Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of 280 Crypto Addresses

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by carterklein13 on Friday August 28, 2020 @12:43PM (#24306965)

Say what you will about crypto/blockchain in general, but Chainalysis has to have one of the coolest missions out there right now. As someone who's worked in AML before, it's truly fascinating to me. If blockchain / DeFi is the "wild west" of finance right now, Chainalysis are the vigilantes.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by Aerialoo on Friday August 28, 2020 @12:54PM (#24307116)

The vigilantes? They are literally trying to destroy privacy and fungibility on the network. Thank god for CoinJoins.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by X6S1x6Okd1st on Friday August 28, 2020 @01:02PM (#24307223)

vigilantes are people that go out and impose their version of justice on the world. Just because your vision of justice includes privacy & fungibility doesn't mean everyone's does.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by hatenberg on Friday August 28, 2020 @01:36PM (#24307669)

Vigilantes spawn in place of formal enforcement of justice. Given that Bitcoin is designed with that void in mind it was inevitable.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by X6S1x6Okd1st on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:11PM (#24308160)

Or where they feel like their vision of justice is not being enforced.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by nitrogen on Friday August 28, 2020 @01:00PM (#24307201)

If that's even possible that is the network's fault.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by X6S1x6Okd1st on Friday August 28, 2020 @01:03PM (#24307238)

Depends on the goals and tradeoffs of the network

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by treebornfrog on Friday August 28, 2020 @01:15PM (#24307412)

Agreed. I'm not a fan of chainalysis.

Monero ftw.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by prophesi on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:08PM (#24308130)

I think there's room to be both a fan of Chainalysis _and_ privacy coins. The former will hopefully expedite the general adoption of the latter.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by sgp_ on Friday August 28, 2020 @03:14PM (#24308845)

Exactly, people freak out when companies look at public data on an open, permissionless network. What did you expect?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by boring_twenties on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:04PM (#24308075)

CoinJoin isn't a serious solution. If you want privacy, you need Monero.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by jungans on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:17PM (#24308243)

Privacy is a continuum. CoinJoin offers a trade-off between privacy and convenience. It is good enough for some cases.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by boring_twenties on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:28PM (#24308372)

Is it? From last week: https://medium.com/oxt-research/a-statement-on-two-discovere...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by sgp_ on Friday August 28, 2020 @03:18PM (#24308877)

Is having your coins flagged by an exchange for using privacy features convenient?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by Aerialoo on Sunday August 30, 2020 @07:12PM (#24326814)

CoinJoins exist exactly to fix the problem of fungibility.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by natcombs on Friday August 28, 2020 @01:27PM (#24307534)

> destroy privacy and fungibility on the network

Do people expect privacy from the bitcoin network?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by Pick-A-Hill2019 on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:54PM (#24308646)

The 'Noobs' and low hanging fruit do. Fortunately the internet can be used to educate, guide and inform.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by Aerialoo on Sunday August 30, 2020 @06:58PM (#24326720)

I can assure you that's not true, a lot of good developers like Chris Belcher are actively working towards it and even receive grants. New BIPs also propose privacy improvements. Anyone can care about privacy. It's a pseudo-anonymous network, but it can be used anonymously.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by Aaronstotle on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:01PM (#24308041)

I see Chainalysis as free marketing for Monero.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by Pick-A-Hill2019 on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:59PM (#24308705)

It certainly has drawn attention to some of the merits of Monero.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by joshfraser on Friday August 28, 2020 @12:54PM (#24307123)

only if you believe your money should be controlled by authoritarian governments instead of you.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by Pick-A-Hill2019 on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:43PM (#24308519)

The word Vigilantes might (or might not) have historic nuances that you (or them) may find unfortunate.

From [1] Vigilante: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate) broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vigilante [2] https://www.forbes.com/companies/chainalysis/ [3] https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-forensics-firm-chainalysis-a...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by carterklein13 on Friday August 28, 2020 @05:54PM (#24310489)

Alright, I can't edit my post anymore but I just want to add - I see now that perhaps vigilante wasn't the right word. I was trying to fit it into a Wild West metaphor and hadn't had my coffee yet, the phrasing clearly struck a cord.

I was more just trying to phrase that the blockchain world can feel lawless at times, and Chainalysis is trying to bring some order and justice to it. Maybe that's the antithesis of why Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies took off, but I personally think it's pretty sweet as someone with previous AML experience.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by deft on Friday August 28, 2020 @01:08PM (#24307307)

They would be the cops actually. Or the police's goons.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Chainalysis in Action: Justice Dept Demands Forfeiture of... by garmaine on Friday August 28, 2020 @12:49PM (#24307056)

Vigilantism is not cool.

[ Parent | on HN ]