Blockchain
Privacy coins no more? CipherTrace files patents for tracing Monero transactions

Crypto analytics firm CipherTrace announced on Friday that it had filed two patents for technology capable of tracing transactions for privacy coin Monero.
In a Nov. 20 blog from CipherTrace, the firm stated that the patents would include forensic tools to explore Monero (XMR) transaction flows to assist in financial investigations, statistical and probabilistic methods for scoring transactions and clustering likely wallet owners, as well as visualization tools and ways to track stolen or illegally used XMR.
“CipherTrace’s Monero tracing capabilities will allow [Virtual Asset Service Providers] to identify when inbound XMR may have criminal origins, allowing them to adequately risk rate customer transactions per any required regulations,” the blog stated. “[Our] goal is to enable the detection of criminal users, therefore increasing the safety and sustainability of privacy coins like Monero in the future.”
While Bitcoin (BTC) is still the preferred medium of exchange for many darknet market users, there has been increasing acceptance for privacy coins like XMR. Law enforcement agencies have not yet determined a reliable way to trace Monero, and firms like CipherTrace have an opportunity — the company has reportedly been working on a means to trace XMR transactions since early 2019.
CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans told Cointelegraph in August that the firm developed the first tool for tracking Monero transactions. Such a tool could potentially support investigations of crimes and reduce incidents of money laundering.
The company has stated it developed these Monero-tracing tools as part of a project with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but the latter isn’t the only government agency looking for a way to identify XMR wallets, transaction dates and times. In September, the Internal Revenue Service announced it would give a bounty of up to $625,000 to anyone who can break Monero.
Capabilities for CipherTrace’s tracing tools have not yet been confirmed. One Monero Outreach representative told Cointelegraph in October that they would be “highly suspicious of any claims that corporations can trace Monero transactions” and any firm that did so would be unlikely to “trace the wallets or amounts for any transaction.”
The price of Monero is $123.37 at the time of publication, having fallen 3.6% in the last 24 hours.
Blockchain
Wall Street Bets ‘Chairman’ Tweet Sends Dogecoin (DOGE) Soaring 85% in Hours

The price for the popular meme coin, Dogecoin (DOGE), went flying today. The cryptocurrency skyrocketed by almost 90% in just a couple of hours after the ‘Chairman’ of the now popular Wall Street Bets group tweeted about it.
- About a couple of hours ago, the ‘Chairman’ of the popular Wall Street Bets group asked whether or not DOGE has ever been trading at $1.
Has Doge ever been to a dollar?
— WSB Chairman (@WSBChairman) January 28, 2021
- After the Tweet went live, DOGE’s price went for the skies. The cryptocurrency soared by about 85% in a matter of hours and reached an intraday high at around $0.0145. The price has since corrected, but it appears that there’s still momentum in the market.
- The reason for this excitement is what recently happened with the stock price of GameStop.
- The Wall Street Bets group on Reddit saw more than 2 million people joining it with the common cause of buying GME stock against the trades of Wall Street hedge funds, who have been shorting it.
- Not long after that, the price soared by up to 600%, causing mayhem on Wall Street and even getting one large hedge fund out of its position for what was reported as a massive loss.
- The entire ordeal even saw the CEO of NASDAQ say that they would potentially halt trading in case of increased social media chatter.
“When we evaluate how we would manage through a situation where you see a significant run-up with a stock that is not based on news or fundamentals, we have technology that evaluates social media chatter, and if we see a significant rise in the chatter on social media channels and we also match that up against unusual trading activity – we will potentially halt that stock.”
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Blockchain
5 Most Secure Ways The Bitcoin Whitepaper Is Hosted Globally
Crypto companies and even governments are now hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper, ensuring that it remains accessible for all.

In brief
- Craig Wright claimed Bitcoin.org violated his copyright claim by continuing to host the Bitcoin whitepaper.
- Since then, in defiance, many websites have added the Bitcoin whitepaper.
- These are the five most secure ways to access the Bitcoin whitepaper today.
The Bitcoin whitepaper was published in 2008 under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and later uploaded to a single website: Bitcoin.org. It was published under an MIT license, along with the rest of the code, making it freely available for all to distribute.
But this came under attack recently, when Coingeek chief scientist Craig Wright—who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto but hasn’t signed a transaction with Nakamoto’s PGP key to prove it—issued legal demands to both Bitcoin.org to take down the whitepaper.
Bitcoin.org refused and in solidarity, Bitcoiners across the world have come together to upload the Bitcoin whitepaper in as many places as possible, and in the most secure places possible. Here are some of the best ways that the Bitcoin whitepaper is being secured around the world.
Governments hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper
Several national governments have uploaded the Bitcoin whitepaper—titled Bitcoin: A Peer-To-Peer-Electronic-Cash-System— directly to their websites, including Colombia, Estonia and the US.
“We are happy to preserve the original Bitcoin whitepaper here on our website as a source of inspiration for future innovators looking to understand how to use blockchain technology in support of facilitating cross-border business and other applications,” the Estonian government website reads.
Colombia’s Jehudi Castro, an advisor to President Ivan Duque Marquez, posted a link to the whitepaper via Twitter.
The United States government also publicly hosts the Bitcoin whitepaper, which can be found on the US Sentencing Commission’s website. In addition, Representative Patrick mcHenrey of the House Financial Services Committee has hosted a copy of the whitepaper on his congressional website.
The Bitcoin whitepaper also appeared in the city of Miami’s municipal website, thanks to Mayor Francies Suarez, who is trying to make Miami into a global hub for crypto innovation.
Decentralized networks as ultimate backup
The Bitcoin whitepaper is also being hosted on The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS).
IPFS is a peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system. Each file is uniquely identified using specific content-addressing. (At the bottom of each Decrypt article, there’s an IPFS link to view the article on the network, and if you’re using Brave, you will be able to view it without running your own IPFS node.)
Ethereum Name Service also serves as an open naming system that’s built on the Ethereum blockchain and uses domain names. The platform maps human-readable names in place of long and hard to remember traditional, complex addresses. This makes it easier to send money to other ENS users.
On January 21, a Twitter user suggested ENS should host it. It took just two hours for Brantly Millegan, director of operations at ENS, to set up a page that hosts the Bitcoin whitepaper. You can view it here.
Companies hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper
There are now many crypto companies proudly hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper on their websites. This includes companies like Facebook subsidiary Novi, and self-custody app Casa.
“Nine pages, 3,641 words, 21,443 characters to reimagine finance,” said Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CTO of Casa, who also hosts the whitepaper on his own website.
Another major company that has begun hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper is Square, which bought $50 million worth of Bitcoin last October.
Other companies hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper include policy think tank Coin Center, Bitcoin financial services firm NYDIG, and Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Accessing the Bitcoin whitepaper on the blockchain
Instead of visiting any one of these websites, the Bitcoin whitepaper can also be accessed in the Bitcoin blockchain itself. It’s held as a PDF but has to be pieced together.
“I’ve tested this and indeed it is in the whitepaper. Good to know it’s literally in the blockchain,” said Bitcoin author and developer Jimmy Song.
To do this, all you have to do is identify certain pieces of multi sig data and organize them into a single file to extract the whitepaper as a pdf. Simple, right?
If that’s too complicated, Song suggests, by using a program called bitcoind, any user can run a python script to access the whitepaper from the blockchain. At least that’s a bit easier.
Bringing the Bitcoin whitepaper to life
If visiting websites or searching the Bitcoin blockchain isn’t for you, you can get a copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper by printing out a 3D render of the document. Then it’s effectively in cold storage, protected from the whims of the Internet—and accessible even without WiFi.
“Check out this 3D render of the Bitcoin whitepaper,” said Twitter user Mike In Space, adding, “You’ll notice that the wall hanger is built right into the backing.”
This 3D render of the Bitcoin whitepaper is offered by Privacy Pros, a company dedicated to providing physical offline backup solutions for private keys.
But that’s not all. It’s also possible to keep a version of the Bitcoin whitepaper safe at home in physical form. Posters of the Bitcoin whitepaper are being sold on the Touch of Modern website.
“To some, Bitcoin may be as much of an enigma as the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. But to blockchain enthusiasts, it’s an important and groundbreaking work that heralds the next evolution in how we deal with and think of wealth,” the website says.
It looks like Wright has a lot of work on his hands.
Note: Thanks to Tomer Strolight for giving us permission to use his Bitcoin whitepaper image as the header image for this article.
Blockchain
Reddit Doubles-Down on Blockchain: Partners With The Ethereum Foundation

The giant social media platform Reddit has doubled-down on its blockchain and cryptocurrency involvement with a new partnership with the Ethereum Foundation. As a result, Reddit plans to utilize the Ethereum network to create larger-scale applications like the Community Points introduced last year.
Reddit Doubles-Down On Blockchain
CryptoPotato reported last year that the San Francisco, US-headquartered platform launched Community Points as tokens built on the Ethereum blockchain. Users from two subreddits, namely r/CryptoCurrency and r/FortNiteBR, were able to receive the ERC-20 coins and spend them on various services, such as membership purchases or voting on polls.
Reddit asserted that the points will be a measure of reputation and contribution within each of the communities. Earlier, a platform administrator going by the handle u/jarins reaffirmed the relationship between Reddit and the blockchain space with a fresh partnership with the Ethereum Foundation.
“In this new stage of our partnership, immediate efforts will be focused on bringing Ethereum to Reddit-scale production. Our intention is to help accelerate the progress being made on scaling and develop the technology needed to launch large-scale applications like Community Points on Ethereum.”
Furthermore, the post explained that the Ethereum choice was rather apparent as Reddit was looking into exploring an open-source and publicly available scaling technology.
An Increasing Commitment To Blockchain
The post highlighted that the most recent initiative with Ethereum is a step to increase the platform’s “commitment to blockchain,” which should help bring “the value and independence of blockchain technology to millions of Redditors.”
Consequently, Reddit has established a designated Crypto Team and is looking for “engineers who want to build the decentralized Internet.”
Aya Miyaguchi, the executive director at the Ethereum Foundation, also commented on the new partnership. She noted that the team behind the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap continues to “be impressed with Reddit’s vision, and by how it maintains its culture and philosophies, which were key in forming this relationship.”
Additionally, representatives of both parties plan to host an online session to answer users’ questions.
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