LEAKED: IRS Attempts to Trace Monero in Chainalysis Training Videotakebackourtech.org/irs-attempts-to-trace-monero-in-leaked-training-video-response-from-monero/
2071 sats \ 11 comments \ @kepford 24 Oct bitcoin
Curious what some of the bitcoin experts and those familiar with Monero think about this article.
I was unaware of this little detail they drop. I'm not unaware of the privacy tradeoffs with Lightning but didn't know Chainalysis had announced this.
The IRS wanted to be able to pinpoint behavior associated with a particular user to conduct investigations, and associate their activity with other users, gathering open-source intelligence such as their names, all packaged in a neat little GUI (graphical user interface).
Two companies won the contract, from Sept 2020 to Sept 2021, although only Chainalysis is of note as they were able to deliver a working product.
Three months after the contract ended, Chainalysis put out a press release advertising support for tracing Lightning Network transactions in December 2021.
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73 sats \ 4 replies \ @Cje95 24 Oct
I have posted/commented about this before and people have tried to clown me because they do not think it can be done. Chainalysis their who thing is compliance with AML laws and other government regulations. They are still under contract with the government because they can produce results. Even with upgrades to things like Monero all it does is mean that for a little bit it cant be tracked but Chainalysis ends up figuring it out in the end.
Sweden recently arrested some people because they were able to trace them through there BTC/Monero swaps. Monero offers privacy but it by far isn't perfect. The US government eventually is going to come in and do their own arrests but I only think it is going to happen when they have a clear example of a bunch of terrorists who commit an act and were fully funded in something like Monero.
They will then swoop in and go after the project because of the optics and try to cast it and all privacy coins in this negative light. However, no event currently has occurred or exists that would do what the Feds would want.
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53 sats \ 1 reply \ @lrm_btc 24 Oct
Imagine if all these people were spending their time on something productive
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 24 Oct
Kinda reminds me of imagine if Kamala wasn't spending $1 billion on her campaign and had these huge donors donate to causes to actually help instead of an election where most of what is said never comes through. Trump doesn't raise money well at all but still performs as good as he has.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @yo2xncv0 27 Oct
#741729
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 24 Oct
Interesting. Thanks for sharing
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35 sats \ 0 replies \ @yo2xncv0 27 Oct
Did you watch the video?
First part has the Chainalysis agent in awe of how private Monero is. The rest of the video is him being very unconfident and admitting it was mostly guess work and probability.
Required the victim to use a malicious node controlled by Chainalysis and not using a VPN or TOR to hide their IP. Basically a network level attack. And in the end nothing was conclusive.
He still couldn't see how much Monero was being sent or who this person was sending to. If anything this highlighted the strong privacy Monero provides.
FCMP upgrade that is in the works will render even this edge case attack ineffective (assuming you are using your own node or TOR/VPN) since it gets rid of ring signatures and makes the sender a potential member of the entire chain instead of "only" having 15 decoys
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20 sats \ 1 reply \ @guts 24 Oct
You should be more worried they are advertising tracing Lighting Network.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 24 Oct
I care more about Lightning but tracing Lightning is a known tradeoff. Needs more sunlight, not less. But I don't like this company.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @LowK3y19 24 Oct
That sucks monero is one of the most hidden coins and now they can peak into it too
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @yo2xncv0 27 Oct
#741729
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 24 Oct
That's not a great way to think about it. It's not black/white.
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