U.S. Government wants to research ways to perform forensic analysis of Monero and Zcash

A pre-solicitation document published by the Department of Homeland Security's Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) shows that the U.S. government is looking for ways to utilize blockchain forensic analytics for privacy-centric cryptocurrencies such as Zcash and Monero. The SBIR program encourages small businesses to provide quality research and to develop new processes, products and technologies in support of the missions of the U.S. government.

The proposal says that while the privacy features are desirable, "there is similarly a compelling interest in tracing and understanding transactions and actions on the blockchain of an illegal nature". The goal is to design a blockchain analysis ecosystem so it could forensically analyze transactions on Zcash and Monero for homeland security and law enforcement applications. The document says that blockchain forensic analytics of privacy-centric cryptocurrencies can help both the law enforcement agencies as well as private financial institutions in enforcing “know your customer” and anti-money laundering compliance. (Source: FedBizOpps)