A group of European government organizations, law enforcement agencies and representatives of scientific institutions are united in the framework of a new project to track crypto-currency payments, CoinDesk writes.
The initiative titled "Tools for the Investigation of Transactions in Underground Markets" (TITANIUM) will be implemented over the next three years, and the EU authorities have already allocated 5 million euros for it.
The project participants included Interpol, the Ministry of the Interior of Spain and Austria, the National Bureau of Investigation of Finland, the University College of London and other institutions and organizations.
According to representatives of TITANIUM, more frequent work on tracking payments in digital currencies was prompted by the frequent cases of attacks of extortion viruses, as well as the increasing frequency of users' access to darknet. At the same time, they argue that the rights of users to privacy are not violated at the same time.
"The consortium will conduct an analysis of legislative requirements and ethical standards and make recommendations regarding the storage and processing of data and information used in criminal investigations without violating the confidentiality of citizens," said Ross King, a senior researcher at the Austrian Institute of Technology.
It should be noted that this is not the first initiative of this kind for the European authorities. So, in March the Committee of the European Parliament on Economic and Monetary Affairs published a new draft law on the regulation of digital currencies, which involves the collection of data on users. The document reflects the opinion of the European Parliament that virtual currencies "should not be anonymous" and creates the basis for creating databases in which purse addresses will be associated with certain identities of the individual.