Zcash: use cases include black markets

Yesterday a report was published on the use cases of Zcash (ZEC) for illegal and criminal purposes, commissioned by the Electric Coin Company, the foundation behind the development of the Zcash blockchain.

Among the use cases are also reported the activities carried out with Zcash in the digital black markets, including the most famous one called Berlusconi Market.

 The report, very detailed in its 65 pages, tells and analyzes the various sectors in which the privacy coin is used.

In first place, there is money laundering (34%), followed by the payment of goods and services on the black market (28%) and in third place, terrorism (18%). 

The report then analyzes the various dark markets according to their use: in first place there is Dream (75%), followed by Berlusconi market (9%) and then Tochka (7%), which shows that there are multiple markets where criminals can sell and buy illegal goods and services, such as weapons, drugs but also cyber attacks and so on. 

In general, though, Zcash is not the most used crypto for illicit purposes: in fact, in first place there are Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) with 59%, in second place Monero (XMR) with 27% and in third place Ethereum (ETH) with 12%. 

Zcash is used by only 1% of criminals. The volatility of BTC is higher than that of ZEC and it is therefore understandable that sometimes criminals prefer to have an asset that could increase exponentially over time rather than using a less widespread crypto, to then have to convert it through an exchange and thus carry out the KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti Money Laundering) procedures. 

In conclusion, it can be argued that a privacy crypto is not always the most widely used crypto for criminal operations: in fact, ransomware often asks for BTC and not Monero (XMR).