This Is Great for Ethereum Privacy! (A Little Too Great in the Eyes of Law Enforcement)

TL;DR

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has co-authored a brand new analysis paper exploring ‘privateness swimming pools.’

• Vitalik’s soultion? ‘Privateness swimming pools,’ the place customers put their ETH into an enormous shared account and all of it will get combined round (muddying the origins of every token/fraction of a token).

• Sounds nice! However good luck getting the Division of Justice to offer it the inexperienced gentle – as a result of so far as we are able to inform, it is nonetheless un-auditable.

• Ethical of the story: That is nice for privateness! (Just a little too nice within the eyes of regulation enforcement).

Full Story

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has co-authored a brand new analysis paper exploring ‘privateness swimming pools.’

…however what does that even imply??

First, for these of you enjoying at residence: all Ethereum transactions are public. If somebody is aware of your pockets handle (aka ‘the crypto model of your Venmo username’) they’ll monitor all the things.

Vitalik’s soultion?

‘Privateness swimming pools,’ the place customers put their ETH into an enormous shared account and all of it will get combined round (muddying the origins of every token/fraction of a token).

Then, when customers wish to take their ETH out – the system checks that the funds aren’t being despatched to (or from) a recognized felony pockets handle.

To which we are saying:

Sounds nice! However good luck getting the Division of Justice to offer it the inexperienced gentle – as a result of so far as we are able to inform, it is nonetheless un-auditable.

Which means, so long as you do not have present public connections to a felony pockets, you may nonetheless use the system to cover/launder cash – and there is not any central authority that the IRS may power into giving up your account particulars.

Ethical of the story:

That is nice for privateness! (Just a little too nice within the eyes of regulation enforcement).