities change the existing state of affairs by linking bitcoin earnings to ‘proof of work’. The fourth contribution of this unique community lies in the ideas of consensus they embrace. However, in recent times, crypto currency miners, who are forced to ramp up their mining operations, are constrained to depend on the world of fiat money in order to mobilize resources. What was primarily designed as a digital means of payment has turned into a speculative asset undermining its ability to replace fiat money. This paper argues that the future of distributed networks will depend on whether they can obviate their pernicious dependence on the Leviathan by adopting rigorous codes of conduct for conducting their operations both autonomously and more sustainably.
A great many cloud users face a difficult challenge in respect of the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into effect on 25th May, 2018. While all computer systems are continuously under attack, those who operate conventional distributed network systems stand a far greater chance of being able to demonstrate compliance than those who use cloud based systems. The main reason for this discrepancy between the two approaches is down to the as yet unsolved cloud forensic problem, meaning many cloud users will be completely unable to demonstrate compliance with the new regulation, thus exposing themselves to potentially massive fines after 25th May. We consider the possible use of a crypto-currency based mechanism to address the as yet unsolved cloud forensic problem. Crypto-currencies are becoming a global phenomenon, gaining more attention from media, venture capitalists, financial and government institutions. We focus on the operational risk and the market risk related to crypto-currencies, especially the dominating Bitcoin. Operational risk encompasses the actions that undermine the technological infrastructure and security assumptions of crypto-currencies. We discuss how blockchain technology could improve the efficiency of financial infrastructures, as well as the inevitable vulnerabilities of operational risk of software, open-source governance, and code maintenance. We summarise the literature findings on the co-movement of crypto- currencies with different currencies, indices, and commodities, to show the role of crypto-currency as a commodity, currency, or a speculative investment under portfolio diversification theory. Particularly now that we have seen successful attacks on crypto- currencies in action, it is important to understand where these weaknesses lie, and to endeavour to find out to what extent the use of such technology might expose companies using this technology for GDPR compliance. In the light of the robustness of this approach, we consider whether the underlying blockchain technology could, in turn, be practically applied to addressing the cloud forensic problem. This paper looks at the pros and cons of the blockchain/bitcoin approach, seeking to identify weaknesses, potential benefits offered versus the additional resource costs/latency involved, and considers whether such an approach might be used to secure cloud forensic trails.
Jul 1, 2018·2018 IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings) and IEEE Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom) and IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE Smart Data (SmartData)
In this paper, we first propose an adaptive strategy for double-spending attack on blockchains. The attacker in our strategy observes the length of the honest branch when a submitted transaction becomes available in the blockchain, and then updates the attack strategy accordingly. This provides a stronger strategy than conventional double-spending attack. We then derive closed-form expressions for the probability of a successful attack and the expected reward of attacker miners. Our analysis shows that the probability of a successful attack by convincing the network nodes to follow the counterfeit branch under the proposed attack strategy is 60% higher than what is expected from the conventional attack strategy when the attackers acquire 40% of the total network processing power. To counter this increase in the probability of attack, the network nodes are required to use a bigger number of confirmation blocks for validating any transaction in the blockchain. We computed the. expected reward of an attacker for mining a counterfeit branch on a blockchain and observed that the expected reward drops to zero after a few number of block confirmations.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency for managing and transferring money in a distributed manner. The Bitcoin network creates a complex system of economic incentives that governs its inner working, impacting the network's security guarantees and its evolution. Recent development of Bitcoin as a speculative asset and the herein skyrocketing Bitcoin price greatly incentivize participation in the network. We posit that the expansion in Bitcoin miner population and speculative transactions may not be socially desirable. The increased competition in Bitcoin mining not only exacerbates energy consumption and environmental cost, but also makes the risky mining business much riskier. In addition to the risk of unstable reward flows, the fluctuation in Bitcoin price makes the profitability of mining more uncertain. This research studies an alternative socially optimal model for the Bitcoin market (and other cryptocurrencies in general). Through equilibrium analysis, we emphasize the need to limit speculation in Bitcoin transactions, improve efficiency, diversify currency portfolio, and minimize negative externalities of the Bitcoin mining business.
Benjamin Johnson, Áron Lászka, Jens Großklags, Tyler Moore
Cryptocurrency exchanges are frequently targeted and compromised by cyber-attacks, which may lead to significant losses for the depositors and closure of the affected exchanges. These risks threaten the viability of the entire public blockchain ecosystem since exchanges serve as major gateways for participation in public blockchain technologies. In this paper, we develop an economic model to capture the short-term incentives of cryptocurrency exchanges with respect to making security investments and establishing transaction fees. Using the model, we derive conclusions regarding an exchange's optimal economic decisions, and illustrate key features of these conclusions using graphs based on real-world data. Our security investment model exhibits horizontal scaling properties with respect to reducing exposure to losses, and may be of special interest to exchanges operating in markets with high price volatility.