Taking account of more aggressive crypto tracking measures and what they mean for future government adoption of blockchain.
Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law.
Editor’s note
One
of the most persistent myths about Bitcoin is its supposed anonymity.
More properly termed pseudonymity, BTC wallets are permanently tied to
their public keys. Most of you know that. But it took government
investigators years of trying to corral Bitcoin transactions on dark web
marketplaces like the Silk Road to figure that out.
Now,
however, blockchain analysis is a growing industry, catering to a range
of clients including many of the most shadowy of government agencies.
This was inevitable. At the same time, much of the appeal of effective
blockchain programming — beyond cryptocurrency applications — is their
ability to protect dispersed data. But as government actors get more
sophisticated with blockchain technology and indeed look at onboarding
it themselves, they seem determined to short-circuit the whole privacy
protection side of things.
This week, we’re looking at
updates in government use of analytics and KYC to trace crypto. We’ll
also see some issues with what may be the largest use of blockchain for
remote voting yet — a pretty key example of where everybody involved
needs their identity protected. Surveying the scene, adoption is only
accelerating. All the world’s biggest monetary authorities are even
considering “minting” digital currency using blockchain tech. The
current signs are ominous however, suggesting that the authorities will
take steps to keep the keys for themselves.
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