CipherTrace's CEO acts as Bitcoin expert witness in $1.4M dark web case

So, Dave Jevans, the CEO of CipherTrace, got recognized by a Canadian court as a Bitcoin expert. Basically, these experts step in to help legal teams grasp the ins and outs of cryptocurrency. I think it's awesome for tracking down people involved in moving huge sums of cash, drugs, or anything else that could harm others.

I believe this is a old recycled story because I am pretty sure that Dave was the first ever Bitcoin Expert witness

Thank you for sharing this, litigation does not necessarily require official recognition of cryptocurrencies, but proof of scam, theft or SCAM ICOs. Having such experts will help a rapprochement between the judge and the complainant, but if governments do not intervene with regulatory rules, it will turn into initiatives that are less than the speed of crime.

I think we are going to experience shifts in our society over time in regards to both regulations, crypto, privacy and how scams/money laundering is handled. There will always be bad actors but I think companies like ciphertrace who are pro crypto but have experience in grasping the extremes people take to launder money or narcotics is a huge reason of why they needed to step in

You know that "professionals" don't do well on court as it only takes a smart attorney to attack his credibility or put his statement into a matter of his own opinion without any actual benefit for the case. Both plaintiffs and defendants have used experts before in millions of cases but they aren't considered as an actual evidence for the case because technically they will always be viewed as an opinion. If this expert witness cannot provide any actual evidence against the defendant then we all know that he had little to no help for the case's development.

I just hope that what they're doing actually brings something and someone to justice. It's about time that prosecution chase those who erred against the law yet still does it because they are not facing jail time. Should this case go in favor of the prosecution, I hope that this serves as an example that cryptocurrencies are not safe havens for illicit activities such as money laundering, fraud and scams.

I don't think that this necessarily translates into actual recognition for bitcoin itself. It's not rare to see experts of certain industries to be seen as witnesses or be involved in certain court cases. This is no different. But ultimately, they do provide a much needed aid to legal professionals who aren't necessarily familiar with bitcoin, and perhaps even give evidence that help either party in winning their case, it's just that I really don't think this is very significant news at all. How is moving massive amounts of funds in itself an illegal activity?

You think its great to help catch those who are moving mass amounts of money, narcotics, or anything else that would put people in danger? I didn't know Dave Jevans was testifying against governements.   Also, I don't think expert witnesses have as much sway as you think they do, as there have been countless experts in countless fields which have been realized to be a complete fraud as science and social norms have changed.

We need AML compliance otherwise the hacks  and scams will get out of hand. Someone needs to regulate the bad actors because we certainly do not have time for it

So there was an entity called blockchain security. I am literally not aware if this until now. Sadly, I guess its just available in Canada. I see a hope in crypto crime management where people who really do fraud things can get the taste of justice in a legal way.

What is wrong in moving mass amounts of money unless there is an illegal intent, this is nothing exceptional, if there is a technology that the court needs assistance they usually turns to these experts to prove the case and explain to the judge so that he could understand the evidence provided. We had some high profile cases in the past and i am sure there were experts helping them with the case during the prosecution.

I agree. I don't think it's an issue to move mass amounts of money but I do think moving amounts that are extremely suspicious then this type of behavior should be flagged. We need to figure out as a community how we are going to handle these types of situations. Do we just let them happen or do we hire cyber security firms like ciphertrace to assist?

For some obvious kind of illegal or suspicious transactions then hiring or asking for help for those Experts would really be needed but i would say that These kind of cases is just only a dust to those transactions that do happen illegally out there.They might able to resolve maybe 1-2 case but we don't know actually on what are the numbers when it comes to these transactions.Yes, making big transactions isn't wrong but you cant avoid for the community not to have an eye into those big amount movements.

You are right, we don't really know these numbers but if companies are releasing reports every quarter about numbers we might have a better understanding. Just like any sort of set of data we are able to analyze it overtime and watch for any major change that looks suspicious. I don't really know what their technology looks like on the backend but I would assume you are able to see the dust but what is more important and alarming are the movements of money that affect people.

But in this case though, it looks like it was just a individual, not a company so I don't think that anyone will oblige in reporting how you obtain your bitcoins. What if the individual users mixing services? Will CipherTrace really dig on that individual's history? And for the sake of argument, I'm also not agreeing on companies submitting any reports whatsoever, that's why we are decentralized and with ho higher authority to tell us what to do. Everything can be seen in blockchain, and then we have OTC trading as well. So it's really difficult to trace and follow every footprints here.

I am pretty sure AML companies like Ciphertrace are able to track the movement of funds even if they use mixing services. They do live demos of their tech so it would be interesting to see it happen in real time

We cant still conclude such thing if they do able to trace it out.I havent hear one that someone do able to trace such transactions where those alleged coins do came from.(Tell me if i do missed something) but i wont really be surprised that later on they would able to do such thing.

Not all mixers are equal. Simple tumbling methods were broken a long time ago, yes. A researcher recently shared their work on de-anonymizing mixing services here on the forum. It's worth reading. The crux of it: Of note, however, is the fact that he was unable to use these methods to break Chipmixer, whose tumbling methods can't be broken by timing attacks. I'm curious whether Ciphertrace could.