How feds have been able to identify the users of the largest child porn website

[teosanru]

This is an obvious thing. KYC were introduced for this purpose only. This looks good when it's about finding users of child porn website but this won't look that good when it will come at finding users who use exchanges for trading and do not disclose their income accordingly. I think it's important that we understand the anonymity feature of Bitcoin and respect it to ensure that we all live safely. Bitcoin wasn't introduced to make it easier for authorities to find us.

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[nelson4lov]

Let's be honest, it does not matter what method they used to track these pedophiles, the important thing is that they caught them. The whole community must help the authorities to identify these sites where Bitcoin are used to pay people to provide content where children are raped and violated.  

Yes, some might say that the method they used are important, because the authorities might also have access to methods to identify each and every person that owns bitcoins and it is important that we should know about this, because it puts "legal" Bitcoin users in jeopardy if they can track and trace everyone to their coins. <... but in cases like this, I am OK with that>  

It's a two way thing. I'm happy child porn criminals were brought to justice. However, It scares me to know that my crypto activities can be tracked. It's not about doing anything wrong etc. It isn't cool that it can be traced back especially since Cryptocurrencies were originally built to put power back in the hands of users while providing privacy. My country regulatorscan wake up one day and prohibit citizens from participating in crypto activities (trading, lending, investing etc). And people who still went on to do it (maybe because they're die-hard crypto enthusiasts) and then regulators might track and punish them. That's one of the downside. I've always known exchanges bend the knees to government regulations.

[th3nolo]

It is actually not that tough if you know what you are doing. A BTC address won't be enough to track down a user unless they fill in KYC or do something stupid. It all comes down to how smartly you utilize the tech behind BTC.

So you think there are a lot of people who are experts at not leaving digital footprints out there? If this were the case, the administrator would not have made the error that exposed his public IP when using TOR.

Why is this so surprising? BTC has been steadily rising in value and gaining popularity over time which is why more and more users around the world are embracing it. Also, I am happy that the FEDS actually tracked these pedophiles which is why I applaud them in this case.

BTC may be popular, but if you are doing or are going to do illegal stuff, does it make sense to leave any traces?

[Mike Mayor]

Great news!! A win for bitcoin. I hope law enforcers and the general public can work together through th power of crypto and not against. This whole KYC thins is very annoying and it makes people have a sour taste towards law enforcement. Besides, there are ways to track IP addresses and it really is not that hard even if the use a VPN the VPN will have to release the info. VPN that doesn't keep info less can be done but it is still not impossible.
Many times you can link differnt people together and bust them all at once using VPN or not KYC or not they will be caught.

I hope they hang this filth. It is like youtube for paedophiles. Like a whole freaking network you just log in to and that fine let me just login to this child abuse site and thats great. Setup like child abuse is normal and forums with highly disturbed individuals. Just exchanging their kiddie filth like it was pokemon cards.

The most disturbing thing is these sickos look like anyone of us. You cannot tell what sick desires are in these peoples heads. You just never know. You could walk past than in the street bump into them in the shop and never even know.

[Eclipse26]

Who would even watch that kind of video? That's very disgusting. It's a sexual abuse to children! Their minors. You're not in the right mind if you enjoyed watching those kind of sexual abuse. It's just great that they were able to locate and close that website because of kyc. Imagine all those number of addresses in that website...
Now they add damage to bitcoin and crypto itself. People would think it's for illegal and criminal activities

[Kyraishi]

Let's be honest, it does not matter what method they used to track these pedophiles, the important thing is that they caught them. The whole community must help the authorities to identify these sites where Bitcoin are used to pay people to provide content where children are raped and violated.  

Yes, some might say that the method they used are important, because the authorities might also have access to methods to identify each and every person that owns bitcoins and it is important that we should know about this, because it puts "legal" Bitcoin users in jeopardy if they can track and trace everyone to their coins. <... but in cases like this, I am OK with that>  

It's a two way thing. I'm happy child porn criminals were brought to justice. However, It scares me to know that my crypto activities can be tracked. It's not about doing anything wrong etc. It isn't cool that it can be traced back especially since Cryptocurrencies were originally built to put power back in the hands of users while providing privacy. My country regulatorscan wake up one day and prohibit citizens from participating in crypto activities (trading, lending, investing etc). And people who still went on to do it (maybe because they're die-hard crypto enthusiasts) and then regulators might track and punish them. That's one of the downside. I've always known exchanges bend the knees to government regulations.

This only applies if you don't take the necessary steps to hide yourself and make sure information can't be traced back to you. Obviously if you buy bitcoins off a KYC-verified exchange and then do stupid shit like this you'll be screwed.

If your a regular consumer you probably won't need to worry - the government won't care and doesn't have enough time to track your exchange and coins back to you.

There is a simple way around this though - use OTC platforms. Localbitcoins and Paxful are 2 great examples.

[Astvile]

Who would even watch that kind of video? That's very disgusting. It's a sexual abuse to children! Their minors. You're not in the right mind if you enjoyed watching those kind of sexual abuse.

There are tons of people to be real that really watch this kind of disgusting videos, especially on the deep web. Psychotic people who need to be cured, they all have the same sickness of wanting to watch that kind of videos and wants for a child or Pedophilia.

Now they add damage to bitcoin and crypto itself. People would think it's for illegal and criminal activities

Indeed, huge damage has been done to bitcoins image in the public so adoption is really hard to push through because they all think that  bitcoin is for terrorist and illegal doings because that is what they were told about bitcoin.

[ufaiz50]

In the network we can very easily find out the location of network access, especially if the network is a network that you made yourself. The FBI is a unit that is free in exploring everything, they have expert people and freedom of access for every public network and data. Searching cyber crime networks until they can identify, they usually become one of the customers, this method is often done, so the initial steps to the end are the same as those mentioned OP.