A startup that helps police track criminals using bitcoin just raised $5 millionhttp://uk.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-tracking-company-elliptic-raises-5-million-series-a-2016-3A startup that helps law enforcement agencies in the US and UK catch criminals that are using bitcoin has raised $5 million (£3.5 million) from Washington-based Paladin Capital and Santander InnoVentures.
Elliptic, which was founded in London but also has offices in New York, uses machine learning and graph analysis to analyse bitcoin's blockchain — the decentralized ledger of transactions that underpins the network.
The company's technology is used to identify suspicious transactions and trace holders of bitcoin.
Dr James Smith, CEO and co-founder of Elliptic, told Business Insider that the company currently had two main groups of customers. The first are "companies that transact a lot using bitcoin — the exchanges and payment processors of bitcoin.
"And then the other group of customers are law enforcement agencies. The most active ones are the large law enforcement agencies in the US, but also the UK and Europe."
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