Financial sanction to mixers

Have you heard about financial sanctions from the US on virtual currency? At least, I have not yet. But the US Department of Treasury has issued sanctions on two crypto services: Blender.io and Tornado Cash.

https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1556677862345801728

To clarify, the US sanctions on tools but not target specific entities or groups of people.

https://twitter.com/jerrybrito/status/1556667240711438337

So why bother to sanction something that the government probably won't be able to sanction in the first place?

What is a mixer?

A cryptocurrency mixer, sometimes referred to as a tumbler, is a tool for money laundering. The sole purpose of the invention is to make transactions untraceable.

How to mix?

Even crypto is pseudo-anonymous, but it is traceable through your wallet address. A mixer is a black box service to filter your traceable wallet address into the untraceable wallet address.

How to wash your money clean in the traditional way?

https://dimensiongrc.com/the-stages-of-money-laundering/

The assumption is you will not get caught at each stage, and then you place your dirty money in a bank through companies and use the funds to purchase legal goods like houses or luxury goods.

There are mature regulations and rules to stop you from putting your dirty money into banks.

Digtial money landury

https://www.eurospider.com/en/know-how/compliance/211-what-is-a-cryptocurrency-mixer

A Crypto mixer or tumbler is a service to pool dirty digital currency in their favor and redistribute it into designated wallet addresses or addresses randomly generated.

It is a challenge to stop transactions because there is no entry point for law enforcement to stop at each stage.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0768

Ultimate Mixer

Tornado Cash is the king of the mixer. Unfortunately, there is just no way to trace transactions anymore. It is a smart contract with zk-SNARKs (zero-knowledge proofs) that does not require revealing a wallet address during transactions and ghostly distributed funds without leaving any traces.

This tool is the ultimate weapon that the government has to shut down, or there is no way to prevent transactions.

In Conclusion

https://twitter.com/FrankResearcher/status/1556720061959864320

Let's change the future - legally.

If you want to support my writing, buy me a coffee here.

Photo by Steven Lelham on Unsplash

Note: Cross-references of this article have been created by the author and have been cross-referenced on multiple platforms here. Please reference the resources and credits here. Reach out to the authors if you have any questions.

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta