Bitfury does not expect law enforcement to clean the bitcoin space.

After years of working with government agencies, mistrustful of the shady past of bitcoin, the blockchain services firm best known for its bitcoin transaction processing business decided to take things into their own hands . Launched today, a number of tools collectively identified as Crystal are intended to allow users to easily identify and investigate the criminal activities of the world 's largest blockchain.

But that does not mean that Crystal's ultimate goal is philanthropic.

Developed over a two-year period, with feedback from former senior government officials, the platform was eventually created to help bitcoin once and for all get its association with black market transactions.

The next time Bitfury's potential customers are reluctant to get involved in cryptocurrency, Bitfury Group CEO Valery Vavilov hopes that Crystal will provide a solution.

Vavilov tells CoinDesk:

"The industry needs very user-friendly tools so you can track bitcoin transactions and see if that bitcoin address from where you get money is green. or black. "

Starting today, a lite version of the Crystal software will be made available free of charge to individuals, with corporate subscription rates to be released in March.

The heart of the toolbox is a detailed risk rating solution that helps law enforcement officers and investigators trace suspicious transactions up to a final address or point of withdrawal. By tracking the relationships between the so-called "bad actors", Crystal will generate a rating on the likelihood that a particular address is related to an illegal activity.

The results of the data analysis are then presented in a visual graph that can be integrated with other software tools and used to prepare legal reports as part of more in-depth investigations.

Other tools allow the autonomous tracking of bitcoin addresses over time, custom reports that can be sent based on predetermined criteria or triggered by transactions between groups and advanced services including the technology previously disclosed for "disentangling" software transactions, called mixers.

"We analyze the web, we analyze the forums, we analyze different types of sources, we combine this information and we get a result if this transaction is risky or not," said Vavilov.

Untangling of the competition

Overall, the entry of Bitfury into the bitcoin security space marks the latest expansion of the company, founded in 2012 as a bitcoin start-up.

As part of a larger initiative to get blockchain technology through the industry, Bitfury has entered the blockchain industry more broadly with the launch of Exonum, its own blockchain infrastructure for enterprise users.

Now, to better distinguish Bitfury's enterprise offering, Crystal Pro will be deployable in the internal architecture of a customer, a service designed to go beyond simple monitoring Bitcoin transactions and provide an additional layer of security to bitcoin companies.

Expansion is important because a niche industry surrounding blockchain analytics has emerged over the past two years.

Among the most notable competitors offering users a way to investigate the bitcoin blockchain are Elliptic, who raised $ 5 million, Chainalysis, which raised $ 1.6 million, and Skry, which was acquired last year by Bloq.

"In the end, it is very important that the chain of blocks and all this technology really advance," said Bitfury's head of global communications and former White House deputy press secretary Jamie Smith.

She added:

"And if bad people do bad things, then no one really benefits from what is in anyone's interest."

The League of Justice

The origin of Crystal dates back to around 2015, when Bitfury was working to help overcome the reluctance of financial institutions and government agencies who were curious about cryptocurrency.

At the time, Bitfury had just helped launch the first Blockchain Summit in 2014 in the personal retirement of billionaire Richard Branson, Necker Island.

Gathered at the event, many blockchain entrepreneurs, several people from Bitfury – and Jason Weinstein, a 15-year veteran of the United States Department of Justice, played a crucial role in the fight against corruption. Crystal inspiration.

According to Smith, it is at Necker Island that the seeds were first sown for the Blockchain Alliance in order to explore how private companies could join the public struggle against criminal activities.

Weinstein, who now heads the alliance is also a strategic adviser to Bitfury confirmed the history of Smith.

He reflected:

"I've often said that bitcoin was more friendly to cops than crooks, and that criminals had to run, not walk, far from bitcoin … With Crystal, they'd have to Run away even faster. "

Disclaimer: Jamie Smith, Global Communications Officer at Bitfury, is a member of the CoinDesk Advisory Committee.

Insignia and handcuffs through the medium of the company

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