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Today, many extremist groups use cryptocurrencies – in this way they try to hide financial activity on the Internet from the all-seeing eye of special services. Curiously, bitcoin is held in high esteem by representatives of the ultra-right forces.
By the way, it is a sin to complain about the lack of demand for two more digital currencies: Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ether (ETH) were registered in the ranking of the most popular queries in the Google search engine. In trends, they are in fierce competition with “Covid vaccination” and “Afghanistan”. Is it incredible? Yes, but true!
Meanwhile, the payment giant Visa, having wisely estimated the overwhelming demand for digital assets, is preparing the launch of a new option focused on the cryptosphere. The largest payment system plans to promote digital currencies. Soon its clients will be able to get advice from the company’s specialists on the use of virtual assets.
Bitcoin for the legal flank
Analyst firm Elliptic studied transactions on the bitcoin blockchain and came to the unexpected conclusion: organizations of a frankly legal nature often use this asset to finance their activities.
Traditional payment systems block transactions associated with extremist communities, such as the organizers of the Charlottesville demonstrations in August 2017. That is why marginals of all stripes are massively leaving the crypto sphere, because there are no restrictions on financial activity there yet.
Some leaders of the far-right groups have gone so far as to publicly refer to BTC as their home currency, provoking the sincere ire of the crypto community. The use of virtual coins has increased markedly, emphasize in Elliptic. It is curious that the researchers identified the wallets of the extremists by the symbolism popular among them. In particular, the far-right is sending funds using the long-hated 1488 combination (for example, 0.001488 bitcoin).
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In this bundle, “14” symbolizes the 14-word abbreviated racist slogan, and “88” corresponds to the “H” – the eighth letter of the English alphabet, implying the Nazi salutation banned by the entire civilized world, explained Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic. Incredibly, the share of Bitcoin transactions with the tag “1488” is 30,000 times higher than the number of regular wallet transactions.
It is sad that the ultra-right structures do not even think of hiding. According to experts, they deliberately indicate forbidden symbols in transactions, flaunting impunity.
“We were able to identify about 100 new wallets related to extremist activities“, – noted the analyst.
Visa as a crypto consultant
The payment giant has long been studying the potential of the blockchain industry, periodically entering into partnerships with crypto startups and issuing cards with support for digital currencies. Visa has now decided to provide advisory services to financial institutions interested in innovative tools.
The company’s specialists are ready to help clients understand the intricacies of the cryptosphere, including the creation and use of crypto wallets, as well as teach them how to deploy and move tokens. The statement of the press service notes the interest of banks in cryptocurrencies.
Top management refers to the results of an internal study, which notes that more than 40% of clients of commercial banks are considering options to change a credit institution to one that is ready to offer services related to the cryptosphere.
Visa systematically files patents for the launch of services based on blockchain technology. The company’s analysts are working to create a universal payment channel designed to become a bridge between different networks in order to freely move tokens between them.
DOGE is trendy again
The Dogecoin token, originally created as a joke project, has rapidly gained global popularity. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a hand in promoting it on social networks.
Thanks to his tweets, the value of the digital currency periodically renewed highs.
Now it is DOGE, along with the largest altcoin – ether – that has entered the TOP 10 most popular search queries on Google. And not just entered, but ahead of many extremely topical topics.
According to Google Trends, Internet users were interested in Afghanistan in 2021, Covid vaccines, the disease itself, Hurricane Ida, as well as ether, DOGE and a number of other topics.
It’s funny, but in conjunction with ETH, users of the World Wide Web most often used the word “value”, apparently assessing the prospects of the coin. But Dogecoin is interesting to them as a whole – as a project!
Recall that in annual terms, the cost of DOGE increased by 5,100%, while ether added 632% over the same period. Note that bitcoin did not make it into the TOP-10 of Google Trends at all.
Sources: Google Trends, CoinTelegraph, Coindesk
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