In a recent tweet, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of "The Black Swan," mocked Monero (XMR) after rumors surfaced that the coin's lead developer is an Interpol mole.
Taleb was previously told that Monero could not be traced, but he now says it can be traced as the coin's lead developer was a mole for Interpol.
Cybersecurity researcher James Edwards, who goes by the handle @librehash on Twitter, was the one who initially pointed out that Monero's lead developer Riccardo Spagni was detained by U.S. marshals and later outed himself as an informant for Interpol.
Edwards suggests that Spagni helped U.S. marshals track Monero, a privacy coin that is designed to be untraceable. He adds that researchers have already figured out how to demask nearly 50% of all transactions on Monero.
Alex DovbnyaSpagni took to Twitter to address the allegations, saying that he has never met with or helped any law enforcement agency or government agency trace Monero.
He said that Monero is based on very well-established cryptography and that the codebase has been battle-tested over nearly a decade.
He further stated that he has no privileged access to Monero's code, GitHub repo, website, Twitter account, DNS records, donated funds or anything else.
Spagni insists that he has no ability to provide any government agency with anything beyond information about Monero that is publicly available.
The Monero developer also stated that his access to things like Monero's codebase will never be restored.
The allegations have caused some concern among Monero investors and the wider cryptocurrency community.
Monero's privacy features have made it a favorite among those who want to conduct transactions without being traced.
However, if it turns out that Monero is not as anonymous as previously believed, it could have serious implications for the coin's future. The allegations have also raised questions about the extent to which law enforcement agencies are able to track and monitor cryptocurrency transactions.
Arman Shirinyan
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team