German media is suggesting that the gun used during the Munich terror attack was bought through the Darknet with Bitcoin.
Germany is the latest European country hit by a wave of gun activity with the world still reeling in shock from the news of 18-year-old David Sonboly who killed nine people in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich on Friday.
The darknet, which is a type of parallel internet, provides a place for people to buy and sell things illegally such as weapons and drugs and is often used by criminals. Investigators believe that the sale of a gun through the darknet offers a small explanation as to how a young man who had been treated with mental illness was able to purchase a gun undetected.
Linking Bitcoin to the Munich Shooting
Out of the several German media reports, only one mentions Bitcoin; however, it does so by stating that the darknet markets often use Bitcoin as a form of payment. This is so that no trace can be linked back to any side taking part in the transaction. Of course, while it seems that Bitcoin may have been used, the investigation is far from over.
Tighter Gun Controls
With senior German officials calling for tighter control on the sale of guns in the wake of the shooting, it seems that the natural progression from that will be a crackdown on the use of anonymous online transactions, which allow its users to buy things with the cryptocurrency.
It remains to be seen, though, what steps the European authorities will take against digital exchanges considering that Bitcoin seems to have been used for an individual to purchase a weapon on the darknet in order to kill as many targeted people as possible in his path.