A Russian company indirectly backed by Russia's largest bank will build a
crypto tracking platform as part of a $200,000 procurement contract.
Federal authorities in Russia are moving forward with a plan to
closely monitor cryptocurrency activity for illicit transactions and
deanonymize crypto users’ identities.
The Russian Federal
Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) has selected a
contractor for developing a platform for tracking cryptocurrency
activity. According to data from Russia’s state procurement website, the
country will allocate
14.7 million rubles ($200,000 USD) from its budget to create a “module
for monitoring and analyzing cryptocurrency transactions” using Bitcoin (BTC).
According
to the official data, the procurement contract was granted to a company
referred to as RCO, which is reportedly indirectly backed by the Russian largest bank, Sber, formerly known as Sberbank.
Under the contract’s documentation, RCO will be tasked
with building a monitoring tool for tracing movement of digital
financial assets, maintaining a database of cryptocurrency wallets
involved in illicit activities, as well as monitoring crypto users’
behavior in order to identify them.
The platform will also be
designed to compile detailed profiles of crypto users and assess their
role in the economic activity as well as identify the likelihood of
their participation in illegal activities. According to
Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s upcoming crypto tracking tool would improve
the efficiency of primary financial monitoring and compliance, as well
as ensure the safety of budget funds.
Related: Russian lawmakers prepare legal amendment to confiscate crypto
This latest development marks another milestone in Russia’s efforts to track cryptocurrency transactions after Rosfinmonitoring announced the “Transparent Blockchain” initiative aiming to track the movement of digital financial assets a year ago.
As
previously reported, the authority planned to “partially reduce the
anonymity” of transitions involving major digital assets like Bitcoin
and Ether (ETH), as well as privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies like Monero (XMR). Rosfinmonitoring originally disclosed plans to track crypto transitions back in August 2018.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/russia-grants-200k-to-build-tool-for-tracing-crypto-transactions
