Chainalysis Investigations Lead Is 'Unaware' of Scientific Evidence the Surveillance Software Works (coindesk.com) 31
Chainalysis' head of investigations doesn't seem to have a great understanding of whether her company's flagship software even works. From a report: Elizabeth Bisbee, head of investigations at Chainalysis Government Solutions, testified she was "unaware" of scientific evidence for the accuracy of Chainalysis' Reactor software used by law enforcement, an unreleased transcript of a June 23 hearing shared with CoinDesk shows.
The fact that Chainalysis' blockchain demystification tools have become so widespread is a serious threat to the crypto ecosystem. Although industry insiders have raged against Chainalysis since it was founded, often accusing it of violating people's financial privacy, there may be a better argument to make against the company and analysis firms like it: it's within the realm of possibility that these "probabilistic" machines don't work as well as advertised. This is a big deal considering Chainalysis' surveillance tools are used widely across the industry for compliance, and have at times led to unjustified account restrictions and -- even worse -- land unsuspecting individuals on the radar of law enforcement agencies without probable cause.
The fact that Chainalysis' blockchain demystification tools have become so widespread is a serious threat to the crypto ecosystem. Although industry insiders have raged against Chainalysis since it was founded, often accusing it of violating people's financial privacy, there may be a better argument to make against the company and analysis firms like it: it's within the realm of possibility that these "probabilistic" machines don't work as well as advertised. This is a big deal considering Chainalysis' surveillance tools are used widely across the industry for compliance, and have at times led to unjustified account restrictions and -- even worse -- land unsuspecting individuals on the radar of law enforcement agencies without probable cause.
Just Say No to krypto kriminal kleptokoin (Score:3, Insightful)
Money Laundering! (Score:1)
Money laundering: job 1 for crypto. That way we can all buy illegal drugs, illegal guns, and child porn while supporting North Korea's nuclear program. Crypto is fucking wonderful!
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I launder money the old-fashioned way. Sure, some gets lost in the wash, but the rest comes out nice and shiny.
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I launder money the old-fashioned way. Sure, some gets lost in the wash, but the rest comes out nice and shiny.
Somewhere there's a land filled with socks and lost coins, frolicking freely among the dryer sheets lost to time.
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> Money laundering: job 1 for crypto. That way we can all buy illegal drugs, illegal guns, and child porn while supporting North Korea's nuclear program. Crypto is fucking wonderful!
1. the vast VAST majority of crime is done with the dollar. Should we ban it?
2. "money laundering" is the "crime" of having, receiving, spending, or thinking about US dollars. There doesnt even have to be an actual crime involved; its all defined in terms of amounts of dollars and number of transactions.
3. there is no money l
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It's a very good guess (Score:2)
Easy (Score:5, Interesting)
Step 1: Never use anything crypto or blockchain related.
Step 2: Assume anyone who is into crypto and blockchain technologies is also into child porn and/or hardcore drugs, because honestly that's the only thing that makes any sense. There are zero other possible benefits to the technology, especially those that are really trying to hype it up.
Step 3: Be happy by default, because you followed the first two steps.
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Aww, changed what I said in the quote. Good job, moron. Try again.
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No, I most certainly am not. My precedent is no crazier than saying the loudest GOP members are sexual predators - which is also true. My precedents are based on patterns and evidence. Yours is not. Plus, you only half-assed it to begin with.
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How about extortion and kidnapping? Pussy.
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Well, yes, that is directly related to the child porn. Though, it is also used for non-children too.
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??? teenagers and adults?
Also, no. I don't care about anything drawn.
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People are interested in and hype up stupid useless stuff all the time though. Like anyone who watches DSP or the WNBA.
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Step 1? Agreed. But that's just general sound advice.
Step 2? No. You cannot and should not assume drugs and child porn. That's silly. There are PLENTY of other reasons for anonymity, most illegal, but some not. Some people are just looking to get rich quick. Don't lump them in with junkies and predators. They might not be smart... but they aren't "bad people".
Step 3? If your happiness is tied into this, heaven help you.
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Step 2? No. You cannot and should not assume drugs and child porn. That's silly. There are PLENTY of other reasons for anonymity, most illegal, but some not. Some people are just looking to get rich quick. Don't lump them in with junkies and predators. They might not be smart... but they aren't "bad people".
No. All users of crypto are equally as bad as the worst of the worst. While I agree there are plenty of reason for anonymity, and I support anonymity online, crypto isn't the only way to do so. It isn't even the best way either. People looking to get rich quick are exploitative by nature and are just as bad, albeit in a different way - they are still predators.
Step 3? If your happiness is tied into this, heaven help you.
It's not. Try critically rereading what I wrote.
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It's not. Try critically rereading what I wrote.
Try lightening up. It wasn't meant seriously. :)
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Can't tell with some people around here.
Privacy (Score:5, Insightful)
That's rich - use a public ledger for your financial transactions and then claim that anyone analyzing that public ledger is violating your privacy.
This also seems to be straying pretty far into explicit money laundering territory. Most banks have fairly good reputations on actual privacy of non-illegal activity. I'm assuming the probabilistic part of this is to penetrate the funny business on the public blockchain ledgers specifically intended to obfuscate transaction histories. That sort of thing would be outright illegal in most countries if almost any entity did it with real money.
Not a unique solution (Score:3)
Law enforcement has a pretty well established pattern of refusing to relinquish tools that are either "not been proved to work", or "been proved not to work" (apologies to Mr. Minchin). Look at photo radar. I mean in regard to the stated desire to impact safety... not with regard to the real, unstated goal of neverending revenue generation. Doesn't matter that there's no evidence it works .
The first response is to defend any tool in their hands, efficacy be damned.
They use plutoscience (Score:1)
The proof is in the size of the campaign donations.
Whole story reported in "Tracers in the Dark" (Score:2)
Re:Whole story reported in "Tracers in the Dark" (Score:4, Interesting)
It's good to see someone who has some knowledge of the subject matter rather than the usual "crypto bad mmkay" posts. What many of the posters here don't realize is that the more anarcho-capitalistic members of the broader blockchain community really doesn't like Chainalysis or what they're attempting to do.
Their entire gig revolves around analyzing public blockchain activity for the purpose of helping law enforcement to track payments and (where necessary) recover funds.
It's one of the reasons why I continue to cite their yearly money laundering reports showing that - in their view - the vast majority of blockchain traffic is not related to criminal enterprise. It certainly appears that most of their analysis is provably accurate except where it comes to "privacy" oriented blockchains such as Monero where they're using statistical analysis.
Re: Whole story reported in "Tracers in the Dark" (Score:2)
Beware start ups by Elizabeths (Score:1)