Litecoin Emerging as the Next Dark Web Currency

DooKey

DooKey

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
13,554
According to a study by Recorded Future, Litecoin is starting to be accepted more and more on the Dark Web in place of the standard-bearer, Bitcoin. The reasons are many, but transaction fees and speed appear to be some of the main complaints against Bitcoin. Of course this is the Dark Web and I know most of us here don't go there, however, the same complaints still apply against Bitcoin for legitimate transactions. How much longer will Bitcoin last as the defacto cryptocurrency standard?

Beginning in the middle of 2016, Recorded Future began noticing an increase in frequency of discussions regarding the functionality, security, and usability of cryptocurrency among members of the cybercriminal underground. Regardless of their geographical distribution, spoken language, or niche business, everyone was sharing their growing dissatisfaction with Bitcoin as a major payment vehicle.
 
Dan UCF said:
Or the opposite.

There isn't much that crypto can do that cash can not. Only Crypto is faster on a worldwide basis.
Click to expand...

Most major crime rings/criminals are either using Monero or Fiat still. I don’t know where this underground criminal stuff keeps coming from especially the whole terrorists thing.

Bitcoin and many crypto currencies are easily tracked. Like to the point where there is nothing to prove, all transactions are on the Blockchain FFS. Any criminals using Bitcoin or Litecoin are amateurs, the FBI probably wants them to use it.
 
how does one really access the darker side of the web ive been curious about it i dont want to hear funny answers but the truth and no troling\random statements for the love of Pie !
 
I would think that something else would serve that end better than Litecoin (which is pretty much as Scrypt algo version of Bitcoin if I recall). For instance, of the "major" currencies, something like Etherium could work over Bitcoin, or one of the others like Stellar/IOTA/Cardano which are more or less "smart contract" style tokens. However, if they wanted to add real security and privacy, then they'd be much better off with Dash, Monero, or ZCash i'd think, which all institute greater anonymity/privacy features.
 
next-Jin said:
Most major crime rings/criminals are either using Monero or Fiat still. I don’t know where this underground criminal stuff keeps coming from especially the whole terrorists thing.

Bitcoin and many crypto currencies are easily tracked. Like to the point where there is nothing to prove, all transactions are on the Blockchain FFS. Any criminals using Bitcoin or Litecoin are amateurs, the FBI probably wants them to use it.
Click to expand...
I dont always commit crime, but when I do , I prefer greenbacks.
 
fightingfi said:
how does one really access the darker side of the web ive been curious about it i dont want to hear funny answers but the truth and no troling\random statements for the love of Pie !
Click to expand...

If you'd like to PM, I'd be happy to discuss it further, but here are a few ways to get your started.

Note that much of the "Darkweb" is not actually "bad" or "evil". Dark in this context means "hidden" more than necessarily 'bad". This is not to say there isn't "bad" stuff out there, but much of the darkweb content isn't illegal or even immoral in the minds of most. If you want to get started, you'll want to check out https://www.torproject.org/ and - https://geti2p.net/en/ . Understanding them and setting them up. is your first step - be wary of your security of course. If you would like to use a privacy focused live disk image for TOR, consider TAILS - https://tails.boum.org/index.en.html . I should also mention that there are many VPN services that offer TOR bridges of sorts which allow you to browse TOR darknet sites without having to actually configure TOR yourself, but be aware of what that means and the differences involved.

Once you have one of those set up, you can browse to many of the hidden, darkweb sites that otherwise are inaccessible. Be careful and enjoy!
 
Dan UCF said:
Or the opposite.

There isn't much that crypto can do that cash can not. Only Crypto is faster on a worldwide basis.
Click to expand...

Lets see a small time dealer get a large wad of cash to Columbia safely without being noticed.
 
next-Jin said:
Most major crime rings/criminals are either using Monero or Fiat still. I don’t know where this underground criminal stuff keeps coming from especially the whole terrorists thing.

Bitcoin and many crypto currencies are easily tracked. Like to the point where there is nothing to prove, all transactions are on the Blockchain FFS. Any criminals using Bitcoin or Litecoin are amateurs, the FBI probably wants them to use it.
Click to expand...

Ummm no. The only way it can be tracked is if the payment processor tracks source and destination and verifies each. Why do you think crooks love it so much? And that is why bitcoin can be stolen without a trace.

They could use western union and pick up under any name at any location without ID. But that gets it down to a locale and WU offices record each person picking up or dropping off money.
 
Xaeos said:
If you'd like to PM, I'd be happy to discuss it further, but here are a few ways to get your started.

Note that much of the "Darkweb" is not actually "bad" or "evil". Dark in this context means "hidden" more than necessarily 'bad". This is not to say there isn't "bad" stuff out there, but much of the darkweb content isn't illegal or even immoral in the minds of most. If you want to get started, you'll want to check out https://www.torproject.org/ and - https://geti2p.net/en/ . Understanding them and setting them up. is your first step - be wary of your security of course. If you would like to use a privacy focused live disk image for TOR, consider TAILS - https://tails.boum.org/index.en.html . I should also mention that there are many VPN services that offer TOR bridges of sorts which allow you to browse TOR darknet sites without having to actually configure TOR yourself, but be aware of what that means and the differences involved.

Once you have one of those set up, you can browse to many of the hidden, darkweb sites that otherwise are inaccessible. Be careful and enjoy!
Click to expand...

You should know IF you are in the united states, even googling TOR or TAILS will get you looked at by the NSA. If you start using it, YOU WILL get their attention and possibly a phising attempt by them to infect your computer to see what you are up to if they deem you a person of interest.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DigitalGriffin said:
You should know IF you are in the united states, even googling TOR or TAILS will get you looked at by the NSA. If you start using it, YOU WILL get their attention and possibly an phising attempt by them to infect your computer to see what you are up to if they deem you a person of interest.
Click to expand...

Pickup a cheap junk laptop from a garage sale not near your house, pay in cash.
Put into signal blocking bag.
Go to another location away from where you live, remove hard drive
Boot up from live Tails ISO CD or USB Key that you already downloaded & made somewhere not at your home or work.
Connect up to a public wifi location.
Have explore as you wish.
Throw away laptop when done & get another one for the next time you want to explore
 
Sometimes, yes but in a public location they have to figure out which person specifically out of a number of people.
Plus, look ahead of time for places that don't have good camera coverage & figure out the extreme edge ranges of their wifi coverage.
Single time, new place with new hardware, much harder to pin down.
Repeating with the same hardware or keep going back to the same location, that makes it easy.
Then again if you are the kind of person who one of the agencies actually cares about or is doing something they really care about, it's only a matter of how bad they want you anyways.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
You should know IF you are in the united states, even googling TOR or TAILS will get you looked at by the NSA. If you start using it, YOU WILL get their attention and possibly an phising attempt by them to infect your computer to see what you are up to if they deem you a person of interest.
Click to expand...

I don't think this is accurate. There are tons of people searching about TOR/TAILS and other darknet keywords today and many, many actual users. Years ago before these things were common-ish knowledge perhaps they were more interesting, there was a very small note on a Snowden (I think it was, could have been something else) document claiming that searches for those terms/download/use would get flagged for automatic (ie machine based ) count in PRISM-type searchable databases. This was extrapolated from a NSA memo I think claiming that people connecting to certain sites from 2010 to 2012 - which turned out to be TOR directory servers, which are only accessed by actually using TOR - should be flagged for interest but no other details were present. There has been a lot of discussion about what exactly this meant and why (ie there were handful of targeted operations during this time where they were looking for particular people already and hoped to find out if they might be using TOR to stay off the radar etc). I don't recall any credible source that even using TOR or TAILS etc.. could consider you a serious "person of interest" much less to the point the NSA would activate TAO to try and phish or otherwise compromise your machine.

The NSA and the entire surveillence-industrial-complex (including Facebook, Google, etc..) basically vacuum up as much data and metadata as possible, storing everything for analysis now and in the future, sometimes making (or allowing) conclusions harmful to personal rights and liberties to be made. The fact that these entities are gathering up our searches, where we go, what we do etc.. is a totally different issue and one that deserves its own discussion (I personally feel we need MUCH greater restrictions on both government and ESPECIALLY corporate data gathering, storage etc... .as well as new, ground up 21st century privacy laws), but the idea that simply searching or using TOR is enough to get you targeted as a "person of interest" or flagged for targeted operations doesn't seem to be accurate.
 
fightingfi said:
how does one really access the darker side of the web ive been curious about it i dont want to hear funny answers but the truth and no troling\random statements for the love of Pie !
Click to expand...

Xaeos had some good pointers on getting you on the DW. But the most important thing is finding the onions you are looking for and what search engines to use, Duck Duck Go will do a good job on the clearnet, and Not Evil will get you access to hidden DW services. Two good onions to study are these: The Hidden Wiki and The Uncensored Hidden Wiki.

Make sure you keep No Script enabled and get you an ad blocker like Ad Block and AdBlocker Ultimate. If you feel the need to use Tor on the regular web, be aware most all sites will see you as a bot and hit you with a shit ton of Capcha's.

Ps, If this is for child Pr0n, I can't condone that and will not be of any use to you. Now guns-drugs-explosives-hacking etc. we can talk. ;)
 
DigitalGriffin said:
Ummm no. The only way it can be tracked is if the payment processor tracks source and destination and verifies each. Why do you think crooks love it so much? And that is why bitcoin can be stolen without a trace.

They could use western union and pick up under any name at any location without ID. But that gets it down to a locale and WU offices record each person picking up or dropping off money.
Click to expand...

They have to find a way to convert to Fiat and without going through an exchange most of which blacklist wallet addresses of know stolen accounts/funds they’d have to transfer it some someone else’s wallet for cash.

You could go through other means which is vastly more difficult (launder bitcoins) which is asinine because you may as well use Monero.

With Fiat it’s pretty damn easy to launder money and much more difficult to trace than Bitcoin.

The whole point is that Monero or other coins specifically made to be anonymous would be a better alternative.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Parja
like this
odditory said:
*Old man waving a broom*

Guess they better declare it for fiat too.
Click to expand...

if you try laundering large amounts of cash you'll soon get your collar felt in most countries. I don't see why you seem to like something that can enable lots of very high level criminal activity.
 
Criminals are always quicker than the general public. I'm not surprised that they are moving away from Bitcoin.


dangerouseddy said:
if you try laundering large amounts of cash you'll soon get your collar felt in most countries. I don't see why you seem to like something that can enable lots of very high level criminal activity.
Click to expand...

Too bad the USA is not one of those countries.
 
Well for the time being Bitcoin and to a much lesser extent Monero are still the two main darknet payment options by a SUBSTANTIAL margin. Bitcoin still remaining the exponentially more used currency. I don't really give this research study much validity, other than the fact that it acknowledges that every vendor accepts bitcoin as a payment method. It's literally impossible to validate a legitimate vendor from a scammer, which the dark net is overflowing with. There are more bullshit accounts than legitimate ones, so if they were trying to do a study on what currency criminals are happiest to rob you in, then I'd support this article more. When it comes down to it, there's no trend signifying anything but bitcoin will stay on top, period, end of argument. However, the fact that darkmarkets are starting to accept one or two more forms of payment, is a step at starting to solidify the potential futures of those currencies more and more. Overall this is a good sign for crypto currency in general, in an otherwise bleak last month of tanking.
 
Montu said:
According to a study by Recorded Future, Litecoin is starting to be accepted more and more on the Dark Web in place of the standard-bearer, Bitcoin. The reasons are many, but transaction fees and speed appear to be some of the main complaints against Bitcoin. Of course this is the Dark Web and I know most of us here don't go there, however, the same complaints still apply against Bitcoin for legitimate transactions. How much longer will Bitcoin last as the defacto cryptocurrency standard?
Click to expand...

Montu, you should learn about something before you spread misinformation. Bitcoin had some transaction time and fee issues for a few months last year out of the years it's been around, and now the mempool is down to next to nothing, transactions are fast and cheap again, and with the lightning network coming online it's even faster and cheaper than that.

It's crap like this spread by news and blog sites, without knowing about the facts or the tech, that causes FUD to spread. Don't contribute to discrediting a site that is usually about facts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Parja
like this
doublejack said:
Criminals are always quicker than the general public. I'm not surprised that they are moving away from Bitcoin.




Too bad the USA is not one of those countries.
Click to expand...

with cryptos its stupid easy to use whatever one you feel like. you would have to be very stupid to already be using crypto and to choose to use bitcoin. most ligit transactions dont even use.


dangerouseddy said:
if you try laundering large amounts of cash you'll soon get your collar felt in most countries. I don't see why you seem to like something that can enable lots of very high level criminal activity.
Click to expand...

oxygen enables high level crime. better ban that too. and dont think for a second they dont use cash, better ban that too. Or.... we can go after the actual illegal action and not make having money illegal...
 
JerRatt said:
Montu, you should learn about something before you spread misinformation. Bitcoin had some transaction time and fee issues for a few months last year out of the years it's been around, and now the mempool is down to next to nothing, transactions are fast and cheap again, and with the lightning network coming online it's even faster and cheaper than that.

It's crap like this spread by news and blog sites, without knowing about the facts or the tech, that causes FUD to spread. Don't contribute to discrediting a site that is usually about facts.
Click to expand...

Bitcoin transactions are not fast. 10 minute block times make that impossible. Those few months proved that Bitcoin has some real capacity issues, and it is FUD to claim the lightning network will make all the problems disappear. Bitcoin was the first, but it is not the best.
 
I havent been on the darkweb in a couple months, but last i heard monero is being used.
 
doublejack said:
Bitcoin transactions are not fast. 10 minute block times make that impossible. Those few months proved that Bitcoin has some real capacity issues, and it is FUD to claim the lightning network will make all the problems disappear. Bitcoin was the first, but it is not the best.
Click to expand...

Please explain how lightning will still have problems.

Are you a Bitcoin cash proponent?
 
James21 said:
Pickup a cheap junk laptop from a garage sale not near your house, pay in cash.
Put into signal blocking bag.
Go to another location away from where you live, remove hard drive
Boot up from live Tails ISO CD or USB Key that you already downloaded & made somewhere not at your home or work.
Connect up to a public wifi location.
Have explore as you wish.
Throw away laptop when done & get another one for the next time you want to explore
Click to expand...

You forgot the part where you take the battery out of your cellphone (you didn't buy one with a permanent battery, did you?) before you leave your house. And, for the love of Pete, you're not driving a car with a satellite radio, gps, or OnStar (or similar), are you? Oh. You've also obscured your license plate with one of those films. The USDOT has license recognition cameras along many interstates. They also do facial recognition, so you wore a disguise?

;)
 
I'm gonna go ahead and fault Montu for not taking enough insight from the study. While Litecoin is becoming the preferred payment of choice, likely due to its low fees; the preferred transfer coin of choice is/will be Monero.

Clean/Dirty Fiat/Crypto -> Monero -> Clean LTC -> Darkweb transaction -> Dirty LTC -> Monero -> Clean Fiat/Crypto
 
lilbabycat said:
I'm gonna go ahead and fault Montu for not taking enough insight from the study. While Litecoin is becoming the preferred payment of choice, likely due to its low fees; the preferred transfer coin of choice is/will be Monero.

Clean/Dirty Fiat/Crypto -> Monero -> Clean LTC -> Darkweb transaction -> Dirty LTC -> Monero -> Clean Fiat/Crypto
Click to expand...

But that chained transactions add fees and computational time to the operation.
Perhaps in the future a single coin will finally deliver the technical trifecta of crypto currency: untraceable, low fees and fast processing times.
Preferably one that can only be profitably mined by ASICS, to avoid GPU/CPU price increases.
 
James21 said:
Pickup a cheap junk laptop from a garage sale not near your house, pay in cash.
Put into signal blocking bag.
Go to another location away from where you live, remove hard drive
Boot up from live Tails ISO CD or USB Key that you already downloaded & made somewhere not at your home or work.
Connect up to a public wifi location.
Have explore as you wish.
Throw away laptop when done & get another one for the next time you want to explore
Click to expand...

I would imagine a lot of public places block TOR as commercial routers for business are set up for such. So you are willing to throw away $100 each time you want to explore the dark web, then what exactly is so important for you to hide? That in itself raises so many more questions.

Either way I'm not going to participate in this conversation. The best way to avoid government ruining your life is to not break the law in the first place.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top