As the recent trending news stories have shown, more investors are converting liquid assets into digital currency. Tech and financial magazines have been writing about bitcoin, the best known of the cryptocurrencies, for several years. There is now a smartphone application for buying and selling digital currencies, Coinbase, which claims to “…make it easy to securely buy, use, and store digital currency.” Worldwide there are more than 38,000 merchants (including Overstock.com) that accept digital currencies such as bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin through Coinbase on both web and mobile devices.
There is no central entity such as a bank or government that controls bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. An international group of volunteers maintains a network of computers operating specialized software. The “currency” is stored in a ledger called the blockchain. The February 1st issue of Wired Magazine features recommended reading on the topic, ” The Wired Guide to Bitcoin.”
Digital currency has moved beyond when it was just the favored “coin” of those who deal in illegal products and services on the dark web, such as controlled substances and pilfered Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers. Private investigators are now attending seminars and webinars on digital currencies as part of their continuing education, including the team at Trace Investigations. It is just a matter of time before we discover that targets of investigation will be masking their assets, liquid and otherwise, as “assets in the sky” — or the cloud, if you prefer — digital currencies stored on web “banks” around the globe. It’s probably already happening.
When you need a thorough asset investigation, contact the professionals at Trace Investigations at 800-310-8857.