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Some drug markets are already dealing in Monero only. It's just a matter of time before more people catch on.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup, for Bitcoin it would mean having the mining power of a big pool, indeed.
No, just a secret block that isn’t broadcast to everyone. 1 block a week is plenty to pull this off and that’s just 1/1,000th of the worlds mining power. Unless you get really unlucky and the block fails to enter the block chain letting someone else gets credit for the transaction.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But cash isn't that useful if you're holding a company to ransom on the other side of the world. And normal bank transfers are very traceable. Banks need to report any transactions greater than $10K (or a series of smaller transactions that make up $10K). The consequences of a bank not reporting far exceed any profit they would make from it.
I think the GP was specifically referring to HSBC which has been known to evade its responsibilities in this regard.
I'm curious for the day when Monero overtakes Bitcoin as the primary cryptocurrency for illegal dealings. Then law enforcement will truly be hopeless. Some drug markets are already dealing in Monero only. It's just a matter of time before more people catch on.
Zcash from a theoretical perspective is a lot stronger, but I believe from a practical perspective (due to things like weaknesses in the mempool privacy) is also not very private.
I am fascinated by the rise of 'chain analysis' companies - that started as 'aint it fun' and became 'hey we can help the cops track ransomware' quite quickly. The thing that fascinates me is ... we could do (very similar) analysis on "normal" bank accounts - on a much larger scale but still. I wonder how much criminal activity would be revealed?
I'm curious for the day when Monero overtakes Bitcoin as the primary cryptocurrency for illegal dealings. Then law enforcement will truly be hopeless. Some drug markets are already dealing in Monero only. It's just a matter of time before more people catch on.
Analytic techniques are getting better and the cutting edge research strongly suggests that to a sufficiently sophisticated attacker, Monero is fundamentally about as private as bitcoin. Zcash from a theoretical perspective is a lot stronger, but I believe from a practical perspective (due to things like weaknesses in the mempool privacy) is also not very private.
That's contrary to what I've read, care to expand? As far as I know the IRS is still offering a bounty to crack Monero
Funny because Wasabi requires a lot of manual coin control to preserve anonymity. Samourai Wallet automates most of these and offers obfuscating tools.
I am fascinated by the rise of 'chain analysis' companies - that started as 'aint it fun' and became 'hey we can help the cops track ransomware' quite quickly. The thing that fascinates me is ... we could do (very similar) analysis on "normal" bank accounts - on a much larger scale but still. I wonder how much criminal activity would be revealed?
Would this be (more or less) forensic accounting applied proactively to all accounts? I know techniques similar to 'chain analysis' are applied in criminal investigations, but it's usually reactive (due to the labor involved and the need for warrants in many jurisdictions).
I am fascinated by the rise of 'chain analysis' companies - that started as 'aint it fun' and became 'hey we can help the cops track ransomware' quite quickly. The thing that fascinates me is ... we could do (very similar) analysis on "normal" bank accounts - on a much larger scale but still. I wonder how much criminal activity would be revealed?
Well, on "normal" bank accounts you would be hit by international policies and cover-ups, while on public ledgers, the only barrier is the tech.
Congratulations, you tracked the transaction to a shell company and have no jurisdiction to unwind who the cash withdrawal went to? Ignoring the coin washing services referenced in the story.
I am fascinated by the rise of 'chain analysis' companies - that started as 'aint it fun' and became 'hey we can help the cops track ransomware' quite quickly. The thing that fascinates me is ... we could do (very similar) analysis on "normal" bank accounts - on a much larger scale but still. I wonder how much criminal activity would be revealed?
I don't think so really, the fact that the ledger is public is really the thing that makes this is a credible model.
In the absolutely general sense of "if all banks around the world opened all their books and banking secrecy laws didn't exist, and if we somehow had the ability to trace through cash transactions" then sure, theoretically (and again not accounting for the absolutely vast difference in scale between the volume of transactions in the real world vs the blockchain), but none of that is even remotely probable.