Funds are SAFU: Many of the Trucker Convoy wallets sanctioned by Canadian government are now empty
https://ift.tt/QmZEXWv
Unclear title on this post & also misleading title on the article.
The post title mentions “SAFU”. This means “SAFE” or “Secure Asset Funds for Users”. (Not “Snafu” as in “clusterfuck”, as some commenters appear to have interpreted it.)
The article is misleadingly titled “‘Frozen’ Bitcoin Tied to Canadian Protests Lands at Coinbase, Crypto.Com”, but the article explains that only 4 out of 101 addresses that 14.28 Bitcoin was sent to have sent their portion (0.14 BTC each) to centralized exchanges (Coinbase & Crypto.com). “It is not clear whether the funds were cashed out for fiat or frozen at those platforms.”
The article focuses mostly on “the *limitations* of a government’s ability to thwart transactions on decentralized systems”.
From the article: (Formatting’s mine)
“Cryptocurrency tied to the Canadian truckers protesting COVID-19 restrictions has been on the move, *in defiance* of the authorities’ orders to freeze funds, blockchain analysis shows.
Nearly all of the roughly 20 BTC (about $788,000 U.S. at current exchange rates) sent to the Tallycoin fundraiser is gone from that address, with only 0.11 BTC left, according to Blockchain.com data.
Most of the 30 bitcoin wallets identified by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as being attached to the fundraising have been largely drained as well, with only 6 BTC combined between them, on-chain data shows.
Whether the recipients will be able to use the funds to buy goods or services remains to be seen, however.
A CoinDesk review of the public ledger shows that four small portions of the roughly 20 bitcoin raised – about 0.14 BTC each – ended up at two centralized exchanges, Coinbase and Crypto.com. It is not clear whether the funds were cashed out for fiat or frozen at those platforms.
The situation highlights the limitations of a government’s ability to thwart transactions through decentralized, censorship-resistant systems – but also the limitations of those systems to circumvent such sanctions.
While the authorities *cannot veto transactions* on Bitcoin and similar networks, they have leverage over regulated companies that serve as the on- and off-ramps to those networks.”
See article for the rest.
Cryptocurrency
