French blockchain security company NIGMA Conseil, and the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), have signed an agreement of cooperation to strengthen their collaboration in tracking crypto crime. The two organizations are working on the e-NIGMA platform, which uses the AIT GraphSense technology.
The possibility to trace and chart blockchain connections and transactions have come about due to stricter KYC rules enshrined in the AMLD5 released in the beginning of 2020.
This involved more stringent developments in the tracking of coin origins. Fabien Tabarly, CEO of NIGMA Conseil said:
The synergy between a leading European academic research institute and our team of developers has been instrumental in implementing the most innovative tools to fight financial crime in virtual currencies.
Tracking wallet clusters is essential in discovering darknet usage and funds with questionable origins. The e-Nigma ecosystem will also be able to discover the entities behind crypto wallets, and also track for suspicious transactions. Recently security firm Chainalysis has been instrumental in darkweb arrests involving child abuse material and alleged laundering of drug crime money using cryptocurrencies.
The addition of blockchain security allows the AIT to expand its general portfolio of data and security services, as the organisation already advises on general cybersecurity, systems engineering, camera and video analytics, as well as physical layer security.
AIT is also part of the Titanium cybersecurity project, which investigates darknet activity alongside Interpol and other government or academic partners. The EU has been one of the regions with stricter rules against anonymous crypto usage, and a special focus on darknet wallets, as well as coin mixers. European authorities have also cracked down on the crypto mixing business, closing Bestmixer and exploring blockchain records for Bitcoin connections to dark web sites.
These steps show further maturity by authorities in recognising that public blockchains are great for criminals... if they want to get caught.