A common misconception is that cryptocurrency is anonymous. This has lead to the increased criminal usage of bitcoin and the like to fund illicit activities like money laundering, corruption fraud, and criminal trafficking. The evolution of the Dark Web has provided criminals with an environment to transact and carry out illegal activities like buying drugs, firearms, body parts, hiring hitman, sex trafficking, and more.
The truth is, the blockchain that cryptocurrency is built on is publicly accessible and searchable. The distributed ledger is maintained by nodes (users) and is constantly checked and verified. This makes for the immediate discovery of fabricated blocks, and they are rejected.
The one way to truly disrupt the distributed ledger is if ONE entity contained over 50% of the nodes that maintained the ledger. This would allow for approval of fabricated blocks and the rejection of new, authentic blocks. However, according to TNW, as of May 2019, nearly 100,000 nodes were making up the bitcoin network. The cost required to gain over 50% of the nodes makes it unlikely anyone would accomplish that task (Canellis, 2019).
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