Anonymity in international sanctions

As we see often discussed we see again the two sides of anonymity can be seen in how countries are dealing with regulatory acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

On the one hand this is a potential opportunity for countries such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela move funds around international sanctions. Or in a more radical take hacking promoted to national policy, such as reports about North Korea.

On the other we see countries that are embracing cryptocurrencies by making it part of legal financial system. As the case of Japan shows, countries do so at the same moment they close the door for currencies such as ZCash, Monero and Dash.

Fact is that despite the apparent anonymity behind a bitcoin address (or ETH, and many others) if such address is tagged, coins that touched that addressed can be traced in the blockchain. In theory, forever. So that if a country tries to fund terrorism by sending bitcoin it may not only hint to the world such relation but also see a VOID stamp spread through all channels having (bitcoin) relations to that group.

Financial authorities of countries embracing Blockchain this feature comes handy. That is, of course, if you don’t let really anonymous cryptocurrencies such as XMR, Dash and ZCash touch same pools as Bitcoin, Ether et alli.