Robert Mueller, the US government is allegedly able to report that appeared in The Intercept, as well as statements from special investigator. Based on the indictment, the Russian government attempted to do the bitcoin that the Russian GRU mined. Perhaps the idea was to use bitcoins mined by the group itself as a way to maintain anonymity. However, this is due to a number of oversights and a lack of "compartmentalization".
Big Crypto Brother
It's a well-known fact that the bitcoin blockchain is completely open and accessible to anyone. Can happen since the genesis block can be reviewed and analyzed. In other words, if an illicit transaction is tracked to a single wallet, then all transactions coming from or going to be walled can also be tracked using advanced blockchain analysis techniques and software.
The concept of blockchain analysis is that of a blockchain, advanced software can build a map of sorts that can reveal connections between a sequence of wallets or accounts. To make things worse for those seeking anonymity, more all payment processors like BitPay
According to the article in The Intercept, payment processing services like Coinbase and BitPay were critical in building a map of financial movements that the GRU made.
Mueller's The Treasure Hunt
The investigation and eventual indictment led by Robert Mueller discovered that the GRU mined to bitcoin block and then use those proceeds of the block. They were in fact all the efforts of the United States. same group.
A few important questions.
First, why do not the group maintain a higher degree of compartmentalization, and why do not you use a private payment method? its various destinations?
For instance, it would have been more secure if they had simply purchased bitcoins with cash from a person-to-person seller instead of mining the block themselves. Not only that, but they could have purchased bitcoin multiple times from multiple sellers through cash in hand buying operations, and then kept separate purchase or wallets in its use case.
Regardless, it seems that they are overestimated the anonymity provided by bitcoin. And now we know that it is not just the US government and it's members like Mueller are watching bitcoins, but they are doing a decent job of tracking it as well.
Privacy Implications
Privacy has become something of a buzzword in the last few years since Edward Snowden revealed how closely we tracked.
Read: Our Guide to Privacy Coins
It is a greener pasture. However, this recent investigation reveals that bitcoin may not be the haven of privacy that some wish it to be. Perhaps privacy-focused cryptocurrencies will try to be the next great escape for those seeking anonymity.