The US government recently argued that disclosing Chainalysis heuristic information in the US vs. Sterlingov case would allow criminals to develop countermeasures against blockchain analysis, thereby compromising law enforcement tracing tools. The worrisome implication is that this stance suggests the US government is attempting to undermine individuals' right to privacy when transacting on the blockchain. The government's argument fails to consider that Chainalysis's own 2023 Crypto Crime Report estimated illicit activity to only be 0.24% of total blockchain transaction volume, which is relatively insignificant and does not warrant criminality. Moreover, the US government is ignoring the existing protections granted to its citizens through the US Constitution and UN Declaration of Human Rights. To add to this, the US government has displayed a history of advocating for total surveillance of citizens' communications, such as the Patriot and USA Freedom acts back in 2015, and the proposed EARN IT Act which would criminalize end-to-end encryption. Here, the US government is pushing for the surveillance of its citizens before any violation of applicable laws, instead of dealing with crime after due has been done. Ultimately, the only attempt to circumvent the law in the US government’s response to minute order is its own.



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