The U.S. Department of Justice recently released a report as part of the Attorney General’s Cyber Digital Task Force, called the “Encryption Currency Enforcement Framework.” The following are some of the main content of the report and some other background.
1. Distributed ledger technology and even cryptocurrency itself is regarded by the Ministry of Justice as a potentially positive technology
“It needs to be emphasized at the beginning that the distributed ledger technology based on all cryptocurrencies provides amazing possibilities for the prosperity and development of mankind.” At the beginning of the report, this key point stood out almost immediately, so The attitude of DLT and blockchain is positive.
Then, the report presents case studies of DLT usage in the federal government, from FDA’s machine learning and food safety based on blockchain systems, to modernization and the Department of Defense’s consideration of blockchain, “to improve effectiveness and efficiency. And safety”.
2. The Ministry of Justice conducted a special review of three types of crimes involving cryptocurrencies: financial transactions involving criminal activities, XI money or tax evasion, and direct theft of cryptocurrencies
In the first ten pages, it is obvious that the Ministry of Justice pays special attention to criminal activities related to cryptocurrency. Most criminals involved in crimes in the cryptocurrency market or using cryptocurrency to hide information or funds may be related to criminal activities.
In this discussion, the Department of Justice often encounters two difficulties: understanding the technical knowledge of what is happening, and the global distribution of cryptocurrencies. Already pledged to invest resources and use long-term international partnerships to help resolve some of these issues, but it is clear that these are seen as fundamental challenges in the areas where the Department of Justice seems most interested: direct criminal activity in cryptocurrencies may Information that links the flow of funds to criminal activities.
3. The Ministry of Justice is trying to make it clear, at least in broad terms, that it is tracking key terms and innovations in cryptocurrency, especially privacy protection
There is a section devoted to discussing the views of the US Department of Commerce on Web 3.0. This section seems to combine the robust Web 2.0 concept (algorithm personalization of content) with the effect of Web 3.0 (less reliance on centralized service providers, whether ISP or cloud service).
It seems to ignore the central idea of Web 3.0 and the network, because it is geared towards independent peer-to-peer communication and hosting services on its own and self-managed instances. However, the message is clear: The Ministry of Justice is trying to figure out what these new ideas and technologies mean for law enforcement. The main reason for this is that the report is a brief summary of Binance’s Web 3.0 summary, which removes important context. This is the few times the report cited information from “quasi-official” cryptocurrency sources, and perhaps the only time.
Privacy protection technology or cryptocurrency has undergone special name checking and expansion. In fact, the Ministry of Justice even cited the anonymous enhanced cryptocurrencies they described (especially Dash, Monero, and ZCash) as “high-risk activities, indicating potential criminal activities” on page 41.
There is also a brief mention of distributed finance, which shows that although the Ministry of Justice is not yet ready for special research, it is aware of this trend. In cooperation with the SEC, ICO has its own bright spots. However, the current focus is mainly on privacy-focused cryptocurrencies and methods to enhance privacy.
4. The Ministry of Justice is very concerned about individuals who use cryptocurrency on illegal channels
5. A comprehensive overview of the relationship and structure of the Ministry of Justice and other government agencies in terms of cryptocurrency and accounted for most of the report
Most of the report is used for case studies and specific examples/examples of cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and various government agencies on cryptocurrencies and their views and cooperation on these relationships.
Emphasis is placed on the long-term relationship between the Department of Justice and the internal regulatory agencies of the US federal government, cooperation with New York State lawyers, and international cooperation with FATF (Financial Action Task Force).
6. Most of the resources it quotes come from the Wall Street Journal or internal government reference materials
It seems that the Department of Justice is most proud of the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and a series of internal sources or other government agencies.
The only source of external annotations pointed out by the author is a reference to the Web 3.0 Wiki section of Binance Academy to make a neighboring point about Web 3.0, which is not essential for this article. This shows that they are reluctant to quote more unfamiliar sources, and even this may be slightly different from the views of the Ministry of Justice.
7. Although the potential of distributed ledger technology is mentioned, the US Department of Justice seems to believe that cryptocurrency is more of a threat than an opportunity
The overwhelming part of the report is full of case studies and specific regulations and crimes that cryptocurrencies have or may commit. Despite some encouraging words at the beginning of the report, in most cases, the Department of Justice seems to see cryptocurrency as a threat rather than an opportunity.
This is particularly true in terms of its views on privacy-enhancing cryptocurrencies such as Dash, Monero, and ZCash. Even if they are used, they may be considered criminal suspects. This view is strong and similar to pre-suspicion, especially those People who use end-to-end delivery of information and cryptocurrency.
