How to Mix Your Bitcoins Using Coinjoin for Greater Privacy

Mixing bitcoins using a noncustodial service increases fungibility without having to relinquish control of your coins. Bitcoin mixing services let you keep your coins and retain your privacy, for nothing more than a modest fee and the time it takes to mix them. The most popular noncustodial mixers for bitcoin core and bitcoin cash are … Read more

Next Step Mobile Surveillance: How You Walk, Your Heartbeat – Why Bitcoin Matters to Combat Government Privacy Invasion

It may sound like something from a dystopian cyberpunk movie, but payment providers could soon be validating transactions by the way users walk, their heartbeat, veins, and more. Mastercard has recently revealed they “have been testing heartbeat, vein technology, and the way people walk to authenticate people.” The high tech proposal, designed to fight hackers … Read more

Currency.com Accused of Exploiting KYC to Withhold Customer Funds

Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Transaction (KYT) are ostensibly deployed by exchanges to combat money laundering. In practice, these provisions are used as an excuse to surveil, cajole, and threaten customers, who risk losing funds if they are unable to meet the impossibly high burden of proof. An investigation by news.Bitcoin.com suggests that … Read more

Kraken Reveals 49% Increase in Law Enforcement Investigations

The publication of crypto exchange Kraken’s 2019 Transparency Report has provoked discussion about the scale of government surveillance. According to the report, Kraken received 710 requests last year (or two per day), impacting approximately 1,222 accounts. The report provides further evidence that exchanges are coming under intense scrutiny as global governments get tough on crypto. … Read more

A Bitcoin War Is Brewing Over KYC

Every year, Bitcoin faces a new foe intent on crippling it by undermining the foundations it was built upon. From mining cartels to developer disputes, Bitcoin has faced a barrage of threats over the past decade. When it’s not internecine conflict taking its toll, it’s external forces including politicians and regulators seeking to exert control. … Read more

Snowden: US Seizing My Book Revenue is ‘Good for Bitcoin’

Former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) subcontractor Edward Snowden is being sued by the Department of Justice (DoJ) for his latest memoir. The agency won’t stop Metropolitan Books from publishing Snowden’s new book but the government will take the revenue he earns from the memoir instead. Following the book publishing fiasco, Snowden said that the … Read more

Privacy Is a Human Right Worth Fighting For

Privacy is a basic human right. It’s there in Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence.” Attaining that right in an era of dragnet surveillance, mass data breaches, state-sponsored hacks and big tech overreach, however, is a Herculean task. As the digital privacy fight … Read more

Bitcoin’s Survival Depends on an Uncensorable Internet

In an age of unprecedented censorship, surveillance and rampant deplatforming, Bitcoin stands out as a beacon of hope. Its decentralized ledger enables value to be transmitted to anyone, anywhere without fear or favor. Whether you’re a Mongolian goat herder or a Miami drugs baron, your money is good when it’s sent as bitcoin. But Bitcoin … Read more

Chainalysis Whistleblower Shares Company Secrets in Explosive AMA

A current or former Chainalysis employee has gone rogue and conducted an AMA on r/Bitcoin in which he disclosed sensitive information about the company’s blockchain forensics capabilities. The whistleblower then appears to have had a change of heart and deleted all their comments. Thankfully, the internet never forgets. The comments remain archived on Removeddit.com and … Read more