Dark Wallet Provides Online Anonymity

If you think that the level of online anonymity provided by the encryption system of bitcoin and its other cryptocurrency brethren is high, then wait until you see what Dark Wallet can do to make your online transactions even more hidden from prying eyes.

Dark Wallet
Just what is Dark Wallet, and how does it work? Dark Wallet is the brainchild of two individuals – Amir Taaki, a free-market anarchist of Iranian and British descent, and Cody Wilson, who rose to fame when he printed the very first, fully-working 3D printed gun. The two men tandem has long since grown after the conception of Dark Wallet, and now includes notable figures from the cryptocurrency, unSYSTEM and Libbitcoin fields, among others.

The promise is that Dark Wallet will provide an even more private way of acquiring online anonymity through the use of bitcoin and when doing transactions in virtual marketplaces. As bitcoin became somewhat of a mainstream phenomenon, governmental bodies have been taking action in restricting and decentralizing the cryptocurrency. Dark Wallet’s prominent feature, which is to provide total online anonymity by being a bitcoin transfer and storage platform, seeks to return bitcoin to its original decentralized, anti-establishment roots. The app is poised to completely conceal any and all users’ identity, even stronger than what bitcoin promises.

But how does it hide the cryptocurrency transaction? Via CoinJoin mixing and stealth payments. Dark Wallet hosts its very own independent system of bitcoin exchange, meaning that anyone who has this software can sell or buy bitcoin without going to any other exchange platform. Online anonymity is observed by the user not needing to provide any personal identification or information. The CoinJoin technology lets a particular transaction merge and join a bitcoin transaction in random at the same time. The blockchain transaction records will invariably join together, and the encrypted multi-party sale is encrypted further within the Dark Wallet software to block out any virtual eavesdroppers. The Stealth Address feature works where any user can generate a “hidden address” paired up with a secret key, then publish the address to the sender or the receiver. The bitcoins are then sent to another address that is an encrypted version of the stealth address.

Dark Wallet started out as an idea by the two freethinkers, and sought help for funding by posting their idea on Indiegogo. The duo immediately launched a comprehensive crowdfunding campaign that generated around $50,000 and other funds in bitcoin currency.

bitcard darkwallet
The potential online anonymity of Dark Wallet is enormous. By itself, it can be used to power darknet market and illegal trades that are covertly carried out on the dark web. The online anonymity factor is a huge boon to black market transactions such as the renowned Silk Road, which was taken down in October 2013.

Dark Wallet fills in security holes in anonymous bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin transactions have become more and more transparent, due to the fact that each payment is recorded on a blockchain, which is like a public record. This blockchain is copied and sent to thousands of computers in order to prevent bitcoin fraud and virtual forgery within the network. The addresses themselves can be traced back to the user if the government agency or any corporation looks hard enough.

Dark Wallet developers admit that the software application is still in the early stages of progress, and a lot of work is needed to make it fully realized. The online anonymity software itself is labeled at an alpha stage and is far from being complete. The built-in app may be installed in a Google Chrome browser, with support for Mozilla Firefox web browsers coming in soon. Dark Wallet has paired up with Chip Chap, an app where you can convert Euros for bitcoins, and vice versa. The developers are also urging interested communities to test out their online anonymity application and are looking for suggestions to make it even better.

Tor On Mobile Devices Will Give More Internet Anonymity To Users

With 4G mobile functionality available on most mobile platforms, users would now be able to download video and other types of data with ease while they are on the move. The complete implementation of 4G would mean more available bandwidth to the mobile phones and transfer of data between phones would become easier.

Following the launch of the 4G services, companies such as Apple have hinted at introduction of Tor mobile apps that will support Internet anonymity on mobile phones. Apple’s iOS9 would have this feature. Tor apps would, therefore, be freely available to users of iPhone and iPad that run on the iOS9 operating system. Tor apps have been made available on android devices for many years now.

Tor On Mobile DevicesThe Tor software enables Internet anonymity for users browsing the web. Tor apps encrypt and mask the users’ browsing data such as IP addresses and offer Internet anonymity. Commonly associated with crime and black market sites, Tor’s popularity in this area is bigger because it is known to provide a greater level of anonymity to both the publisher as well as the viewer of uploaded content. Security concerns however, Europol, the premier law enforcement agency in Europe has concerns of a different nature. The increased bandwidth provides additional possibilities for exchange and download of HD images and video. Enforcement agencies are therefore concerned that child pornographers would take maximum advantage of the 4G functionality. They would use Internet anonymity on mobile devices to their advantage. They believe that this type of masking and encryption of users’ identities would encourage troublemakers to operate at a level where they cannot be easily traced. Though Tor is known to slow down a user’s browsing speed, using the network along with 4G services would help to speed up the data transfer process.

According to Europol, Tor Internet anonymity platform has been identified as a leading player in both the creation and subsequent distribution of child pornography content. This finding was based on a report by the Virtual Global Taskforce that outlined important issues in the different ways in which the Internet anonymity software was being used by pedophiles. In their report on the techniques and methods used to commit offences and stay away from detection, it was cited that in about 40 hidden services that were reviewed and were purportedly proving child pornography material, Europol detected more than 300,000 active users. Some of the factors that were attributed to the use of the Tor Internet anonymity software for upload and circulation of child abuse material were the secrecy that the network software provided, the demand for new material to be uploaded regularly and the anonymous environment which allowed the offenders to reveal their desires more explicitly. Europol also has concerns that the Internet anonymity software technologies offered on mobile phones would add on a new layer of strain for the investigators to identify child abuse offenders.

Tor on Mobile Devices – Will It Be the Offenders’ Nemesis

orbot
The Orbot app is popularly used to access Tor by android phone users. This was revealed by the Tor Project, the non-profit organization that is responsible for the maintenance of the network software that provides Internet anonymity to its users. This information was obtained when they were asked to provide numbers of mobile users who used Tor. Orbot is easy to use and booting the app helps to access the Tor network by clicking on a button. Once the Internet anonymity software is on, certain apps have their traffic directed through Tor. Europol’s concern is that there are over 6 million installs of Orbot on android devices. Out of this number it has been observed that there are over 1.2 million who use it actively. However, nothing more is obvious about these users. Orweb browser, which is additional software that provides extra privacy and security has had 4 million installs from the Google Play Store and purportedly has 900,000 active users. In spite of the concerns about the secrecy that the Internet anonymity software will provide to child abuse offenders, security experts feel using Tor on mobile devices may have its own pitfalls. In spite of the fact that the Internet anonymity software hides IP addresses of the users, other data that can be traced to the users include the location of the mobile and data that is transferred to other mobiles through apps that are not configured to route data through Tor. Another pertinent point that works against offenders is that Orbot has had some bugs in software that leaked website addresses visited by the user when the VPN feature (of the app) was used. However, the company has claimed that these bugs have been fixed for the present.