A massive dark web child porn site was brought down by tracing bitcoin

Say it with me: Bitcoin is not anonymous. 

Three hundred and thirty-seven alleged members of a massive dark web child pornography website were reminded of that fact last year when they were arrested by a global coalition of law enforcement. According to a Department of Justice press release on Wednesday, the individuals in question were tracked down with the help of blockchain analysis. 

In other words, authorities were able to trace bitcoin payments made to the site in question back to the alleged perpetrators. That’s because, as we can never repeat often enough, contrary to popular belief, bitcoin is onlypseudonymous. 

“The complaint alleges that law enforcement was able to trace payments of bitcoin to the Darknet site by following the flow of funds on the blockchain,” reads the press release. “The virtual currency accounts identified in the complaint were allegedly used by 24 individuals in five countries to fund the website and promote the exploitation of children.”

This website, dubbed “Welcome to Video,” was reportedly a large operation. The DOJ notes that it discovered over 250,000 unique vide