The MATRIX AI Network’s AI-powered cybersecurity prevent attacks and stops malicious behavior.

While adoption of blockchain is not yet ubiquitous, its benefits are increasingly being understood by a wider audience. From real estate to the healthcare industry; blockchain technology can make businesses run faster, smoother, and safer.

Yet, what happens when the safety and integrity of blockchain comes under attack? This is still a major cause for concern for potential adopters.

Because there is a great deal of anonymity associated with blockchain, it severs a criminal’s identity from their criminal activity. Typically, the only thing tying you to a cryptocurrency account is an address, which is usually just a random string of letters and numbers. You can have multiple addresses and, in principle, there is no direct way to tie an address to a specific owner.

With Bitcoin, in particular, this is especially easy. A study conducted by the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney, found that 44 per cent of Bitcoin transactions and 25 per cent of all users were associated with illegal activity.

This activity can range anywhere from tax evasion, to money laundering, extortion, theft of the cryptocurrency itself, and ransomware, which is becoming increasingly widespread. In 2016, ransomware attacks, such as Locky, spiked and almost 16 per cent of tainted coins were linked to such attacks. Earlier this year, municipal government systems in Atlanta were hit with a ransomware attack, and criminals demanded around $51,000 in Bitcoin.

The benefit of anonymity to criminals doesn’t end there. The Onion Router (Tor), which keeps IP addresses anonymous, is also useful to criminals, especially for contraband transactions on the Dark Web. Investigative Journalist, Jeffrey Robinson told Technology Review that, “On the dark web you can even buy legal advice. There are lawyers down there willing to take Bitcoin to tell you how to avoid getting caught with Bitcoin.”

Cyber criminals will also use bulletproof hosting, fast-flux, and/or domain generation algorithms (DGAs) to help obfuscate the malicious infrastructure in order to host additional payloads, store stolen data, and more.

This, unfortunately, is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what types of criminal activity have and can take place in relation to blockchain. As such, the MATRIX AI Network team takes security very seriously and already has in place methods to prevent attacks.

With the help of artificial intelligence, the MATRIX AI Network’s cybersecurity identifies potential loopholes and malicious intensions while ensuring robustness under high-intensity attack using a generative adversarial network. What’s more, MATRIX AI uses simulated attacks via confrontation network for improved network security. Lastly, an AI-powered GAN security system and a fair consensus mechanism also helps.

While it is always important to be cautious about the realities of cyber-criminal activity, it is also important to note that as the blockchain landscape evolves, so too will the security measures available in order to protect you or your business. MATRIX AI is at the forefront of this, with the added benefit of complex artificial intelligence mechanisms.

This article is part of a new series designed to introduce blockchain industry pain points to relative newcomers. Let the MATRIX team know if you’d like to see more in the comments below!