Whenever I glance at darknet forums, people there always use Telegram for instant messaging. This seems like a strange choice for their use case, considering that Telegram is neither secure nor private[1], being centralized with Russia-controlled servers[2], phone number registration, no encryption for personal chats by default in mobile client and no encryption at all in desktop client[3], etc.

So why do they use Telegram instead of actually secure and private alternatives, like Delta Chat, XMPP+OMEMO, etc.?

    • nymnympseudonym@piefed.socialEnglish
      0·
      6 days ago

      Only for an individual without significant resources.

      But lots of companies provide Bitcoin tracing as-a-service

      Look up Chainalysis, or ScoreChain, or TRM Labs, or Crystal Blockchain, or Merkle Science, or…