Coinbase, the cryptocurrency trading platform based in San Francisco (California), seen as, according to a survey by John Rager on Twitter, 66% of users who would be located on said platform.
The COINBASE - United States contracts
The reason, the agreement Coinbase reached with two United States government agencies (DEA, Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS, Internal Revenue Service) to sell their users' data for $250,000. What the DEA and the IRS would do is buy a license for the Coinbase Analytics software, which would allow to attribute identities to the addresses of cryptocurrencies, both local and international.
However, as the company itself has commented, Coinbase Analytics offers access to public data and in English at the time to access internal data of the company and its users.
According to a document released by the DEA, the Coinbase Analytics tool "provides investigators with identity attribution and de-anonymities virtual currency addresses domestically and internationally. CA is known for its accuracy of attribution which includes some of the most conservative heuristics used in commercial blockchain tracing tools. This is critical in avoiding false positives during target identification.".
On the other hand, the contract with the IRS indicates that the IRS cybercrime investigation unit "requires a software tool that can assist in the tracing of various types of cryptocurrency, not just Bitcoin" for its investigations.
The purchase of Neutrino by Coinbase
When Coinbase acquired Neutrino, a blockchain intelligence platform, in February 2019, politics broke out on social media.
This acquisition was framed, according to Coinbase, in the prevention of theft of funds, the investigation of ransomware attacks and the detection of malicious actors. However, the fact that Neutrino founder Giancarlo Russo had previously worked at a company specializing in cyber espionage, HackingTeam, raised questions among people that Coinbase stuck to the privacy principles that are at the foundation of cryptocurrencies. .
Later in March of that same year, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced that the services of Neutrino team members who had been linked to HackingTeam would be dispensed with.
What has brought Neutrino to the fore again is the fact that the IRS contract mentioned it, indicating that Neutrino "allows for the analysis and tracking of cryptocurrency flows across multiple blockchains that criminals are currently using.".
And what do you think about all this. Do you use Coinbase to manage your cryptocurrencies? Would you stop using this platform in view of this news?
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