Former chief of the CIA Michael Morell believes governments should utilize the blockchain to track down illicit activities.
Michael Morell noted that the opinion of supervisors that Bitcoin is being used by criminals for money laundering, terrorist funding, and evasion of taxes is largely overstated. In the words of the former intelligence officer, blockchain technology is especially useful for regulatory agencies. Hence, authorities should not shy away from using blockchain, but use it as a means to detect unlawful activity and bring criminals to justice.
The data recorded on the blockchain rests open and cannot be possibly changed. Thus, tracking unlawful transactions by Bitcoin is much simpler than identifying illegal transfers of cash abroad. As noted by Morell, if all criminals operated with cryptocurrencies, it would long ago have eliminated illicit financial activities. But still, this contradicts last year’s Chainalysis report, which was completed in cooperation with law enforcement agencies from around the globe. According to Chainalysis, Bitcoin use on the darknet continues to achieve new highs.
Not long ago, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen voiced concern that digital currencies are being employed to trade drugs. Furthermore, a few months ago, the President of the ECB Christine Lagarde implored regulators to stiffen control over Bitcoin, as this type of money is used for money laundering and “dirty business”.
Yet, the former CIA chief believes that such statements are not founded on specific data and come from those who are not aware of the principles of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. People are simply afraid of what they can’t perceive, Morell asserted. In doing so, he mentioned the difficulties associated with decentralized exchanges. Given that such exchanges provide an increased level of anonymity, this can increase the possibilities for the illegal movement of money.
We remind that recently representatives of US watchdog institutions noted BTC, and ETH are still not safe from strict regulation.
