Key facts:
Both patents cover a number of areas related to XMR transactions.
The company says it helps authorities identify funds linked to illicit activities
The blockchain analysis company, CipherTrace announced the application of two patents for the tools with which it claims to be able to track the transactions of Monero (XMR), a private cryptocurrency. The company has been working on detecting the illicit use of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies since it signed a contract with the United States government in 2019.
The firm informs on its website that it requested exclusive rights on the development of tools for the Monero transaction analysis for forensic investigations and financial. One patent is called “Probabilistic techniques and methods to track Monero” and the other is identified as “Systems and methods to investigate Monero.”
Both patents cover a number of areas that include the exploration of private cryptocurrency transactions, with the idea of contributing to the investigations of security agencies. Under this objective, CipherTrace describes that its tools allow the visualization of transactions and the tracking of stolen cryptocurrencies or obtained in an illicit way, and that their methodologies show transactions that depend on third-party nodes.
In its current form, Monero’s privacy capabilities make it difficult for many virtual asset service providers to take their risk. The inability to know the source of XMR funds makes them inherently high risk for any anti-money laundering program and as a result more and more VASPs (virtual asset services) prefer to remove from the list than bear compliance risks. additional anonymity-enhanced coins like Monero.
CipherTrace release.
CipherTrace says it tracks Monero, but does not present evidence
In your statement, CipherTrace does not provide technical details of its tools, nor did it at the end of August when it generated doubts in the community, after the announcement of the supposed achievements of its developers. To date, the firm has not explained exactly how its methods work and how accurately they perform.
CipherTrace ensures that its research will serve as the basis for law enforcement agencies to develop more tools to track cryptocurrencies. Source: @pressfoto / Freepik.com
Members of the Monero community believe that CipherTrace only has in its possession the first version of a tool that allows visual exploration of transaction entry and exit and, by means of a probabilistic score, it allows assigning risks to certain directions. However, they rule out that it is a formula to track the cryptocurrency or to deprive it of privacy.
CipherTrace believes that your input will provide law enforcement with even more tools to investigate crime-related Monero transactions and addresses. Nowadays a silent war seems to have been unleashed against cryptocurrency more private of the ecosystem, as CriptoNoticias has been reporting. Meanwhile, several crypto exchanges have preferred to withdraw private crypto assets from their trading options.