{"id":29667,"date":"2020-10-06T11:09:41","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T08:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=29667"},"modified":"2025-08-27T18:18:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:18:35","slug":"europol-identifies-wasabi-and-samourai-bitcoin-wallets-as-key-darknet-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/europol-identifies-wasabi-and-samourai-bitcoin-wallets-as-key-darknet-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Europol identifies Wasabi and Samourai Bitcoin wallets as key darknet threats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The growing popularity of Wasabi and Samourai Bitcoin wallets with coin-mixing capabilities significantly complicates the tracing of darknet activity. The finding is contained in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europol.europa.eu\/activities-services\/main-reports\/internet-organised-crime-threat-assessment-iocta-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report<\/a> from the European Union Police Service (Europol) on internet-related threats.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Both wallets use CoinJoin technology to anonymize Bitcoin transactions.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cImproved wallet capabilities based on the CoinJoin concept have become a major threat alongside centralized mixers,\u201d Europol notes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The report notes that wallets offer additional features beyond simple CoinJoin integration and the Tor network:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cSamourai, for example, offers remote SMS commands that can delete information. These wallets do not necessarily sever the link between the origin of funds and their destination, but they certainly complicate tracking of cryptocurrencies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Law enforcement notes that administrators of some darknet marketplaces are attempting, by default, to integrate CoinJoin-enabled wallets as a payment option. The share of users using hardware wallets is rising. Some platforms employ multi-signature addresses or crypto payment systems without wallets.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the growing popularity of Bitcoin wallets with CoinJoin, the report authors note a rising demand for Monero, focused on enhanced cryptocurrency privacy.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"UoALUwvY8j\">\n<p>What is Monero (XMR)?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"What is Monero (XMR)? \u2014 ForkLog\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/cryptorium\/chto-takoe-monero\/embed#?secret=mnAmfsVyMX#?secret=UoALUwvY8j\" data-secret=\"UoALUwvY8j\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The report notes lower popularity of Litecoin, Ethereum, Zcash and Dash on darknet markets.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBitcoin remains the most popular payment method. Mainly due to broader adoption, reputation and ease of use. The use of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies has risen, though not as much as its proponents expected,\u201d the document says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier, Litecoin developers launched a testnet for the MimbleWimble protocol aimed at increasing privacy. It uses Confidential Transactions technology, which completely eliminates inputs and outputs by implementing multi-signatures. Litecoin\u2019s lead MimbleWimble developer, David Burkett, expects protocol activation in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Europol specialists also note a rise in decentralization of the darknet ecosystem. The report notes an increase in the number of small marketplaces focused on specialized features and offerings for their users. The relatively short lifespans of such markets pose a challenge for law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>In September Europol and the US DOJ <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/179-darknet-vendors-arrested-in-the-eu-and-the-us\">reported<\/a> on the successful operation to prevent major drug trafficking on the darknet.<\/p>\n<p>In August, analysts at The Block <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/study-bitcoin-remains-the-most-popular-darknet-cryptocurrency\">found<\/a> that after Bitcoin the most popular cryptocurrencies are Monero (XMR) and Litecoin (LTC).<\/p>\n<p>In one of the latest reports, Chainalysis <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/chainalysis-eastern-europe-leads-darknet-market-activity\">identified<\/a> Eastern Europe as a leader in darknet market activity.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"OsZ1iWCBih\">\n<p>What is the darknet? What is Tor?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"What is the darknet? What is Tor? \u2014 ForkLog\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/cryptorium\/chto-takoe-darknet-chto-takoe-tor\/embed#?secret=Fds8wSuP9Q#?secret=OsZ1iWCBih\" data-secret=\"OsZ1iWCBih\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The growing popularity of Wasabi and Samourai Bitcoin wallets with coin-mixing capabilities significantly hampers the tracing of darknet activity. The finding comes from a Europol report on internet-related threats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[477,1444,1512,933],"class_list":["post-29667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-darknet","tag-law-enforcement","tag-samourai-wallet","tag-wasabi-wallet"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"23","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29669,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29667\/revisions\/29669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}