The administrator of dark.fail, an anonymous journalist specialized in the Tor Project, whose site provides verified links to the markets of the darknet (network dark), denounced that exchanges closed the accounts that donate bitcoin (BTC) to the service.
The manager reported in a tweet , published on January 29, 2021, that the exchanges blocked the accounts of two of their bitcoin donors. Through that social network he added: «I am a journalist! I don’t commit crimes. ”
Dark.fail believes that this fact is related to the constant criticism it has made against Chainalysis and its blockchain monitoring system KYT (or Know Your Transaction ). In a text written on the social network, he adds: “last year I expressed strong opposition to the analysis system of this blockchain. In return, my address was dialed. This is pure evil. ”
In reaction to restrictions on receiving donations, it was removed from the website dark.fail the option to make donations in Bitcoin. It now only accepts donations in Monero (XMR), a privacy-focused currency.
Chainalysis helped dismantle terrorist financing networks
Chainalysis (company that provides blockchain data and analytics to government agencies, banks, and businesses around the world) points to KYT “as an automated solution for monitoring cryptocurrency transactions in real time.”
As explained by CriptoNoticias, KYT is a software that monitors cryptocurrency transactions in real time with the aim of identifying any suspicious movement that could be linked to the criminal market, such as money laundering and terrorism.
Chainalysis has collaborated with the Department of Justice of the United States to dismantle two terrorism financing campaigns with the help of blockchain analysis.
Similarly, it helped the entity in charge of applying the laws in North America to dismantle, In January of this year, a sophisticated network of ransomware known as Netwalker.
As you will recall, in May 2019 they were arrested the two alleged administrators of one of the oldest sites on issues related to the darknet known as DeepDotWeeb. The two suspects were indicted by a US federal jury for money laundering conspiracy, with millions of dollars in bribes they received for purchases of psychotropic pills and other illegal goods.
Agree With the data provided by alexa.com, dark.fail is considered one of the market link providers in the most popular darknet on the Internet. It ranks 52,345 worldwide in terms of website traffic.
Accounts of anonymous journalists can be considered as criminal activities
The dark.fail account identifies himself as an anonymous journalist, and it is not possible to verify whether his recent statements are true or not, which creates some suspicion.
This fact occurs in the middle of an environment in which journalistic practices can be classified as criminal activities. For example, in a letter signed, February 8, 2021, by the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation , Freedom of the Press Foundation , among others, asked the United States Department of Justice to drop the charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, comparing his accusation to “a serious threat to press freedom.”
The authors of the letter asked the Acting Attorney General, Monty Wikilson, to stop the persecution of Julian Assange in the era of Donald Trump. “The Trump administration has positioned itself as an antagonist to the institution of a free and unfettered press,” the letter reads.
Assange has been in exile for part of the last decade. On January 20, 2021, the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, granted clemency to several people but did not include the founder of Wikileaks who helped popularize Bitcoin with his donation program, as reported by CryptoNews.