On March 14, information appeared on the Web that the Wasabi cryptocurrency wallet will begin blocking user transactions that it considers “illegal”. Wasabi Wallet developers announced this on their official Twitter account.
According to reports, the direct blocking of crypto transfers will be carried out using a special tool called Coinjoin, which, by the way, has long been an integral part of the crypto wallet. As it became known, measures to search for and block the so-called illegal operations will be implemented through the zkSNACKs virtual machine. This software was typically used in the past to "mix" transactions, thus increasing their anonymity. Now, zkSNACKs will be used for the reverse, to monitor and sort them.
After the appearance of this news on the Web, many of the company's major clients commented on the unexpected innovation, not hiding their anger and indignation. The founders of the cryptocurrency wallet were accused of "bowing before law enforcement" authorities.
Analysts, on the other hand, noted that the reaction of customers is quite justified and predictable, because the main slogan of Wasabi, which has attracted many users for many years, is complete anonymity. Now, if the innovations come into force, the data on all crypto-transfers can fall into the “hands” of the regulatory authorities, which is not what customers want.
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One of the developers of the cryptocurrency wallet, who is better known on the Web under the nickname "Rafe", also commented on the situation.
“We understand that many people do not like this news. Our team has in no way compromised our values and continues to support the idea of the complete confidentiality of transactions, however, there are rules that we must adhere to exist. We hope for understanding, ”the developer said in a message.
Against the backdrop of such a scandalous statement from the popular crypto wallet, the well-known analytical company Chainalysis decided to conduct its own investigation to find out if the need for transaction tracking is so great. So, according to the analysts' report, thanks to such a tool as, for example, the same CoinJoin, in recent years, programmers have managed to almost completely eradicate "illegal" crypto-operations carried out through wallets for storing digital assets. The study also showed that last year, the share of "illegal" transactions against the backdrop of overall transaction activity fell to 0.15%. According to experts, this figure is very high, which means that there was no need to take such drastic measures, to put it mildly.
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For objectivity, in this context, it is worth mentioning another point of view regarding this situation. So, some users, on the contrary, support the Wasabi Wallet solution, noting that it was thanks to the use of tools such as CoinJoin and zkSNACKs that at one-time law enforcement officers easily managed to find a married couple involved in the multibillion-dollar hack of the Bitfinex exchange. The authorities managed not only to convict the criminals of money laundering but also eventually returned part of the stolen funds.