Over 300 cryptocurrency experts from both law enforcement and the private sector attended the sixth Cryptocurrency Conference hosted at Europol’s headquarters from 12 to 14 June 2019. The event, organised by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), is the largest law enforcement cryptocurrency event in Europe.

The conference looked at opportunities for closer cooperation and new partnerships to prevent and detect cryptocurrency-facilitated crime and to assist asset recovery.

Experts shared best practices and law enforcement techniques using examples such as investigations into phishing, thefts of funds and DDoS extortion. The conference also included lessons learned from some recent investigations like the takedown of Wall Street Market and Bestmixer.

Private sector experts specialising in the lawful use of cryptocurrencies also actively participated in the event to further enhance cooperation with law enforcement. Cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges and payment processors, including Binance, BitBay, Bitcoin.de, Bitfinex, BitFlyer Europe, Bitnovo, Bitonic, Bitpanda, BitPay, Bitstamp, CEX, Coinbase, Coinfloor, Coinhouse, Coinpayments, CoinsPaid, Ledger, Litebit, LocalBitcoins, OKCoin, Shapeshift, SpectroCoin, Tether and Xapo demonstrated their best practices in implementing Know Your Customer (KYC) policies and mechanisms, and risk-based approaches to suspicious transactions.

Participants reflected on the legitimate use of blockchain technologies, including the use of cryptocurrencies for trading and investment activities, payment method and as a store of value.

Like last year, Europol issued all speakers with traceable certificates permanently stored in the Bitcoin Blockchain, practically demonstrating the benefits of the tamper-proof, decentralised ledger technology.

The transaction referring to the index that contains hashes of all certificates awarded to speakers is publicly available.

New computer training game for investigators

At the conference, Europol also announced the ongoing development of a cryptocurrency-tracing serious game, developed and co-created in close cooperation with CENTRIC (Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research). The game, planned to be launched in October at the seventh Europol-INTERPOL Cybercrime Conference, will be the first law enforcement training opportunity on cryptocurrency and investigation using gamification. It will allow law enforcement officers to get hands-on training and advice on tracing cryptocurrencies in criminal investigations.