Potential of UK Tax Authority to Deploy Blockchain Tool to Catch Crypto Cybercriminals

Steven Zenios21/01/20202min
The technology behind famous cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin could now be used to catch crypto criminals.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is looking to deploy a blockchain analytics tool that could help in identifying cybercriminals who trade in cryptocurrencies.

HMRC’s proposal stated that the agency wishes to analyse crypto transactions that are being used to avoid tax and launder money with the new technology of the tool.

The tool will look at a minimum of seven cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Ether Classic (ETC), XRP, Litecoin (LTC) and Tether (USDT) stable coin. In the future, the HMRC would like to develop the tool to analyse privately oriented crypto coins such as Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH).

The budget to license the tool is £100,000 ($130,000), HMRC is inviting proposals to potential suppliers and developers until January 31st with the goal of starting a contract in the 17th February.

Some potential developers and suppliers could be blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis, Elliptic and CipherTrace.

HMRC commented in the report:

Many of these crypto-asset transactions are recorded publicly in a ledger known as a blockchain. Whilst the transactions are typically public, the participants undertaking them are not.

Due to this, the report went on to say it is seeking the…

provision of a tool that will support intelligence-gathering methods to identify and cluster crypto-asset transactions into linked transactions and identify those linked to crypto-asset service providers.

This is not the HMRC’s first encounter with crypto exchanges, not long ago the HMRC demanded from crypto exchanges Coinbase, eToro, and CEX.IO customer history and transaction information. HMRC stated that:

these transactions may result in potential tax charges and HMRC has the power to issue notices requiring exchanges to provide this information.

 

Image Source Medium

Steven Zenios

Steven Zenios is a young author and designer with strong passion. A specialist in web design and development, blogger, author and Blockchain entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Web Theoria, a digital agency based in Cyprus. In the last 10 years, he has vastly improved his knowledge and skills to produce great pieces of work, both in the web design industry and article/blog industry. Contact Steven at +357-22029786 ext: 6120 or by email at [email protected] for editorial related questions.



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