Posted on 06/30/2022 8:49:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
So much for decentralized finance.
The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, has been reportedly selling Immigrations and Customs Enforcement tools to track and identify cryptocurrency users, a stunning new report from The Intercept revealed this week.
The company "sold a single analytics software license to ICE for $29,000" back in August 2021, the report says. The next month, however, it sold software worth $1.36 million to the agency, the report says.
A contract involving the sales revealed that ICE "now has access to a variety of forensic features provided through Coinbase Tracer", the company's internal intelligence tool.
The tool allows people to trace transactions through the blockchain. Coinbase markets the software primarily for use in corporate compliance and law enforcement, the report says. It boasts that the tool has the ability to “investigate illicit activities including money laundering and terrorist financing” and “connect [cryptocurrency] addresses to real world entities.”
The contract revealed that ICE is now able to track transactions over a dozen digital currencies. The contract also revealed that “historical geo tracking data" was being provided to ICE, though The Intercept said details about what this data entails are fuzzy.
Coinbase spokesperson Natasha LaBranche, when asked about the contract, referenced The Intercept to the company's disclaimer on its website, which says: “Coinbase Tracer sources its information from public sources and does not make use of Coinbase user data.”
The sale comes as part of a broader pitch to sell its intelligence services to agencies like the IRS and the Secret Service, the report reveals.
Coinbase vice president of global intelligence John Kothanek said earlier this month in front of Congress: “If you are a cyber criminal and you’re using crypto, you’re going to have a bad day. … We are going to track you down and we’re going to find that finance and we are going to hopefully help the government seize that crypto.”
Cryptocurrency has been a deep state project.
I have always believed that.
They want to see how digital currency operates in real time, before they make it the only legal currency option.
You will own nothing and be happy.
Re: title
DUH - of course they have
LOL 😂😂
(I have always believed that.)
Me too. I never touched it.
Besides, I rarely have much spare money anyways.
One advantage of being poor. 🤣
I don’t know much of anything about crypto. Wondering if you can access it if the Internet is down?
Article 1
Section. 8.
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To ....
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof,
I never fell for cryptocurrency.
Like yourself, I have empty pockets.
However, I have always believed the safest investments have always been the kind that people use to live. No matter how bad the economy gets, we need food and metal and gas and cotton and other commodities.
That’s where one should be investing for secure investments, or as secure as we can make them anyway.
Nope. Cryto go poof at that point. If the internet comes back up... well, that’s an “if” isn’t it?
It’s not hidden from the government. It’s not stable. It’s not convenient. You gotta wonder if there much more to crypto than hype. Maybe it’s just a legal Ponzi that government forgot to regulate. If it ends in tears, I hope we don’t get Albanian-style ructions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Civil_War
Best to own a small farm than invest!
There are satellite and HAM radio blockchain transmitting options if Internet is down. If the Internet/SWIFT goes down you also have to worry about your 401k, savings account, checking account, no ATM access, etc., etc..
https://www.wired.com/story/cypherpunks-bitcoin-ham-radio/
12,000+ Bitcoin “Nodes” worldwide (including mine) have a complete record of every BTC transaction since its creation in 2009. AKA “blockchain distributed ledger”.
A service business is best.
Farming is a tough business.
I agree with you, because a farm is about as close to life as you can get, However, how long will you pay taxes before they end up taking it away from you?
It’s the exchange providing the tracing.
“Wondering if you can access it if the Internet is down?”
good one ... nothing you can’t touch is accessible if the internet is down ...
“It’s the exchange providing the tracing.”
and without an exchange, crypto is utterly useless ...
“So Much for “Secure and Anonymous””
just one more ridiculous myth fed to the punters, namely that because crypto is “decentralized”, it is invulnerable to purview by government (and banks) ... still, enough ignorant and greedy punters have swallowed the crypto myths to make a handful of even greedier assholes billionaires, who managed to convert gazillions of something with zero use-value into billions of useful US dollars ...
Read later.
We don’t live in a free capitalist “whoever makes the best mousetrap” society.
You only become Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerburg with the approval and cooperation of Fed.gov.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.