The blockchain intelligence firm CipherTrace previously gave the feds “Monero-tracing tools,”. CipherTrace has filed a Monero-tracing patent application. CipherTrace says their tools help law enforcement identify Monero transactions associated with criminal activity on the darkweb.
According to a press release on the CipherTrace website, the patents will cover:
- Forensic tools to explore Monero transaction flows to assist in financial investigations.
- Development of original tracing methodologies based on simulation techniques and Bayesian approaches.
- Statistical and probabilistic methods for scoring transactions and clustering likely owners.
- Monero decoy reduction.
- Probabilistic approaches to risk-based Monero money-laundering controls.
- Transaction visualization tools and ways to track stolen Monero currencies or illicit Monero.
- Methodologies for gaining intelligence about transactions that rely on third-party nodes.
- Active participation in the Monero network to gain intelligence.
CipherTrace said that these tools have been in development since 2019. According to CipherTrace “laid the groundwork for future implementation of entity transaction clustering, wallet identification, exchange attribution, and other functionality that will provide law enforcement with even more tools for investigating Monero transactions and addresses related to criminal activity.”
CipherTrace claimed that law enforcement’s interest in tracing Monero soared due to the widespread adoption of Monero by darkweb markets. A lot of markets support Monero, namely White House Market, Monopoly Market, Dark Market, and Cannazon market, among others.
CipherTrace said that cryptocurrency exchanges are delisting Monero and other privacy coins due to “inherently high risk to any anti-money laundering program.” these coins cause. In November 2020, ShapeShift delisted Monero, Zcash, and Dash. OKEx and Upbit, have already delisted Monero from their exchange.
CipherTrace’s Monero tracing capabilities will allow VASPs to identify when inbound XMR may have criminal origins, allowing them to adequately risk rate customer transactions per any required regulations.
But, CipherTrace claim that they support privacy. “CipherTrace has always been an advocate of user privacy,” according to their press release.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Anything you do on the Deepweb is up to you. View a detailed guide on the dark web, with markets and their history. With dark web links and darkweb markets.