Amazon’s Streaming Data Marketplace May Disrupt Digitial Currency Anonymity: Stephen E Arnold Research Reveals

DarkCyber for June 5, 2018, is now available. This week’s program explores Amazon’s April 2018 US patent discloses a new market opportunity for one of the world’s most successful online companies. US patent “Streaming Data Marketplace” reveals that Amazon has added functionality to its computing infrastructure that can deanonymize digital currency transactions. The information was presented in a lecture presented at a major law enforcement and intelligence conference in Prague. 

A video summary of some of the research results is available on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/273170550 and via the Beyond Search blog at http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/. In his lectures at a law enforcement and intelligence conference in Prague, Arnold referenced Amazon’s US patent 9,947,033 B1. The patent states: “… A law enforcement agency may be a customer and may desire to receive global Bitcoin transactions, correlated by country, with USP data to determine source IP addresses and shipping addresses that correlate to Bitcoin addresses.”

Stephen E Arnold, a lecturer for Telestrategies ISS and the author of “CyberOSINT: Next Generation Information Access” and the “Dark Web Notebook” said in his Prague speech to European law enforcement and intelligence professionals: “Amazon’s patent makes clear that the eCommerce giant may have the capabilities to enable, extend, and disrupt the landscape for deanonymization of digital currency transactions. The system and the method disclosed in the patent makes it possible for Amazon to generate a new line of revenue from a streaming data marketplace and compete with established vendors like IBM and Palantir Technologies in a lucrative, fast growing market for making sense of Bitcoin and other crypto currency transactions.”

Amazon has introduced support for the Ethereum platform. Combined with Amazon’s existing technology and next generation analytics such as cross correlation across multiple streams of real time data, Amazon can provide a “one stop shop” for certain types of law enforcement and intelligence services. 

Arnold added in his June 5, 2018, lecture in Prague about this Amazon technical disclosure: “Amazon already provides hosting for specialized law enforcement and intelligence vendors’ data. The ”streaming data marketplace“ is a way to attract new customers who can use the application programming interfaces provided by Amazon to extend existing services to government agencies as well as build new services. Amazon’s ability to obtain a wide range of real time time is part of its business model. However, Amazon possesses a unique repository of data which can answer questions like ”Who bought books about chemical weapons?“ and cross correlate that data with other data; for example, videos watched, shipping addresses, and bank relationships. Amazon may not be able to implement a streaming data marketplace, but its vision is a potential game changer. Deanonymization is one of the major challenges investigators and analysts face. The revenue potential is substantial despite governmental cost control pressures.”

Arnold said that a written version of his research findings would be available in Fall 2018 after his presentations to law enforcement and intellingence professionals conclude later this year. The availability of this for fee report will be announced in his Web log Beyond Search at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress. Private briefings are now available for qualified organizations.

About Stephen E Arnold

Stephen E Arnold is the author of “Dark Web Notebook” and “CyberOSINT: Next Generation Information Access.” This book describes some of the technologies used by Cambridge Analytica and other specialist firms to acquire and analyze Facebook user data. He has been named as a technology adviser to the UK based Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Human Trafficking and Child Sex Abuse.” Mr. Arnold also lectures to law enforcement and intelligence professionals at US government agencies and at specialist conferences in the US and other countries. 

Contact Information

Stuart Schram III

Chief Technical Officer, ArnoldIT

Arnold Information Technology

Contact via E-mail