CoinLab has just published the first in a series of blog posts detailing it’s recently patented technology for tracing Bitcoin transactions.
The first post entitled: Bitcoin and Anonymity: Not So Much details how CoinLab was caught up in the Mt.Gox scandal and began digging through the Bitcoin Blockchain to try and find where funds had gone to. This research has evolved into a very powerful tool named Oden that the CoinLab Blog post claims it has used to trace much of Bitcoin’s volume since 2011 to the Darknet and Gambling. And now that CoinLab has secured its Patent they are making this tool and their team of experts available to anyone, for a price. Even though it is assumed that Government entities have had these tools for years this marks the first time such tech is being patented and sold for use to the public. It will be interesting to see what impact having a tool like this readily available for anyone will have on Bitcoin and Exchanges in the future. Bitcoins lack of true anonymity is the reason the Zerocash protocol was developed and this new tool from the CoinLab team emphasizes the importance of Zcash for providing a new truly anonymous digital currency. CoinLab Blog
