In order to establish a specialised investigation facility for Western Canada, Calgary police are collaborating with the worldwide cryptocurrency security firm Chainalysis.
A Calgary police training facility with an emphasis on financial crimes will be housed inside the Western Canada Cryptocurrency Investigations Centre.
According to police, Calgary alone recorded roughly $14 million in cryptocurrency-related offences in 2017.
Due to the complexity of the technology and the specialised expertise needed for detectives, the investigations into the crimes have been challenging.
A digital payment system that serves as an alternative to fiat currency is cryptocurrency. Since it doesn’t use banks to complete transactions, it’s challenging to regulate and track them.
Chainalysis is a multinational American corporation. It calls itself a “blockchain data platform,” but it has utilised that data and its knowledge to assist law enforcement in recovering stolen money and locating offenders.
The business recently assisted in the recovery of some of the millions of dollars in cash that North Korean hackers had stolen.
The cash is safe while it is stored in cryptocurrency “wallets” (which are like bank accounts without the regulations), but the pariah state has to transform that cryptocurrency into something that can be used to fund its ballistic missile programme.
It is susceptible to seizure by law police for just a few minutes even if it can lie idle for weeks, months, or even years. Enforcement agencies then have an opportunity to seize it thanks to Chainalysis monitoring and tracing skills.
More information about this developing story will be added as it becomes available.
Table of Contents
What exactly is Calgary police graphic research ?
The foundation of cryptocurrencies is a public blockchain. This implies that it is possible to track the flow of illegal money. A cryptocurrency investigation, or simply “a crypto investigation,” is the process of tracking illegitimate funds using the blockchain.
How do cops find Calgary police to currency ?
Financial institutions and law enforcement organisations are the most frequent users of taint analysis. Taint analysis can be used by law enforcement to find criminals who are utilising cryptocurrency to finance illegal operations or launder money.
Can Calgary police law enforcement access blockchain ?
For instance, police forces can utilise blockchain to build a safe database containing arrest warrants, criminal histories, and other data. All authorised personnel can access this database, ensuring that everyone has access to the same data.
The Western Canada Cryptocurrency Investigations Centre, a joint task force made up of detectives from the Calgary police department and analysts from the blockchain data company Chainalysis, was formally introduced on April 12.
Chainalysis co-founder and chief strategy officer Jonathan Levin wrote in a blog post announcing the alliance that “this demonstration of public-private partnership to solve novel issues in financial services is a model that the rest of the world can learn from.”
On April 12, the Western Canada Cryptocurrency Investigations Centre, a joint task force made up of detectives from the Calgary police department and analysts from the blockchain data company Chainalysis, was formally introduced.
Jonathan Levin, co-founder of Chainalysis and its chief strategy officer, wrote in a blog post announcing the collaboration that “this demonstration of public-private partnership to solve novel issues in financial services is a model that the rest of the world can learn from.”
Canada has experienced a sharp increase in the adoption of cryptocurrencies, claims Chainalysis. According to a blog post from the company, “when we look at Canadian engagement with crypto ATMs, decentralised exchanges, and centralised exchanges, we see that Canada has experienced a nearly 213% increase since 2019 as of January 2023, with a peak level of adoption around 865% greater than March 2019 in May of 2021, driven largely by interest in DeFi.”
However, a rise in crime has coincided with this quick growth. According to Chainalysis, just in 2022, Canadians lost more than $41 million to cryptocurrency frauds. Additionally, it states that during the same time period, “for every 1,000 Canadians, there was at least $1,144 CAD in total exposure to illicit crypto activity.”
The Calgary Police Department intends to use Chainalysis’s private sector knowledge to enhance its investigator training programmes and, according to the blog post, to give officers “around-the-clock case support.”
According to Chainalysis, the programme will be expanded to include more Western Canadian law enforcement organisations. As time goes on, the business plans to “scale this concept globally, working with law enforcement personnel around the world to offer bespoke, customised offerings depending on the unique needs of the region at hand.”