Coinbase Strikes Deal With Homeland Security, Offering Analytics Tools

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement department of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has paid Coinbase $1.36M dollars for a license to use Coinbase Analytics to study American residents’ knowledge.

Coinbase does it again

Coinbase once again goes against the grain of privacy purists’ opinions that their partnerships with U.S. authorities goes against the essence of cryptocurrency, by inking a deal with the Department of Homeland Security, to supply them with a Coinbase Analytics license. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase assures privacy advocates that the Coinbase Analytics product does not provide any information outside what’s publicly visible on the blockchain.  It does not make available Know Your Customer information together with the aggregated results of Coinbase Analytics.   

What is Coinbase Analytics?

Amongst other things, Coinbase Analytics connects cryptocurrency transactions to real-world entities, and is able to investigate fraudulent blockchain activity. It remains unclear as to the exact data that the ICE will make use of from Coinbase’s blockchain forensic tool. Coinbase acquired a previously external analytics company called Neutrino in 2019, as it did not wish to share data with third parties in its effort to comply with anti-money laundering laws.

Neutrino was founded by members of the spyware company called Hacking Team. The Hacking Team was involved in supplying spyware to oppressive regimes in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Venezuela, and as a result, the acquisition was mired in controversy, forcing Coinbase to part ways with the Hacking Team. According to Armstrong, the company had to “rebuild the team.”

Growing interest in blockchain analytics

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service have both been using Coinbase Analytics; the IRS from 2020. The IRS, in published documents, have indicated that the Coinbase Analytics software enables the client to track and interrogate cryptocurrency transactions on multiple blockchain networks. In another government deal recently finalized, Coinbase licensed its forensic product to the U.S. Secret Service, as part of the agency’s consolidation of its electronic and financial crimes into a single cyber fraud task force. The deal with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is thus the fourth collaboration with a U.S. governmental institution. 

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