The Challenges of Investigating Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Related Crime

We increasingly live in a world where there is a balance between the rights to privacy and the requirements for consent, and the rights of society to protect itself. Within this world, there is an ever-increasing requirement to protect the identities involved within financial transactions, but this makes things increasingly difficult for law enforcement agencies, especially in terms of financial fraud and money laundering. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in terms of the methods of privacy that are being used within cryptocurrency transactions, and in the challenges that law enforcement face.