On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice from the Southern District of New York brought charges against the creators of Samourai Wallet for running an unlicensed money transmission service and for engaging in money laundering activities. This development has left the cryptocurrency community in dismay, with many expressing their displeasure over the aggressive measures employed […]‘Privacy Is Not a Crime’ — Samourai Indictment Provokes Strong Reactions From Crypto Advocates
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice from the Southern District of New York brought charges against the creators of Samourai Wallet for running an unlicensed money transmission service and for engaging in money laundering activities. This development has left the cryptocurrency community in dismay, with many expressing their displeasure over the aggressive measures employed […]
Larry Dean Harmon, founder and operator of the bitcoin mixing service Helix has pleaded guilty on Wednesday to money laundering charges. Harmon’s guilty plea follows the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fincen) fining Harmon $60 million last year. Helix Operator Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering, Conspiracy Charges According to several reports and a court-issued […]
Over the last eight years, U.S. law enforcement has seized a great number of bitcoins and at one time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) held one of the largest bitcoin wallets after the Silk Road takedown. A recently published report shows the FBI has started using cryptocurrency mixing applications in recent times in order […]
A U.S. District Court has indicted three individuals behind the now-defunct Geek Group for their role in running an illegal money transmission business that used bitcoin to move funds across states. According to the indictment documents, it was Christopher Allan Boden then president of the Geek Group, who “sold bitcoin to numerous customers, in exchange […]
A U.S. court in Seattle has sentenced a former Microsoft engineer to 9 years in prison after finding him guilty of 18 federal felonies relating to his elaborate scheme to defraud the tech giant $10 million. In passing the judgment, the court blasts Volodymyr Kvashuk, a software engineer and citizen of Ukraine, for attempting to […]
On June 10, 2020, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) launched a fund that is dedicated to the development of tools that make the Bitcoin network “more private, decentralized, and resilient.” HRF’s initial gift of $50,000 will be given to the UK-based developer, Chris Belcher, who has been working on a project called Coinswap. This week […]
In the Bitcoin world, there are many services which are a different type of gray. Not everything is black and white where cryptocurrencies are concerned by any means. Bestmixer, one of the more popular Bitcoin mining services, has been shut down by Dutch officials. A remarkable development, albeit it is not entirely surprising either. Curtain Call for Bestmixer Ever since Bitcoin mixing services first came to market, there have been plenty of allegations. Why would anyone pay money to a stranger on the internet to hide the source of their Bitcoin transactions? Surprisingly, these mixers quickly became a staple in 
On Jan. 24, Adam Gibson, author of Waxwing’s Joinmarket blog, wrote about an interesting Coinjoin concept called Payjoin. The protocol further obfuscates the ownership of UTXO inputs during a Coinjoin transaction mixing cycle. According to Gibson, the Payjoin technique is “another nail in the coffin of blockchain analysis.” Also read: Mystery Bitcoin Miners Are Altering Mining […]