Update, September 11, 10:08 AM UTC: This article has been updated to add a quote from a Chainalysis training video.
According to a leaked Chainalysis video, Monero USD Despite the privacy-preserving nature of blockchain, transactions can still be traced.
A leaked video explaining how to track the company's coins has since been removed.
The possibility that Chainalysis can trace XMR transactions has raised concerns, as Monero bills itself as a “secure, private, untraceable cryptocurrency that keeps your money private.”
When Cointelegraph reached out to the on-chain intelligence firm about the leak, a Chainalysis spokesperson said they had “no comment at this time.”
A copy of the leaked video was shared with Cointelegraph by an anonymous source.
Can Chainalysis trace Monero IPs through its own “malicious nodes”?
Images from the leaked video have resurfaced on social media platform Reddit, posted by anonymous user u/__lt__.
Users claim that the leaked video shows how Chainalysis was able to trace transactions through its own “malicious” Monero nodes all the way back to 2021. The company supposedly did the following, users wrote:
“1. Running lots of XMR nodes from different geographic locations and ISPs to get IP addresses and timestamps of transactions. 2. Transaction feeds from the default nodes of one or more popular wallets (IPs and all).”
Combined with fake “decoy” inputs, the method could “reduce the anonymity of Monero transactions,” the user argued.
Cointelegraph reached out to Monero for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Chainalysis is just “doing its job” and it might be able to make Monero more secure
While Monero’s claims about transaction traceability may seem unsettling at first, investors need not panic about the privacy-preserving nature of blockchain.
This is because Monero transactions remain untraceable in most countries around the world, except for Chainalysis, one of the leading on-chain intelligence companies in the crypto space with extensive blockchain expertise.
The leak led to significant community backlash against Chainalysis' Monero node, but u/_It_ pointed out that the on-chain intelligence company was simply doing its job.
“They're just doing their job of tracking transactions on the blockchain. No one is saying they can't run nodes that collect transactions and IP information.” […] I think [Chainalysis] It's like a white hat hacker making Monero more secure.”
Chainalysis also points out that within the broader cryptocurrency space in the training video, Monero transactions remain untraceable.
“Firstly, it is private, meaning that two or more transaction outputs cannot be linked to the same ID. It is also untraceable, meaning that the origin of a transaction cannot be uniquely identified. Additionally, it is so confidential that you don't even know the amount of money transferred in a transaction.”
Here's how to recover a lost seed phrase: Source: Cointelegraph
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