Two defence agencies in Austria and France are joining forces to improve cryptocurrency security and tackle the rising rate of crime in the crypto market.
The Paris-based NIGMA Conseil and Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) are planning to develop more advanced blockchain forensics which they say will help track crypto transactions and detect fraud.
The work will centre on improving the anti money laundering capabilities of the French agency's e-NIGMA platform, using AIT's cryptocurrency forensics platform GraphSense to do so. The government-owned AIT has previously received €5m in funding from the EU to help develop the algorithms behind GraphSense.
According to NIGMA Conseil chief executive Fabien Tabarly, the synergy between his team of developers and the academic researchers of AIT "has been instrumental" in the effort "to fight financial crime in virtual currencies".
The alliance between the two firms mirrors the increasing number of collaborations between international defence agencies and crime bodies, all designed to help reduce the in cryptocurrency crime and digital financial fraud.
This week saw the launch of the Cyber Information and Intelligence and Sharing initiative involving a number of European crime agencies, central banks and financial infrastructures and payment providers.