UK will use blockchain analytics to fight cybercrime

The UK tax office wants to implement a blockchain analytics tool to simplify the identification of cybercriminals using cryptocurrency.

Department of Revenue and Customs DutiesMajesty (HMRC) plans to use it to track the transactions of digital currencies, which are most often chosen for tax evasion and money laundering.

In particular, HMRC is looking for a solution that would allow monitoring of at least seven cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, ether, XRP, bitcoin cache, lightcoin, ethereum classic and USDT. However, the department is even more interested in technology that will help track confidential coins such as Monero, Zikesh, and Dash.

The tax service is ready to spend £ 100,000 on licensing a suitable tool and hopes to sign a contract with a potential solution developer before February 17.

According to the HMRC, the problem of tracking criminalThe activity through the blockchain is that, despite the availability of public access to transactions, participants involved in them usually do not compromise themselves. Therefore, the tax department needs a data collection tool for identifying and clustering operations in order to not only track the movement of funds, but also to identify those associated with illegal traffic.

Great Britain began to watch very closelyand for the crypto industry. In 2019, the number of cryptocurrency business investigations by the UK Financial Regulatory Authority (FCA) increased by 74%.