Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have become known to enable anonymous transactions. Recently, however, many countries have begun exploring different ways of tracking people who use bitcoin. Now, a compilation by Cointelegraph shows that more and more countries are actively working to track suspicious crypto users.
Countries around the world have chosen different approaches to trace people’s use of cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year, for example, Steven Mnuchin, U.S. secretary of the treasury, said that cryptocurrencies could work in the same way as a Swiss bank account, which is known to offer anonymous transactions.
Want to work together
During a meeting with the G20, a group of 19 major countries and the European Union with the focus on economic and political issues, Steven Mnuchin said that they must work together to offer the United States tracking abilities to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used as anonymous bank accounts, writes Cointelegraph.
On the bitcoin network, all transactions are public for anyone to see. This can be done through, for example, the site blockchain.info. The United States has, with the help of NSA (the national security agency), been working to create systems that are designed to track and map out bitcoin transactions. The authorities can then use crypto exchanges to identify users to suspicious transactions.
Transactions with monero are untraceable
That countries work to track cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin can be a reason why other anonymous cryptocurrencies like monero have gained more traction.
Transactions with monero are completely untraceable, unlike the bitcoin transactions. In 2017, for example, the price for monero rallied with 2 883 percent, which is more than double bitcoin’s increase with 1,357 percent last year, reports Cointelegraph.
