Elliptic, a blockchain analysis firm, announced the addition of Zcash (ZEC) and Horizen (ZEN) privacy tokens to its tracking platform. The analysis firm, however, supports the ‘unshielded’ transactions from the blockchain only, keeping away from the built-in privacy tokens such as Monero (XMR), Elliptic co-founder and chief scientist Tom Robinson said.
Following the successful support of ZEC and DASH privacy tokens on Chainalysis, Elliptic has become the latest blockchain monitoring firm to dip its feet into the privacy crypto space.
In a statement on the support of ZEC and ZEN, Robinson believes that monitoring these coins will improve the field by providing the regulated financial entities with a trail on the source and destination of crypto assets. This ensures these companies remain KYC/AML compliant through their operations.
The screening tool only focuses on unshielded addresses on the ZEC and ZEN platforms but alerts compliance departments on shielded transactions as a risk management solution. This is quite different from Chainalysis screening, which involves shining a light on both shielded and unshielded transactions on private networks. Robinson said:
“We provide transaction screening tools for exchanges and don’t plan to offer our functionality on something like Monero, where everything is private by default.”
Adoption is the Main key
Regulators and financial authorities fear privacy coins due to their financial crime risks and possible utility for use in purchasing illicit goods and services. This is contrary to research from the Elliptic intelligence analysts, which claims to “have observed minimal adoption of Zcash or ZEN by illicit entities.” In contrast, Bitcoin, the public blockchain, is still the go-to asset for criminals due to its highly liquid state.
Robinson believes that by supporting the screening of ZEC and ZEN, the fear of risks that the two privacy coins possess will be lower than public blockchain such as BTC.
Genesis Exchange Adds Elliptic
The two crypto assets, ZEC and ZEN, have been added to both the Elliptic Navigator – transaction screening pool – and Elliptic Lens – the firm’s wallet screening tool. Digital asset exchange and trading services, Genesis, will be the first to onboard the ZEC and ZEN monitoring features on its platform.
Genesis CEO Michael Moro said:
“Elliptic’s addition of these new assets enables us to further grow our business by providing the ability to assess risk on transactions and meet regulators’ expectations.”
So far, the Elliptic screening platform boasts screening over 97% of all the crypto assets in trading volume following the widespread addition of over 85 digital assets in May.