HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the UK tax authority, is considering investing in blockchain analytics technology to help identify crimes involving digital currencies.
Reported by Public Technology on Monday, the tax agency has published an open contract seeking a tool not only to identify illegal crypto transactions but also for tax evasion and money laundering.
The tax agency is ready to shell out 100,000 pound sterling (around $130,000) for the licensing of such a tool. It will accept the proposals till January 31 and is aiming to start the contract on February 17 for a period of one year initially.
“Many of these crypto-asset transactions are recorded publicly in a ledger known as a blockchain,” HMRC told the publication. “Whilst the transactions are typically public, the participants undertaking them are not.”
Capable of analyzing major blockchains
The agency is primarily looking to license an analytics tool capable of tracking at least seven biggest and widely used digital currencies – Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Ethereum Classic, XRP, Litecoin, and Tether.
However, preference would be given to a tool that can also track privacy coins including Monero, Zcash, and Dash.
“Provision of a tool that will support intelligence-gathering methods to identify and cluster crypto-asset transactions into linked transactions and identify those linked to crypto-asset service providers,” HMRC outlined in the proposal call.
With a rise in crimes and illegal transactions, the area of crypto analysis has become very demanding both within the industry and government agencies. Companies offering such services are in funds and inking major deals.
Chainalysis, one of the popular blockchain analytics, has tied with multiple digital asset exchanges including , , and Bitfinex to mitigate illegal transactions, as well as bolstering their compliance needs,
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