Dark Web Crowning the New Sultan of Cryptocurrencies - Litecoin

The Dark web community has always been discussing the rising dissatisfaction with Bitcoin being the payment vehicle regardless of their geographical distribution, spoken language, or niche business.

A recent research by the Recorded Future focused on over 150 of the most prominent message boards and marketplaces on the dark web and has unearthed that it is not Monero or Ethereum, but Litecoin, which is surpassing other Cryptocurrencies. Gradually, Bitcoin is leaving its place of being the most favored cryptocurrency used by the dark web criminal community and Litecoin appears to be all set to rule the most mysterious and sunless place on the Internet.

The skyrocketing popularity of Bitcoin among users and institutional investors across the planet since mid-2017 has put a massive load on the blockchain network. This load is resulting in larger payment fees and as a result, Bitcoin payments have become economically impracticable.

A member of criminal discussion boards has shared dissatisfaction about the latest Bitcoin performance and the growing transaction fees (translated from Russian):

“What’s happening at the moment is incomprehensible. Despite that I’ve used the recommended commission fees, my transactions have remained pending for the past three days, and my work has been paralyzed. Dear Vendors, kindly implement an alternative payment option; otherwise, I will miss out on this Christmas season.” 

The hike in transaction fees doesn’t seem to be the only issue. According to the researchers, vendors are adopting the protocol of 3 confirmations before considering a transaction complete resulting in time delays. And this is dark web where people never trust each other - delays in transactions are just adding to the risk.

So, as an alternative to Bitcoin, Litecoin payment systems have already been implemented on 30% of the sites investigated by the Recorded Future, followed by Dash at 20% share. And in this, Eastern European criminals seem to be more proactive in the implementation compared to the English-speaking communities. Russians favored the accessibility and convenience of Litecoin while English-speaking has chosen Monero for its built-in safety features.