KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 15): Technology research and consulting firm Gartner Inc said that in the next three years alone, successful cryptocurrency thefts and ransomware payments will drop by 30%.

In its recently published Predicts 2022: Prepare for Blockchain-Based Digital Disruption report, Gartner said this positive change is largely attributable to four factors: the transparency of blockchains, the emerging blockchain intelligence market, government involvement, and the use of virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (VASPs).

Gartner said transparent blockchains are much easier platforms on which to track criminal payments than siloed, legacy payment systems ever were.

It said at present, about 23 blockchains make up approximately 99% of all blockchains’ market cap.

This means that effective anti-blockchain-fraud systems must integrate with just 23 totally transparent platforms rather than thousands of enterprise systems and payment networks, it said.

The firm said vendors like Chainalysis, CipherTrace (a Mastercard company), Elementus and TRM Labs provide insights to authorities who need forensics to investigate hacks.

Increasingly, exchanges and DeFi protocols use their software to prevent fraud.

Aside from increasing adoption of rapidly advancing blockchain intelligence and fraud prevention tools, governments are also stepping in to make it harder to use cryptocurrency for criminal purposes.

Gartner said it’s simply a myth that blockchain networks are criminal havens.

It said a July 2021 report from the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) shows that transactions that go through VASPs, which include cryptocurrency exchanges, are significantly less likely to be criminal than those that go through self-hosted wallets or non-VASPs.