Australia's National Intelligence Service is monitoring the use of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin on the online black market, as part of a new operation called "Project Longstrike."
Judy Lind, Executive director of the Australian Crime Commission(ACC), revealed today that the agency is tracking Bitcoin-related crime after spending the past two years creating technology capable of tracing Bitcoin transactions.
“The ACC has assessed that organised crime groups continue to use darknets to trade illicit material, including child exploitation material, illegal drugs and weapons, stolen credit cards and personal identity information, as well as hacking,” Lind said. “The aim of Longstrike is to understand the national and international environment surrounding the misuse of virtual currencies that facilitate criminal activity.”
He further stated that the information obtained from this project should be used to develop legislative, regulatory, policy and other risk management strategies.
Virtual currencies like Bitcoin are gaining more attention from law enforcement and regulatory agencies as more businesses accept them as payment.
Earlier this year, the Australian Taxation Office released its long-awaited guidance on how it will treat Bitcoin and other electronic currencies for tax purposes, ruling that they are neither Australian money nor foreign currency and therefore do not constitute an individual's taxable income.
The information about the operation of the Crime Commission was released a week after a Queensland man was extradited to the US for his alleged involvement in the Silk Road.
