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Chainalysis CTO said blockchain is easier to trace than paper money

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101–110 of 328 posts

Re: Chainalysis CTO said blockchain is easier to trace than paper money

#101
Nonsense.

Go to GBTC ATM shops in Barcelona, they'll do KYC-less $100K transactions for 4% transaction fees. I was shocked and walked out of the shop.

If you come to South Florida, you'll find that there was an era where cartels would pay high schoolers to roll up to ATM's and empty them of cash one by one.

Crypto ATMs have 7%-15% fees with no KYC up to 1k USD and have grown about 5x-10x in the last 5 years in the USA.

Ask yourself, do Somalis in Minneapolis care about cryptocurrency or did the proliferation of Crypto ATMs in the city and subsequent drought of court cases around Al Shabab money laundering in the region have some sort of relevant relationship?

If you go to China, from what I've been told, there's private OTC massive wechat groups that have coded words for crypto transactions.

In India, it's the same now, you can liquidate crypto on the street with ease.

The real problem now for the market cap of cryptos is the ultimate draw down in the growth rate of KYC'd accounts in demographically high gdp growth countries.

India implemented 1% per trade, zero loss deduction, 30% cap gains taxes on crypto...essentially incentivizing indigenous stock ownership over any and all crypto assets.

Portugal implemented crypto short term capital gain taxes as well.

It might be easier to trace than paper money, but it's still a world class indefatigable money laundering substrate that trades well with watches and other asset classes.

Customs agents at major ports of entries have not been checking watches. Miami etc...

Re: Chainalysis CTO said blockchain is easier to trace than paper money

#103

That's because when most people use "blockchain" or "DeFi" they're using AML/KYC entities that post their transaction logs to public servers. Law enforcement eats this up because it saves them the trouble of getting warrants for investigations. Bad for customers to be sure. Most have no idea what they're doing and have fallen for a scam hook, line, and sinker. They (loudly, incessantly) proclaim to their friends the…

> That's because when most people use "blockchain" or "DeFi" they're using AML/KYC entities that post their transaction logs to public servers. Law enforcement eats this up because it saves them the trouble of getting warrants for investigations. Well, except for the important detail that KYC requirements don't preclude the need for warrants... > They (loudly, incessantly) proclaim to their friends the benefits of a…

> Well, except for the important detail that KYC requirements don't preclude the need for warrants...

Banks and law enforcement frequently share data without caring about warrants. One example: if you send a $10K wire (in the US), your bank may voluntarily submit a Suspicious Activity Report. And since they may be liable if they choose not to report, but are not liable if they do report, guess which option they typically choose?

Re: Chainalysis CTO said blockchain is easier to trace than paper money

#105
post #80

I have refused to shop at numerous stores because they make a point of not accepting cash. Cash is incredibly important for modern society due to actually being untraceable and allowing for private transactions. Plus, a society without cash is one where you are forced to use central banking. Blockchain is just trying to imitate cash digitally, which as it turns out is really hard to do. So it just ends up that people…

Twenty years ago, a friend of mine noted that if cash were invented today, it would be illegal.

Re: Chainalysis CTO said blockchain is easier to trace than paper money

#106
post #58

That's because when most people use "blockchain" or "DeFi" they're using AML/KYC entities that post their transaction logs to public servers. Law enforcement eats this up because it saves them the trouble of getting warrants for investigations. Bad for customers to be sure. Most have no idea what they're doing and have fallen for a scam hook, line, and sinker. They (loudly, incessantly) proclaim to their friends the…

> Bad for customers to be sure. Most have no idea what they're doing and have fallen for a scam hook, line, and sinker. I wouldn't call it a scam, it's written into laws we should all be pretty mad about. It's only a matter of time before KYC companies are the only way to engage legally with cryptocurrencies. While I don't think having all your transactions in a public ledger was ever a smart move for your average jo…

[deleted]

Re: Chainalysis CTO said blockchain is easier to trace than paper money

#108
The main problem is that in the US, it is nearly illegal to engage in a private, anonymous financial transactions - whether in Bitcoin, Dollars, or anything else. There is a loophole for small transactions in paper money, but that loophole is slowly being closed.

This is not a technology problem. It is a policy problem.

Re: Chainalysis CTO said blockchain is easier to trace than paper money

#109

Here's an amusing exercise: count up how many top FBI executives over the neoliberal period (roughly beginning in the mid-1970s under Ford/Carter) have gone to work for various Wall Street-linked investment banks, hedge funds, law firms, etc. after 'retirement' (the number is comparable to that of generals and admirals who migrated to the corporate boards of defense contractors post-'retirement'). This reality suppor…

That's a lot of words to levy a simple ad hominem.

Regardless of the truth or falsehood of your observation, publicly-verified blockchain-backed currencies are easily traced (especially now that they've become valuable enough for companies with money to invest in solving the problem). The possibility that the messenger has a vested interest in amplifying this message is orthogonal to the truth of it.

Re: Chainalysis CTO said blockchain is easier to trace than paper money

#110
post #52

“No shit”. Wait, you mean something that literally tracks any and all actions in a literal chain of history that is immutable is easy to track?!? You mean that pattern recognition can be applied to even “randomized” in both size, time, and destination of transactions can be done to track like how they can track burner phones? I’m shocked! Shocked I say!

This is really concerning. How are people going to use blockchain to do nefarious things if it's easier to track?
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