Bitcoin security has been a hot potato for American’s Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for the past few years and now it might have found it’s perfect bait.
This Tuesday Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, was able to pass a patent, filed back in 2014, through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that would allow Amazon to track and identify Bitcoin users transaction on their platform. The purpose is to lift the veil of anonymity and allow governments and law enforcement to use their collected data to monitor and police cryptocurrency holders.
Bitcoin, being an open and transplant ledger, records all transactions on the blockchain except the identity of the individual leading to potential misuses in the technology (criminal activity, money laundry, and tax evasion). This is what governments and banks are most concerned of. Regulators instigated by the recent hype in Bitcoin talk and by governments increased fear in terrorism welcomed Amazon’s patent with open arms, despite it being filed back in 2014.
How would this work?
Online platforms would “combine the shipping address with the bitcoin transaction data” and sell them the data on to a telecommunication agency which would “correlate the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of the transactions to countries of origin”. This data would be sold on to the government who would use it to “correlate tax transaction data.” and potentially be able to identify a Cryptocurrency user.The hopes of Amazon is that harnessing this date would make the National Security Agency a regular customer.
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