From the Secret Service to the Army, everyone wants to know what is happening on the network. Companies from the ecosystem offer their surveillance services regardless of criticism.
Over the years, the increasing levels of adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) have generated a wave of regulatory measures in almost all countries. The United States of America is taking control of the first cryptocurrency to a space that involves the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), among other agencies.
The control of Bitcoin in the United States does not only correspond to financial or tax regulators. Different agencies that claim to have investigative powers are also involved, depending on the work that they perform.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gets involved with Bitcoin as an asset, but the same is not the case with the National Security Agency (NSA). The former seeks to protect investors against potential fraud or scams, while the latter has the objective of ensuring the security of the country through the analysis of information.
It is no small thing that institutions attached to the Department of Defense, one of the secretariats with the largest budget in the world, take a closer look at Bitcoin. It is not only the NSA but also the Army as an armed organization and the Secret Service, which depends on the Department of Homeland Security.
Some of these entities are hiring companies from the ecosystem such as Chainalysis, Elliptic, CipherTrace, or Coinbase to conduct their inquiries. The fact that companies have offered their services to government agencies has caused a stir in various communities that continue to question these decisions.
President Donald Trump himself has asked the Treasury Department to “go after Bitcoin,” according to former White House national security adviser John Bolton. The head of state has made public his dislike of the cryptocurrency, saying that it is not money and that it facilitates drug trafficking and illegal activities.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The SEC may be the government office with the most jurisdiction over digital assets. However, two announcements from the SEC in recent weeks further deepened its look at the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
On July 30th, the agency made public its plans to hire blockchain monitoring services to go over Ethereum smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. The SEC claimed that it wants to know what its logic and operation are like.
In 2017, the SEC had created a unit to fight cybercrime linked to ICOs and blockchain. The entity’s objective was to counteract possible threats that could affect investors and the financial industry in general.
Another commission close to the SEC is the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In October 2017, it announced that it would consider cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as commodities or assets.
Chainalysis-Government Relationship
The blockchain analytics company Chainalysis has had working relationships with the US government since 2015.
The company is the largest government contractor for blockchain analysis and cryptocurrency transaction tracking, with deals that would exceed USD 14 million. CipherTrace could have contracts for USD 6 million and Elliptic a contract for USD 2,450.
The platform serves to identify any cryptocurrency address and identify “the entity that controls the wallet and discover its related addresses.”
Daniel Cartolin, an analyst at the company, said that one of Chainalysis’ objectives was to address the priorities of government agencies.
By Alexander Salazar
