Recently, the media has focused its attention on an interesting yet highly controversial service called Antinalysis. This service was made to help dark web users “hunt” for compromised Bitcoin addresses.
But because of wide media coverage and state agencies expressing concerns about the service, Antinalysis was suspended because of the growing scrutiny over it.
Media exposure
A blockchain analysis company called Elliptic informed the world about Antinalysis through its blog post last August 13. But with the intense media exposure that the service has garnered, authorities immediately suspended Antinalysis’ website.
This move was done because of the service’s massive potential to be used in illegal transactions. “So after a large amount of media exposure, I’m sad to say Antinalysis has attracted [the] attention of state agencies,” Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said.
Robinson even tweeted screenshots that showed Antinalysis’ website was indeed suspended.
Antinalysis’ data source, which it uses to identify if Bitcoin addresses are linked to criminal activity, was cut off by its provider.
Identical results
Robinson said in a tweet that the results provided by Antinalysis are closely similar to the data provided by AMLBot, which is also a reseller for analytics provider Crystal Blockchain.
The creator of Antinalysis, with the pseudonym “Pharaoh”, said in a dark web forum that since Antinalysis’ service has been suspended, he and his team are working double-time to resolve the issue.
He also said that in today’s democratic world, everyone has the right to handle and review their own privacy. And everybody can do that without violating the rights of other people.
Pharaoh sent a statement to BBC reporter Joe Tidy and said they consider themselves activists that “dislike state agencies conducting mass surveillance under the name of national security and criminal investigations.”
Image courtesy of Cointelegraph News/YouTube
