ava on Nostr: Saw this coming. The Feds and CEXs do not like coinjoins. Founders And CEO Of ...
Saw this coming. The Feds and CEXs do not like coinjoins.
Founders And CEO Of Cryptocurrency Mixing Service (Samourai) Arrested And Charged With Money Laundering And Unlicensed Money Transmitting Offenses
"Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill Are Charged with Operating Samourai Wallet, an Unlicensed Money Transmitting Business That Executed Over $2 Billion in Unlawful Transactions and Laundered Over $100 Million in Criminal Proceeds"
"In coordination with law enforcement authorities in Iceland, Samourai’s web servers and domain (https://samourai.io/) were seized. Additionally, a seizure warrant for Samourai’s mobile application was served on the Google Play Store. As a result, the application will no longer be available to be downloaded from the Google Play Store in the United States."
"RODRIGUEZ and HILL designed Samourai to offer at least two features intended to assist individuals engaged in criminal conduct to conceal the source of the proceeds of their criminal activities. First, Samourai offers a cryptocurrency mixing service known as “Whirlpool,” which coordinates batches of cryptocurrency exchanges between groups of Samourai users to prevent tracing of criminal proceeds by law enforcement on the Blockchain. Second, Samourai offers a service called “Ricochet,” which allows a Samourai user to build in additional and unnecessary intermediate transactions (known as “hops”) when sending cryptocurrency from one address to another address. This feature similarly may prevent law enforcement and/or cryptocurrency exchanges from recognizing that a particular batch of cryptocurrency originates from criminal activity."
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founders-and-ceo-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-arrested-and-charged-money-laundering
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"The company that owns Wasabi coinjoin is partnered with a blockchain analytics company so it is possible the analytics company could know where your coins came from and where they end up, where as Samouri whirlpool is afawk not partnered with such companies."
This is likely why the Samourai founders and CEO just got arrested and charged with money laundering and (unlicensed money transmitting) offenses.
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Never mix KYC coin with Non-KYC coin.
Coinjoin does not break your KYC links and the output UTXOs have a distinct obfuscated appearance. The only way to clear the KYC record is to sell KYC coin back to the exchange you bought them from. Mixing only gives a degree of plausible deniability, but can carry offramping risks. Many exchanges refuse coinjoined coin due to "suspicious activity."
"Bitcoin is often touted as a fungible and private asset and digital cash alternative, when in fact it is technically non-fungible. Each bitcoin in circulation has a distinct history attached to it ensuring that 1 BTC is not equal to 1 BTC. While coin histories can be somewhat obfuscated with tools like CoinJoin, the fungibility of Bitcoin remains distinctly lacking. This lack of fungibility imposes an immense burden on those using Bitcoin as a method of exchange (MoE), introduces a permissioned and centralized layer to the network, and destroys the confidence of everyone accepting funds in Bitcoin."
Coinjoined BTC is often blacklisted on exchanges and other services because it's considered "suspicious acrivity" that interferes with KYC compliance. Here are some examples.
https://sethforprivacy.com/posts/fungibility-graveyard/#wasabi
(Monero does not have this issue.)
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#cybersecgirl #samourai #bitcoin #coinjoin #monero
Founders And CEO Of Cryptocurrency Mixing Service (Samourai) Arrested And Charged With Money Laundering And Unlicensed Money Transmitting Offenses
"Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill Are Charged with Operating Samourai Wallet, an Unlicensed Money Transmitting Business That Executed Over $2 Billion in Unlawful Transactions and Laundered Over $100 Million in Criminal Proceeds"
"In coordination with law enforcement authorities in Iceland, Samourai’s web servers and domain (https://samourai.io/) were seized. Additionally, a seizure warrant for Samourai’s mobile application was served on the Google Play Store. As a result, the application will no longer be available to be downloaded from the Google Play Store in the United States."
"RODRIGUEZ and HILL designed Samourai to offer at least two features intended to assist individuals engaged in criminal conduct to conceal the source of the proceeds of their criminal activities. First, Samourai offers a cryptocurrency mixing service known as “Whirlpool,” which coordinates batches of cryptocurrency exchanges between groups of Samourai users to prevent tracing of criminal proceeds by law enforcement on the Blockchain. Second, Samourai offers a service called “Ricochet,” which allows a Samourai user to build in additional and unnecessary intermediate transactions (known as “hops”) when sending cryptocurrency from one address to another address. This feature similarly may prevent law enforcement and/or cryptocurrency exchanges from recognizing that a particular batch of cryptocurrency originates from criminal activity."
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founders-and-ceo-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-arrested-and-charged-money-laundering
-------
"The company that owns Wasabi coinjoin is partnered with a blockchain analytics company so it is possible the analytics company could know where your coins came from and where they end up, where as Samouri whirlpool is afawk not partnered with such companies."
This is likely why the Samourai founders and CEO just got arrested and charged with money laundering and (unlicensed money transmitting) offenses.
--------
Never mix KYC coin with Non-KYC coin.
Coinjoin does not break your KYC links and the output UTXOs have a distinct obfuscated appearance. The only way to clear the KYC record is to sell KYC coin back to the exchange you bought them from. Mixing only gives a degree of plausible deniability, but can carry offramping risks. Many exchanges refuse coinjoined coin due to "suspicious activity."
"Bitcoin is often touted as a fungible and private asset and digital cash alternative, when in fact it is technically non-fungible. Each bitcoin in circulation has a distinct history attached to it ensuring that 1 BTC is not equal to 1 BTC. While coin histories can be somewhat obfuscated with tools like CoinJoin, the fungibility of Bitcoin remains distinctly lacking. This lack of fungibility imposes an immense burden on those using Bitcoin as a method of exchange (MoE), introduces a permissioned and centralized layer to the network, and destroys the confidence of everyone accepting funds in Bitcoin."
Coinjoined BTC is often blacklisted on exchanges and other services because it's considered "suspicious acrivity" that interferes with KYC compliance. Here are some examples.
https://sethforprivacy.com/posts/fungibility-graveyard/#wasabi
(Monero does not have this issue.)
---------
#cybersecgirl #samourai #bitcoin #coinjoin #monero