EllioTrades, picks 14 crypto assets that could provide traders with major gains in the next few weeks.

First, Wainman predicts big things are in store for decentralized liquidity network THORChain (RUNE), which is currently trading at $1.76 with about a $278.28 million market cap at time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

The altcoin analyst predicts THORChain will reach a $1 billion market cap and potentially even higher.

“I’ve always been a fan of THORChain, I’ve always been a fan of RUNE, because it allows for yield to be extracted by locking up Bitcoin, and anything that’s DeFi and Bitcoin related to me is set to go absolutely bananas as Bitcoin also grows. So in my mind, a project like RUNE was and always is set to do really well on the back of Bitcoin and DeFi growing together.” 

Another crypto Wainman says is set to grow with Bitcoin and Defi is REN, a protocol that enables the transfer of crypto assets between blockchains. The trader says he’s “betting big” on REN, which is trading around $0.42 with $369 million market cap at time of writing.

Wainman is also bullish on AllianceBlock (ALBT), a “decentralized, blockchain-agnostic layer 2 that bridges traditional and decentralized finance” with only a $46 million market cap. The trader highlights AllianceBlock’s new partnership with data storage project Ocean Protocol as a bullish sign of things to come.

Next up, the crypto trader mentions two related projects that help miners extract the greatest possible value from confirming transactions. Wainman says KeeperDAO (ROOK) and Archer DAO (ARCH), which is up 128% on the day, can multiply in value during this bull cycle.

Wainman then moves on to the decentralized insurance sector, which the analyst labels as one of the most important portions of the decentralized space. Wainman chooses to spotlight Polkadot-based Bridge Mutual (BMI) as an exciting project in the sector.

“Bridge has been at this for two years and has a very interesting complex web of mechanisms that they use to ensure that insurance is provided accurately, that the right policies get approved, that when people are harmed that they actually get the coverage that they’re entitled to.”

Next on Wainman’s list is decentralized derivatives platform, Injective Protocol (INJ). With a market cap of $88 million, the trader points out that the project, which just announced the first decentralized Tesla futures market is now available on its Solstice testnet, has a lot of room to grow considering the traditional derivates market is worth tens of trillions of dollars.

Wainman’s next three picks are also decentralized derivatives related products. The trader highlights Oiler Network, which has not yet had its token launch, Hegic, and a project built on top of Hegic, Whiteheart (WHITE).

Wainman then highlights REVV which is a project in the NFT space, a sector which Wainman is particularly bullish on.

Next on his list is PARSIQ (PRQ), which Wainman labels as an undervalued project that boasts high profile partnerships and great tech.

“They’ve partnered with some of the biggest and most influential coins and projects and chains in the entire ecosystem and I believe they are just getting started as their technology is being recognized a one of the most superior infrastructure projects in the entire space.”

The last two assets Wainman mentions are Akash (AKT), a decentralized cloud storage project, and RAMP which as of writing stand at $27 and $28 million market caps respectively.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Marc A

publicity that draws new users to crypto. Although Bitcoin might be one one of the most well known cryptocurrencies (and the first crypto that many people hear of), I also believe that Bitcoin Cash has a number of interesting features that make it a great introductory or "starter-crypto" for onboarding new users and getting them started.

Since this article is designed for beginners, I want to do an extremely brief recap of what Bitcoin is and why it matters. Bitcoin is a decentralized, peer-to-peer, electronic currency that can be sent anywhere in the world without the permission of governments, central banks, or other financial intermediaries. As the first cryptocurrency that was developed, Bitcoin gained a huge following, has wide name recognition, and is currently the most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap.

At this point, you may be wondering, “ if Bitcoin is such a great cryptocurrency, then why do we need other cryptocurrencies?” The answer to this question is that different cryptocurrencies have built off the basic example of Bitcoin and added or removed certain features that are designed to make them more useful for specific purposes. For example, Bitcoin Cash, which is based on Bitcoin, made several changes that are intended to make it more user-friendly for frequent, daily purchases...hence the “Cash” terminology.  

For those of you who may not know about Bitcoin Cash, the first question that you may be wondering is ”‘What is Bitcoin Cash?” The short answer is that Bitcoin cash can do most everything that Bitcoin can do.  In fact, Bitcoin Cash is a descendant of the original Bitcoin and borrows many of the same features. For example, both Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin (BTC) are created by a decentralized mining process that prevents government inflation of the money supply. Both of these cryptocurrencies can be sent anywhere in the world as a peer-to-peer form of payment. Both have a finite cap of 21 million coins.....the similarities go on and on. 

Although Bitcoin cash inherited much of its underlying philosophy and programming from the original Bitcoin, there are two key features that I believe make it more well-suited to frequent transactions and introducing people to cryptocurrency.

The first major difference is that Bitcoin Cash has an extremely low transaction fee. At the time of writing, the transaction fee for an average Bitcoin transaction is about $5.30 USD while the BCH transaction fee is about 1/100 th of a USD. I believe the significantly lower transaction fee makes Bitcoin cash much more well suited for frequent, small purchases. Can you imagine buying a coffee for $5 with traditional Bitcoin and paying a $5 transaction fee? In that scenario, the transaction fee would be almost the same as the total purchase price of the product. That's not convenient at all!

By contrast, the transaction fee with Bitcoin cash is so low that not only can you buy a coffee, you can send micropayments as tips. For example, the newly released Bitcoin Cash based website noise.cash allows users to send micro-tips as low as .01 USD. This is something that simply wouldn't be possible with traditional Bitcoin or even Ethereum as the transaction fees would be many times higher than the actual value sent.

The second major difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash is that because Bitcoin Cash has such a large block size, it is almost guaranteed that your transaction will be picked up and included in the next block. With traditional BTC, you may wait several hours or days for your transaction to be picked up. Thus, although both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash both have a 10-minute block time, a transaction with Bitcoin Cash will most likely settle far before a transaction from traditional Bitcoin.

I think that hands-on experience and learning by doing are two of the best ways for helping beginners get started in cryptocurrency. Ethereum and traditional Bitcoin are absolutely fantastic cryptocurrencies, but their transaction fees and high cost make them more costly to play around with for beginners. With Bitcoin Cash, I can easily send a few cents worth of value to a new crypto-currency user, and they can practice sending this to other people without having to worry about losing a significant amount of money if they send some crypto to the wrong address or if they underbid for an ETH gas fee. It's even possible to create your own SLP token with just a few cents of Bitcoin Cash - again, that's just one more way that BCH does a good job of giving beginners the ability to experiment and learn about crypto without breaking the bank. 

Additionally, having strong community support and encouragement is essential for onboarding new cryptocurrency users, and I have found BCH to be a strong, supportive community. Perhaps most importantly, a new user's first steps into cryptocurrency should be free. What I mean by this is that users who aren't completely sure about cryptocurrency may be worried about losing their funds or being hacked or something like that. Allowing users to earn a little bit of free cryptocurrency maybe the little push that they need to get started and the whole crypto ecosystem.

I know from first-hand experience that I became interested in cryptocurrency after learning that I could receive free cryptocurrency through the Brave browser. Had it not been for that small initial push, I may never have ventured into the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Therefore, I think that Bitcoin Cash based sites like read.cash and noise.cash   are incredible because they give new users the ability to earn a bit of crypto simply for writing blog posts or tweets without having to put any of their own money on the line.

True, there are other sites such as Publish0x and Uptrennd that allow users to earn other forms of cryptocurrency. However, as those sites use ERC-20 (Ethereum) based tokens, it costs the admin team a significant amount of money to send the payouts which means that a new user will have to wait a while before receiving their first crypto. Although I wholeheartedly recommend sites like Publish0x and Uptrennd, for someone who is just getting started in crypto, it can be very encouraging to get their first payments almost instantly from a site like noise.cash. 

In summary, there are many different cryptocurrencies each with its own unique advantage. This article is in no way intended to claim that Bitcoin Cash is the best cryptocurrency, but rather to show that Bitcoin cash does have several specific advantages that may be helpful and useful to people who are learning about cryptocurrency for the first time. Specifically, the low transaction fees enable newbies to practice sending, receiving, and earning cryptocurrency without having to worry that they are going to make a mistake and lose a large amount of money. 

Undoubtedly, many other cryptocurrencies are designed to function as a quick, easy method of payment. Dash and Nano specifically come to mind, and although they both offer unique advantages, I chose to focus on Bitcon Cash for a few reasons. First, it has name recognition due to its lineage that is derived from Bitcoin. In my opinion, it is easier to explain to a beginner how some updates were made to a coin they know and trust (Bitcoin) than trying to explain a totally new coin that they have never heard of and may not trust. Second, Bitcoin Cash is currently in the Top 10 cryptos while DASH and Nano are ranked 40 and 56 respectively. While ranking does not necessarily mean one coin is better or worse than another, the rankings may be helpful for reassuring a beginner that a coin is legitimate. Likewise, I am unaware of any sites where beginners can earn "free" DASH or Nano to get started at low cost. 

As always, thanks for rop-medium.png

Register now at Publish0x to claim your $$$. It only takes 15 seconds and it's free.

most enormous fintech firms Ripple, major crypto exchanges are suspending its native token trade. According to the recent data from CoinMarketCap, we observed that the US SEC’s lawsuit had affected the third-largest token of the world by market cap to crash by more than 40%. However, XRP is now at the fourth position in the list of tokens by market capitalization.

According to the announcement, it is revealed that from Monday, the trading of XRP pairs is moving into limit only. However, from next month, 19th January 2021, the token trading will be entirely suspended. Last week Bitstamp, one of the major crypto exchanges, was the first major crypto exchange to halt XRP transactions. Indeed, now Coinbase has become the major crypto exchange for halting the XRP transactions.

It is also known that the suspension of trading will not affect the XRP wallet, as the deposit and withdrawal of the token will remain active. On the other hand, Coinbase will also support an airdrop of Spark tokens to the token holders. From which we can conclude that the token will still be supported by the exchange’s custody and in the self-custodial wallet. According to Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer of Coinbase, the exchange will remain to monitor the legal status of XRP and update their users accordingly.

As Coinbase announced about the halt of trading, within twenty minutes, the price of Ripple’s token tanked by 14.28% to $0.24 from $0.28. At press time the price has tanked by more than 21% to $0.22. However, since the US SEC’s action, the price has been tanked by more than 50%. According to Coinbase, the reason behind the dropping of XRP is the exchange’s plan to go public. As Coinbase is planning to go public, being a platform for something that can be considered as security would mean adding more paperwork so retail investors could trade legally.

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investigators and officers, to learn how to trace illegal cryptocurrency transactions.Europol revealed its news at the sixth Cryptocurrency Conference, which ran from 12-14 June at Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. The game was developed in partnership with CENTRIC (Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence, and Organized Crime Research). It is designed to give law enforcement officers the necessary training for tracing cryptocurrencies and treating related cases as part of criminal investigations. According to their 14 June press release:The game, planned to be launched in October at the seventh Europol-INTERPOL Cybercrime Conference, will be the first law enforcement training opportunity on cryptocurrency and investigation using gamification. It will allow law enforcers to get hands-on training and advice on tracing cryptocurrencies in a criminal investigation. With the help of gamification to help create a training opportunity for officers, cryptocurrency crime fighters are about to have some fun fighting crime. The fun part aside, the cryptocurrency-tracing game is a clear indication of how dedicated and serious the law enforcement agencies are tackling cryptocurrency related crime.During the conference, which hosted more than 300 cryptocurrency experts from both law enforcement and the private sector, members shared different practices when undertaking investigations involving cryptocurrency-related crimes.Earlier in the year, Hard Fork reported that a partnership between law enforcement agencies across Europe shut down the cryptocurrency mixing service for the likes of Bestmixer, Wall Street Market, and the popular dark web marketplace. For example, Bestmixer.io, one of the top three cryptocurrency mixing services, was believed to having turned over more than $200 million since it started operations in May 2018.This idea is first of its kind for Europol, with the concept of using a gamified training platform to educate law enforcers on tracing cryptocurrency transactions; however, it is not new to Interpol as it implemented a similar idea in 2015.Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (SegWit) chain are referenced as SegWitCoin BTC coins; tokens on the Bitcoin Cash ABC chain are referenced as BCH, BCH-ABC or BAB coins. Altcoins, which value privacy, anonymity, and distance from government intervention, are referenced as dark coins.Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) is today the only Bitcoin project that follows the original Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper, and that follows the original Satoshi protocol and design. BSV is the only public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin and will massively scale to become the worlds new money and enterprise blockchain.tagscryptocurrencyEuropolCOMMENTPlease enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

person-to-person Bitcoin transaction, the first of many millions more.

Like all Bitcoin transactions, its details are public and recorded forever on the blockchain.

It should also remind us that transactions are what Bitcoin is all about. For some, that means money payments between two people. For others, it’s a way to timestamp and record data on the blockchain. Many of those transacting on the Bitcoin network today aren’t human at all—they’re sensors and devices transmitting data via automated processes to Bitcoin’s ledger, timestamping it all for later auditing and retrieval.

It’s a symbol of how Bitcoin has changed, yet stayed exactly the same, since those earliest days. A transaction broadcast and processed on Bitcoin SV (BSV) in 2021 follows the same basic protocol rules as Satoshi and Hal’s first one in 2009. These rules should not change, and should not be able to change, for Bitcoin to endure and remain trusted far into the future.

If you’re transacting on a network in 2020 that calls itself “Bitcoin” but does not follow these original protocol rules; if you sent a Bitcoin transaction and it cost you $10 (or more) in fees to do so… then that network is not Bitcoin.

Thanks to the removal of data limits on transaction blocks, and fees that average (today) about 1/100 of a U.S. cent, Bitcoin BSV has the ability to process not only every financial transfer in the world, but also enough data to match the internet itself. It does so following the same rules Satoshi set when he published v0.1 of the protocol software three days before Finney received those 10 bitcoins.

Back to January 2009

Finney’s tweet the day before the transaction, where he wrote simply “Running bitcoin”, is probably the most-quoted tweet in Bitcoin history—and probably worthy of a birthday itself:

— halfin (@halfin) January 11, 2009

Hal Finney showed a keen interest in Bitcoin from the time the Bitcoin white paper was published in 2008, posting that “Bitcoin seems to be a very promising idea”. According to Dr. Wright, he also provided advice and assistance that helped keep the network running. By Wright’s own admission, he was a better computer scientist than coder. Although he wrote the original Bitcoin software release himself, Finney (and later others) helped “stopped the network from falling over” in its first month, building a robust system destined to define the future of the digital economy.

Hal Finney was already well-known in programming and cryptography circles for developing the PGP encryption system with Phil Zimmerman in the 1990s. He also developed RPOW, or re-usable proof-of-work, and was known to be interested in the concept that was then known as cryptocurrency.

In the last five years of his life, Finney suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), eventually endured near full-body paralysis, and passed away in August 2014. A long-time member of the Extropy Institute, he requested his body be cryopreserved at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation facility in Arizona.

Finney continued to post on the original BitcoinTalk forum until his illness made it too difficult for him to contribute further. He frequently interacted with Satoshi and others from 2010 to 2013. One such exchange went:

“I’d like to hear some specific criticisms of the code. To me it looks like an impressive job, although I’d wish for more comments. Now I’ve mostly studied the init, main, script and a bit of net modules. This is some powerful machinery.”

Satoshi replied: “That means a lot coming from you, Hal. Thanks.”

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeek’s Bitcoin for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoin—as originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto—and blockchain.

0:00 Analysis Privacy and anonymity are the primary benefits of cryptocurrency, yet due to the transparent nature of blockchain technology, crypto transactions are not as anonymous as some may think. Rather, Bitcoin () and other cryptocurrencies are pseudonymous, as each transaction on a blockchain network is transparent, making it possible to trace wallet addresses back to their source. For example, cryptocurrency intelligence company CipherTrace is capable of by analyzing wallet addresses, exchange information and smart contracts. John Jefferies, the chief financial analyst at CipherTrace, told Cointelegraph that the firm is currently capable of tracing over 800 cryptocurrencies to support investigations of crimes. This is extremely relevant, as recent findings show that cryptocurrency-related crimes during the first half of this year have already. While Bitcoin has been ranked as , a great deal of darknet markets transactions are conducted using the privacy coin Monero (). Due to this, law enforcement has been extremely interested in finding a way to trace Monero. While there hasn’t previously been a tool capable of tracing Monero transactions, Dave Jevans, the CEO of CipherTrace, mentioned that the firm has developed the first tool for tracking Monero transactions. According to Jevans, the tool, which has been in development for over a year, will be used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to trace Monero transactions. He noted that CipherTrace’s recent contract with DHS Science & Technology Directorate resulted in the development of forensic tools for law enforcement and government agencies to trace Monero transaction flows for criminal investigations: Specifically speaking, Jefferies from CipherTrace explained that the tools make it possible to track stolen Monero or those used for illegal transactions. While the product is not suitable for purposes just yet, Jefferies mentioned that ransomware cases involving Monero can be traced back to sources. This is notable, as it’s been mentioned that ransomware criminals are switching from Bitcoin to. According to Jefferies, the tool will allow law enforcement officials to narrow ransomware cases down to a couple of different crypto addresses. Although Jefferies couldn’t reveal the exact number of transactions traced, he shared that the tool has indeed been validated across a large number of Monero transactions: Jefferies further pointed out that the tools help to assure cryptocurrency exchanges, OTC trading desks and investment funds that they are not accepting Monero from illicit sources. This could very well be a game-changer for Monero, which has recently been due to poor compliance standards and an overall lack of transparency compared with other cryptocurrencies. Although CipherTrace’s new tool will help crackdown on Monero-related crimes, members of the crypto community remain skeptical. Justin Ehrenhofer, organizer of the Monero community workgroup and a regulatory compliance analyst at DV Chain — a crypto trading organization — told Cointelegraph that while he isn’t surprised by CipherTrace’s tool to track Monero, he has yet to receive any specific information on what the team has accomplished: Ehrenhofer further commented that it’s extremely unlikely that CipherTrace can trace Monero to the extent that they can trace other cryptocurrencies. “Without specific information, any speculation is just that — speculation,” he added. Moreover, he noted that research will continue to advance Monero’s privacy features regardless of actions taken by CipherTrace or other companies attempting the same techniques. While there are a number of privacy coins out there, XMR remains the largest and one of the most unique due to advanced security features. Ehrenhofer explained that the main technology behind Monero is RingCT, which is a system combining ring signatures and Confidential Transactions cryptography. “This means I can look at a blockchain network on my computer and make it appear like I’m spending other people’s funds without their actual participation,” he said. Ultimately, Monero makes it possible to hide all parts of a transaction, including the sender, receiver and amount details. With this in mind, Ehrenhofer mentioned that Monero has been specifically designed to withstand analysis from governments and others who attempt to surveil it. Therefore, he remains confident in Monero’s use: “Since we have no reason to believe that there are new ways of trying to trace Monero transactions, nor any indication of their effectiveness, Monero users can continue to transact in confidence.” Jefferies, however, begs to differ, noting that the tools CipherTrace has developed for the DHS have laid the groundwork for future, more advanced investigative tools, which law enforcement officials will leverage for Monero transactions. Skepticism aside, some crypto enthusiasts believe that financial surveillance tools, such as the ones being developed by CipherTrace, violate human privacy rights. Alex Gladstein, the chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation — a nonprofit organization — recently argued on The Blockchain Debate podcast that blockchain analysis companies are downright bad for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Gladstein, who was joined on the show by Jevans, explained that providing government officials with cryptocurrency transaction information further allows governments to spy on individuals’ financial transaction data. He stated that “financial surveillance” companies, like CipherTrace, may even decide to work with dictatorships, allowing these governments to have more control over citizens: While this is an extreme example, there are some practical benefits to consider. Ryan Taylor, the CEO of Dash — another privacy-oriented cryptocurrency — told Cointelegraph that there is a big difference between the DHS tracking Monero transactions versus personal transactions:

anonymity of Bitcoin transactions as an excuse to prevent people from using it. Bitcoin transactions have been proven to be pseudonymous at best. With the right tools and enough time, it is possible to track the digital currency transactions. Now, the Denmarks law enforcement authorities have proven it to the world. According to reports, the Danish police have successfully arrested and convicted drug dealers for the second time in a row by tracing Bitcoin transactions. Last month, a defendant in one of the narcotics-related cases was found guilty by a court in Denmark after considering traced Bitcoin transactions as proof. The defendant was sentenced to 8 years in prison. With two convictions, Denmark has set a record for its efficiency in handling cybercrimes, especially the ones involving cryptocurrencies. A well-known tech magazine has quoted the head of Denmarks National Cybercrime Center (NC3), Kim Aarenstrup saying, We are pretty much unique in the world at this moment, because nobody else has been able to use this type of trace as evidence before. Everybody is looking towards Denmark in this field, and we are in close dialog with several other countries at the moment, so that we can further develop the method and teach them how we operate. The online media outlet gives a brief description of the method used by the Danish law enforcement agencies. The tracing method compares the transaction information associated with purchases made using the cryptocurrency with the listing of Bitcoin buyers and sellers on the internet. The comparison will allow the authorities to identify questionable transactions as well as the people involved associated with it. The recent developments are also expected to affect the dark net dealings involving drugs, weapons, and contraband. The possibility of police tracing Bitcoin transactions will accelerate the adoption of anonymous cryptocurrencies like Monero among the dark net vendors. Once the technique for tracing Bitcoin transactions become more widespread, governments may adopt a more favorable stance towards the digital currency.

millions of dollars and typically run in the hundreds of thousands range.”

The Ryuk ransomware family has raked in $150 million in bitcoin, according to a joint report by cybersecurity firms Advanced Intel and Hyas. “The Ryuk family of ransomware has been particularly successful in economic terms as well as having a disruptive impact on many industries around the world,” the report authors described, adding:

Our research involved tracing payments involving 61 deposit addresses attributed to Ryuk ransomware. The Ryuk criminals send a majority of their bitcoin to exchanges through an intermediary to cash out.

The ransomware family Ryuk was first discovered in the wild in August 2018. Its targets tend to be high-profile organizations, including hospitals and newspapers.

The report authors explained that “Significant volumes of bitcoin move from the laundering service to Binance, Huobi, and crime markets that we have identified through traced payments.” Besides the two crypto exchanges, “there are significant flows of cryptocurrency to a collection of addresses that are too small to be an established exchange and probably represent a crime service that exchanges the cryptocurrency for local currency or another digital currency.”

Furthermore, the report notes that “Ryuk receives a significant amount of their ransom payments from a well-known broker that makes payments on behalf of the ransomware victims. These payments sometimes amount to millions of dollars and typically run in the hundreds of thousands range,” adding:

After tracing bitcoin transactions for the known addresses attributable to Ryuk, the authors estimate that the criminal enterprise may be worth more than $150,000,000.

What do you think about this ransomware raking in $150 million in bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

Use Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to play online casino games here.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

customers to trace the origins of its coffee using Microsoft's blockchain solution. Customers will be able to scan codes on the bags of coffee they purchase to discover their origins. Little information has been provided concerning the traceability solution other than the fact that it employs blockchain. Microsoft is one of the leading providers of blockchain-as-a-service platforms, though IBM's Food Trust platform is better known in the space. As consumers become more concerned about the ethical sourcing of the products they purchase, the blockchain-tracing trend could rapidly begin to take hold. This is a developing story and will be updated.

knowledge that all the proponents of cryptocurrencies hold a common value that advises their decisions—financial privacy.Yet, online platforms, including ecommerce websites, are riddled with cases of third-party tracking events.Among the key components of cryptocurrencies is its promise of online anonymity. This also happens to be one of its greatest points of criticism.Various pundits across social and economic ecosystems have come out to smear the crypto industry as a confluence of drug dealers, cybercriminals, terrorists and despots.To tackle this issue, governments have endeavored to establish interventions aimed at tracing the “movement” of digital currencies.Notwithstanding the notion that cryptocurrencies were created to guarantee anonymity, authorities have succeeded in controlling the sector owing to the fact that virtual coins are essentially pseudo-anonymous.This reality presents itself when considering the possibilities of associating transactions to fixed wallet addresses. In this regard, cryptocurrencies are not entirely a network of anonymity, but rather a pseudo-anonymous system.Having dealt with the status quo, the following section will illuminate the aspect of third-party involvement in tracing cryptocurrency transactions.This phenomenon can be well understood through the lens of an actual third-party attack model that links merchants and payment processors to trackers.Ideally, a crypto-based ecommerce flow chart features a merchant, payment processor, an end user and trackers.Merchants denote websites that host shoppers, otherwise referred to as users in this context.A majority of merchants depend on the workings of payment processors such as Coinbase. The purpose of such processors is to manage logistics surrounding crypto processing.In practice, when a user makes a purchase with cryptocurrencies, a payment processor receives the transaction, then credits a merchant’s account with an amount with the equivalence of any fiat currency option.Trackers are third-party elements that are localized on webpages. They operate “like a shadow” and can trace users’ functions for the benefit of, say, promotions or web analytics.Quite simply, third parties trace crypto transactions via entries within the value chain of information.Common user actions such as logging in and out of sites, executing payment processes and selecting desired items provide loopholes—which are exploited by third parties—to trace footsteps of crypto transactions.Certainly, the scale of knowledge regarding user actions determines the magnitude of third-party influence in tracking cryptocurrency transactions.Well, you might be wondering – what information types do third-party players target?First, payment timestamps, which refer to approximate payment periods, can be learned by third parties.Timestamps are typically borne within merchant websites and are commonplace to sites that employ checkout processes in their transactional system.Payment addresses denote destinations linked to virtual currencies. Payment processors generate addresses that are special to various transactions.Leaks, which occur in information flow, allow third parties to trace crypto transactions via such payment addresses.In this breath, the eventuality becomes real whenever a third party can associate an online user to particular blockchain transactions.Additionally, prices set by merchant websites can provide entry points for third-party trackers to trace crypto transactions.Third parties may access information regarding itemized prices that are linked to user actions.Apart from knowing the prices of goods added to a shopping cart, these players may understand shipping costs that surround purchase processes.Using the analogy of third-party attacks, it’s necessary to examine the different techniques used by third parties in tracing cryptocurrency transactions.First, passive attacks occur whenever transactional information is “innocently” obtained by third parties in the course of a normal transaction.Otherwise, active attacks, which happen in most cases, are fundamentally intentional and aim to extract transactional information from webpages for, as mentioned before, analytics and promotional purposes.Get regular emails about the dark web, hacking and encryption in the "Anonymity Newsletter".Get regular emails about the dark web, hacking and encryption in the "Anonymity Newsletter".Get regular information on the Dark Web, Internet Anonymity, Cryptocurrencies and Hacking, starting with the 3 BEST tips to stay anonymous on the dark web.This is all emailed to you in the "Anonymity Newsletter".I respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously.. No Spam!

what you should actually do.

The first and most important thing you should know is that there is absolutely no way to reverse confirmed Bitcoin/cryptocurrency transactions.  Once a transaction is confirmed on the Blockchain, there is no way to reverse it.

Beware of “Bitcoin recovery” scams

There are many “Bitcoin recovery” services that claim to be able to return stolen Bitcoin.  They will have all kinds of explanations of how they do this.

Here is a debunking of the most common recovery methods:

What they promise: we will prosecute thieves and force them to return stolen Bitcoin

Why it won’t work: 

In almost all cases, you won’t know the identity of the people who stole your Bitcoin. It’s nearly impossible to find out the real-world identity of the owner of a given Bitcoin address.

Even if you have a name, email address, “registered trading account,” website, etc, it will be very difficult to obtain the cooperation of the police in getting their real-world identity.

The police don’t care about “small scale” theft. In most cases, the thieves will be in a different country than you.  Furthermore, unlike cash, there is no paper trail to follow.  Bitcoin/cryptocurrency is generally considered “property” rather than money, and hacking isn’t given the same weight as theft of physical goods.  All of this makes authorities unlikely to pursue cases.

Even when the identity of the thieves is definitely known, the Bitcoin is rarely returned. The only cases where Bitcoin has been recovered in theft has been in a class-action lawsuit (such as with Mt Gox). Even then, it usually takes thousands of victims, at least tens of millions of dollars stolen, expensive attorneys, and many years.

I’m not saying it’s impossible. Just don’t expect to send a random lawyer $5000-$10,000 (typical “recovery” fees) and anything useful to happen. It’s a scam.

What they promise: we will hack the thieves and get them to return your Bitcoin.

Why it won’t work:

First, anyone who was able to steal your money is already a sophisticated hacker. Most “hackers” prey on the technologically ignorant.  Anyone capable of stealing your Bitcoin probably knows the tricks of so-called “ethical hackers”.

Second, it’s nearly impossible to find out the real-world identity from a Bitcoin address or an email address.  If the U.S. government struggles to find find out who operates darknet markets, what hope has some hacker you paid $1000?

Third, even an “ethical hacker” has to break into someone else’s systems — and probably break some laws in the process. If they could someone break into people’s computers to get their Bitcoin, why should they return it to you?  Why do they need you at all?  If they can hack people’s computers to steal Bitcoin, they are just as likely to steal yours.

There are no credible, independent reports of anyone successfully doing this. “Ethical hackers” that return Bitcoin for cash upfront simply do not exist.  It’s a scam.

What they promise: we will hack Bitcoin or brute force your private key to reverse the transaction and return your Bitcoin.

The market cap of Bitcoin is nearly $700 billion dollars.  Every single Bitcoin transaction and address is public.  If someone could steal or reverse a Bitcoin transaction, they wouldn’t be helping you.  They would be going after the richest Bitcoin wallets worth tens of billions of dollars. Of course, once it got out that Bitcoin could be hacked, the exploit would either be patched, or Bitcoin would become worthless.

No matter how brilliant they claim to be, it’s a scam.

What they claim: we will trace Bitcoin transaction to the service holding them, and force them to return your money.

Chainalysis is a real thing.  There are companies that keep databases of addresses used by criminals and gambling sites, and help exchanges ban those customers.  Unfortunately, they can’t help you for a few reasons:

First, they have expensive products for businesses and governments than the random recovery service you found online probably doesn’t have access to.

Second, the most they can do is trace which major exchange or business got your Bitcoin.  At this point, you would need the cooperation of the exchange to tell you which customer made that deposit.  That cooperation is impossible to obtain without a court order, which as previously explained is nearly impossible to obtain.  Furthermore, thieves don’t use cooperative exchanges in the first place, since they require KYC. If they want to cash out, they are going to use some less-reputable service in a country that probably does not cooperate with your government.

Third, once your crypto hits an exchange, it’s impossible to trace what a given customer does with it next.  If someone simply deposits Bitcoin with an exchange, you will never know when they take it out or move it.  This is because exchanges combine all their funds, so your stolen Bitcoin will be given to whoever requests a withdrawal first.  It will not be withdrawn by the person who deposited it.

Fourth, criminals don’t keep Bitcoin at exchanges.  In my experience, they will either sit on it for years or cash it out immediately. They are not stupid enough to keep it where it can be confiscated, however unlikely that is.

It is nearly impossible to return your stolen cryptocurrency.  Don’t lose more of your money in vain.

Am I wrong?  Are there other “recovery” methods I forgot to mention? Please let me know below.

First, there is a small qualification that unconfirmed transactions can be reversed or canceled.  In a few cases, I’ve been able to reverse transactions that haven’t confirmed yet.  It’s rare and requires immediate action.  Usually, this happens with wallets that receive mining payments, as they require much higher fees to confirm.

Second, if your Bitcoin keys, logins, seed, etc have been leaked or exposed, but the thieves have not yet sent it away, you must act immediately to transfer it to a new private wallet.

Third, realize that if someone has stolen your Bitcoin, you may still be vulnerable to theft. You probably did something wrong or were exploited by someone who can do it again.

Don’t go out and buy more Bitcoin.  You need to perform a security audit to understand how it was stolen. You may have a keylogger tracking all your keystrokes, or a root exploit that allows someone to access all your files.  Educate yourself. Learn about the most common cryptocurrency scams. At a minimum,  read my article on how to safely store Bitcoin.

Fourth, make sure your crypto was really stolen.  You should see a transaction to an address that does not belong to you on a date/time you did not make any transactions.  If you’re not sure, ask for help.  If you don’t see an outgoing transaction, it was probably not stolen – you’re doing something wrong.

Fifth, if your Bitcoin was stolen, and you held it before August 2017, check to see if the BCH/BSV forks have been claimed.  Do this immediately, before the crooks do.

Altcoins should be more secure.

Surprisingly, this is not so…

As of 2018, over $1.1 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen just in the first six months of that year as reported by Carbon Black, a cybersecurity company.

Cybercriminals perpetrate these devastating acts through the dark web and move huge sums of dollars in Bitcoin. Bitcoin owners have at one time lost funds until not long ago did it become feasible to trace and get your money after being stolen.

When investing in Bitcoin, you have to decide upfront how to secure it. There are weird tactics scammers use to steal Bitcoins in a large scale. Some of them pose as brokers (cloned websites) requesting a service update, luring you to reveal some information about your account. Some could send malware to your system and more.

These are common ways Bitcoin cybercriminals connect with victims:

SEE ALSO: How to Flee these 10 Bitcoin Scams Now!

Once a Bitcoin thief gets access to your money, it will be very frustrating to get it back. But rather than getting frustrated, what you need to do is to take quick action with the right set of information that will help recover your stolen funds.

But in a few cases, it turns out to be convenient to track such people down and trace stolen Bitcoins, either through flash retrieval, bitcoin forensic specialists. Fortunately, there are methods to get back your stolen Bitcoins.

SEE ALSO: 3 Smart Ways the Police Can Crackdown Cryptocurrency Criminals

To get your Bitcoin back from a cybercriminal, you must take to the following steps below:

The more you delay the process of transaction tracing, the increased leverage you give the scammer to transfer your money to a cold storage, send it to crude exchanges, or to tumblers to make it untraceable.

If your Bitcoin is in an exchange, you’ll have to get to them and demand they freeze your funds. This will give you little time.

Unfortunately, not every exchange is fast enough to treat your request, so you might be required to employ the service of a lawyer who will do the work for you and prompt a court to issue an order to freeze your account.

For your case to be resolved legally, you’ll be required to provide some information about your stolen Bitcoin. You should be able to tell how it happened or when you last noticed a suspicious activity.

This may sound ridiculous, you’ll need to tell the law enforcements who stole your Bitcoin.

A Partner at Stewarts Law in the United Kingdom, Marc Jones said, “In general, to enforce an order requiring fraudsters to pay damages or handover stolen property, ultimately you’ll need to know who they are.”

Luckily, one of the many advantages of holding Bitcoin is that you can trace where your coin was sent. If it was transferred through an exchange, you’ll be very likely to identify the Holder of the wallet (as a result of the KYC process). Then, you can obtain a court order to bring the thief to order and retrieve your stolen funds. 

But this sounds too easy to be true, but it actually is. If you then want to handover this Bitcoin retrieval process to a specialist, let’s look at the third option.

Another option is to employ the services of a Bitcoin recovery expert.

There are a few around, the ones we know that do a good job in helping out with such cases are:

Funds Recovery 247 (www.fundsrecovery247.com), info@globalhackingservice.com, info@fundsrecovery247.com, Providence@hackergmail.com, and Express Recovery Pro, which can be contacted via expressrecoverypro@yahoo.com.

Bitcoin recovery specialists are skilled in tracing stolen bitcoin, investigating and applying together all technical tools that will help to recover the Bitcoins stolen by cyberthieves (either through a high-level digital currency scam or bitcoin investment scam).

Bitcoin recovery specialists present the easiest and largest form of cryptocurrency reclaim resolution. Billions of dollars of embezzled cryptocurrency have been effectively and seamlessly recovered.

At the inception of Bitcoin, an efficient end-to-end crypto reclaim resolution wasn’t available for the public domain on the rights of those who fall victim to crypto-related scams.

The first stage, cross-frontier, scaled and improved technological grade of the blockchain sometimes obstruct recovery efforts by victims and law enforcement agencies. 

A bitcoin recovery expert makes this possible by deploying operational processes, suited purpose technology, capacity and expertise to efficiently reclaim stolen bitcoin and other embezzled digital assets.

Who can employ the services of a bitcoin recovery specialist?

You may find the loss of your Bitcoin strange owning to the security measures you have put in place.

You’re not alone, many other have witnessed cryptocurrency scam, even the United Nations Agency, exchanges, and renowned business leaders have witnessed cryptocurrency thefts, ransomware hacks, fake ICOs, randoms, or sending money to a wrong wallet address.

If you lose money to fake Bitcoin miners, it’s still possible to recover your lost funds via bitcoin recovery specialists.

The CEO of the Partner company (Coinfirm), Pawel Kuskowski, told a popular cryptocurrency news aggregator, “So far, there is no one place where victims can go and get help. It’s almost like they are pleading to get someone interested in their case. In the end, they have to work it out themselves; see about getting a lawyer, perhaps in some other jurisdictions.”

To file for digital asset recovery, submit an initial form containing clues to your stolen asset, after which ReclaimCrypto will carry out an assessment.

You will not be charged for the initial assessment, but you have to pay a success fee when your stolen cryptocurrency is recovered.

What you need do is share this cryptocurrency theft incident online, and spread across through every means possible, Send to your friends, family, Admins in your Facebook and Reddit communities. Share far and wide.

The Bitcoin scammers possibly may have wreaked the same havoc elsewhere and could easily be fished out and caught when put on red-alert.

If you are determined on reclaiming your cryptocurrency, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

SEE ALSO: How to Flee these 10 Bitcoin Scams Now!

To ensure you don’t fall victim in the first place to a cryptocurrency scam, you have to protect your coins with at least two factor security authentication, changing passwords to you devices including wallets periodically. Ensure putting your digital assets separately into “cold” and “hot” wallets.

Stay responsible and keep your ownership of Bitcoins private to avoid unnecessary profile targeting.

SEE ALSO: Best Hot and Cold Bitcoin Wallets

Image credit: Network vector created by stories – www.freepik.com

technology service provider, announced today that on December 31, 2020 , China Copyright Protection Center ("CCPC") has accepted the Company's application for ten software copyrights relating to blockchain technology applications, which the Company first submitted for CCPC's review in June 2020.

The Company has been developing and improving an anti-counterfeiting and tracing system by using the blockchain technology for its blockchain based e-commerce platform Chain Cloud Mall (CCM). The system not only issues unique anti-counterfeiting QR codes to trace the products and ensure their authenticity, it also provides anti-counterfeiting points to consumers. After consumers are rewarded with such points, they can receive discounts and other benefits, and ultimately realize "no counterfeit in the CCM, value-added shopping experience, and more traffic and business for the stores in CCM."

With the research, development and improvement of software used in the anti-counterfeiting and tracing system with the blockchain technology, the Company has developed ten software with blockchain technology that is apply for copyrights. They are: 1. blockchain credit points discount settlement system; 2. blockchain credit points circulation monitoring system; 3. legal currency and credit points synchronization settlement system; 4. blockchain credit points flow system; 5. agent automatic profit distribution system; 6. agent automatic tax deduction and accounting system; 7. manufacturer automatic accounting system; 8. e-commerce and blockchain anti-counterfeiting linkage system; 9. blockchain discount and promotion automatic balance system; 10. blockchain real-name authentication and legal responsibility system.

In recent years, blockchain applications have been more and more used in the real life and daily economics, such as traditional manufacturing, e-commerce, financial industry to save transaction and labor costs, reduce the raw material consumption, simplify the payment process.

Zhi Yan , General Manager of the CCM said, "The system we built is simply a blockchain based credit point reward and settlement center for our online shopping mall. Anti-counterfeiting and rewarding system in e-commerce is only the first application of this technology. Our supply chain system, contract farming system, and order management system may also use this technology. Our application of software copyrights will protect our intellectual property rights and help us further improve the blockchain based system of CCM."

<b xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">About Future FinTech Group Inc.

Future FinTech Group Inc. ("Future FinTech", "FTFT" or the "Company") is a leading blockchain e-commerce company and a service provider for financial technology incorporated in Florida. The Company's operations include a blockchain-based online shopping mall platform, Chain Cloud Mall ("CCM"), a cross-border e-commerce platform (NONOGIRL), an incubator for blockchain based application projects. The Company is also engaged in the development of blockchain based e-Commerce technology as well as financial technology. For more information, please visit http://www.ftftex.com/.

<b xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Safe Harbor                    

Certain of the statements made in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning and protections of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to our beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions, and future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control, and which may cause the actual results, performance, capital, ownership or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be forward-looking statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements through our use of words such as "may," "will," "anticipate," "assume," "should," "indicate," "would," "believe," "contemplate," "expect," "estimate," "continue," "plan," "point to," "project," "could," "intend," "target" and other similar words and expressions of the future.

All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice, including, without limitation, those risks and uncertainties described in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and our other reports and filings with SEC. Such reports are available upon request from the Company, or from the Securities and Exchange Commission, including through the SEC's Internet website at http://www.sec.gov. We have no obligation and do not undertake to update, revise or correct any of the forward-looking statements after the date hereof, or after the respective dates on which any such statements otherwise are made.

SOURCE Future FinTech Group Inc.

Concern:

I am Ben Davenport, an entrepreneur and investor. I previously co-founded BitGo, the first non-custodial multi-sig wallet provider, and now leading provider of custodial services for cryptocurrencies. I am also an investor in companies like Kraken, Xapo and Paxos. Today, I am a Venture Partner at Blockchain Capital, the oldest venture fund in the cryptocurrency space. These comments are my own, and do not reflect the opinions of either my current or former employer, or the companies I have invested in.

I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the proposed regulations. However, I take serious issue with the process by which these proposed rules are being rolled out. Rather than a more standard 30- or 60-day comment period, FinCEN has decided to use only a 15-day comment period, at the peak of a pandemic, at a time of year when most people are enjoying time with their families. It feels unnecessarily rushed, and gives the appearance that FinCEN and/or the Secretary are attempting to slip new regulations through unopposed, or to simply steamroll through any such opposition. FinCEN owes it to its own reputation & credibility, as well as to the American people, to immediately lengthen the deadline for comments, so that more thoughtful & diverse voices can be heard.

I also have serious objections to the substance of the rules themselves. The new rules would:

Comments on CTR Requirement

The rules propose applying the existing CTR reporting framework to any customer making a withdrawal or series of withdrawals over $10,000. On the surface, this may seem reasonable, since the same rules apply to customers withdrawing cash from a bank or MSB. But below I give some important reasons why this is not a straightforward analogy, and explain why the rules as proposed would create serious risks for Americans.

i) The traceability of cryptocurrency means permanent privacy loss for Americans.

While Bitcoin and cash are both bearer assets, they are very different in terms of traceability. Cash is effectively untraceable once it has left the bank. On the other hand, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are highly traceable, and law enforcement agencies say that they would much prefer that criminals use cryptocurrency rather than cash, exactly because of the tracing powers it gives them. In fact, transaction history on a blockchain lives forever, and becomes more traceable every day, both as new techniques evolve, and as more blanks are filled in, making it a particularly bad choice for criminals.

All this means that once FinCEN has a database of every major withdrawal by any customer, they not only know the fact of that withdrawal, but they can watch and trace, in real time, the flow of all of those funds on the blockchain. Or, if the transaction is a deposit, FinCEN can look back in time to trace the user’s complete prior history of transactions no matter how small or innocuous. In other words, the proposed rules would violate law-abiding Americans’ privacy in a way that is far beyond the existing ability to subpoena bank/MSB records, because they operate in a broad undiscriminating manner, much like mass wiretapping and bulk phone metadata gathering.

ii) The massive aggregation of data puts Americans in real, physical danger.

The proposed CTR requirements would create a massive database at FinCEN/Treasury which would ultimately put Americans in real physical danger. The huge amount of data would create a honeypot so juicy as to be irresistible to hackers, whether state-sponsored or monetarily-motivated. And with the recent revelation of major databases at Treasury being hacked and stolen, this risk is far from theoretical. 

It is likely that most cash withdrawals subject to CTR are not taken home and put under the customer’s mattress. Rather, they are used relatively soon thereafter, to make a large purchase, to gamble in Las Vegas, or for some other transactional purpose (whether licit or illicit.) On the other hand, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are largely used as investments. So, a withdrawal to a non-custodial wallet is more likely than not to be simply a person deciding to hold his own assets without being subject to counterparty risk.

This means that, while a traditional CTR record for cash is not that valuable to an attacker, since the cash is usually long gone, a CTR for cryptocurrency can be extremely valuable. The record would contain the subject’s name and physical address and the address and amount of cryptocurrency. The attacker can even see on the public blockchain whether the coins have moved or not, guiding them to the most vulnerable victims to extort. Even a database theft from a single bank or MSB can cause innumerable problems for the affected customers. But concentrating the risk at the Federal level, endangering every American holding more than a token amount of cryptocurrency, is simply unconscionable.

This point is so critical, I will reiterate: Creating a centralized repository of individual owners of cryptocurrency puts them all at serious risk, and, far from reducing crime, creates the potential for an eventual unprecedented wave of violent crime.

iii) Large cryptocurrency deposits & withdrawals are far more common than with cash.

The percentage of cash withdrawals or deposits where something nefarious is involved may be relatively substantial (although I don’t know the specific numbers). This is simply because in today’s world there are not that many types of transactions where cash is needed or desired, and so illicit uses make up a correspondingly higher fraction of the overall cash transactions. On the other hand, with cryptocurrencies, which are predominantly held as investments, larger transactions are simply an everyday occurrence. And it is common wisdom in the community that trusting exchanges to hold one’s coins for the long term is a very bad idea due to the risks of cybercrime and/or fraud by the MSB.

Because of this fact, any signal of bad actors received by FinCEN will be totally buried in the noise of completely normal large withdrawals and deposits. So, without sophisticated blockchain analytics picking out the funds moving to bad actors, the CTR records are not useful to law enforcement. And, if the blockchain analytics software can identify trails of funds moving to or from bad actors, then identifying information for any link in that chain that touches an exchange or other MSB can already be easily be gotten through the normal subpoena process without violating the privacy of law-abiding citizens. The conclusion is that the mass collection of CTR records serves only to create the aforementioned panopticon into everything innocent users do (or have done) with their funds.

Comments on Wallet Verification

The proposed rules also appear to require that MSBs “verify” the address of customers when sending or receiving more than $3000. There are serious problems with this requirement, leading to significant friction for users and difficult make-work for exchanges, while providing exactly zero additional information useful to law enforcement. My reasons are as follows:

i) It is impossible to prove ownership of an address.

At first, it appears that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies make it easy to prove ownership of an address. Simply sign a message with the public key associated with an address, or make a small transaction back to a specified address. But that proves nothing about the ownership of said address. All it proves is that the user doing the transaction can get the person or entity who does control the address to jump through these additional hoops.

ii) Transactions do not have a “sending address.”

For all UTXO-based cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin), there is no such thing as a “sending address” for a transaction. Thus, while verifying an address for a withdrawal may be possible (though meaningless as shown above), verifying the source of an incoming transaction is essentially impossible in the usual case, where a transaction’s inputs are the outputs of multiple prior transactions. The user would be potentially forced to jump through hoops to pre-consolidate his funds to a single address, which he then verifies with the exchange, for no real gain of information to law enforcement.

iii) The proposed requirement provides no actual new information.

When a user at a regulated MSB makes a deposit or withdrawal, they are required to have KYC information on that user in order to serve them. So we already know who is responsible for the deposit or withdrawal, regardless of what wallet it came from or went to: the user who is known to the MSB. Whether a user withdraws directly to his own “verified” address and then subsequently sends to a bad actor, or whether the user sends to the bad actor directly from the exchange makes no difference to law enforcement’s investigatory powers. In fact, I believe that law enforcement would likely prefer that the illicit transaction happen directly on-exchange where there is a chance that the exchange can use its own blockchain analytics software to either block or file a suspicious activity report (SAR). As they stand, all the proposed rules do is force bad actors to practice better operational security.

iv) Law enforcement efforts are actively harmed.

As mentioned above, the more hoops that US exchange users must jump through, the more the likelihood that those users think twice before using those exchanges to do their illicit activity. And it is exactly the use of these regulated exchanges that allows law enforcement to make arrests and successfully prosecute bad actors. By pushing illicit activity to offshore or unregulated exchanges, law-enforcement powers are necessarily diminished.

v) New emerging uses of cryptocurrency are crippled.

There are many emerging uses for cryptocurrency where the user is depositing from or withdrawing to a smart contract, rather than another MSB or his own wallet. A smart contract can neither abide by FinCEN guidance (it is not a legal entity and may have no owner or controller), nor can it prove its identity to an MSB. These applications of smart contracts (which are currently attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital) would be crippled, and American competitiveness would be severely damaged in this potentially important emerging space.

Conclusion

Given the serious problems raised above, I think it is absolutely incumbent on FinCEN and the Secretary to significantly lengthen the period for comments on this proposal, and to begin a real 2-way dialogue with companies and experts in the industry, while also listening to the concerns of the general public. What is at stake is nothing less than:

Respectfully yours,