Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
March 04, 2019 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Hearing that your
trusted crypto exchange has hired a company to allow it to secure
and protect customer data in-house is not exactly negative news.
Hearing that the company in question is notorious for working with
autocratic regimes to help them subjugate their citizens definitely
is.
Both of these statements involve
Coinbase and their recent acquisition of Neutrino, which still
includes a few key executives from Hacking Team. Hacking Team’s
claim to fame or, more accurately, notoriety, is the fact that they
provide what they call “offensive solutions for cyber
investigations” and they do not seem to care who they sell these
solutions to.
In the past week, accusations have
surfaced including that they assisted Saudi Arabia in some capacity
in their efforts against Jamal Khassogi, which reportedly included
surveilling him and just about anyone who spoke out against the
Saudi regime.
Now, two Hacking Tam executives and
one former employee are on the leadership team at Neutrino, which
claims to be a service for tracking the movement of
cryptocurrencies, even across different networks. Coinbase, when
queried on the subject of Neutrino’s ties to Hacking Team,
reportedly admitted that they were well aware of the the history
and decided to acquire the firm anyway.
In an opinion piece for CoinDesk
today, Michael Casey reacted to the controversy with some
thoughtful insights. Chief amongst them is the idea that while it
is a good thing that Coinbase will now not be allowing any
third-party service to sell user data, they are still taking on a
horde of issues by accepting Neutrino into their midst.
As Casey suggests, it is possible
that Coinbase executives thought they could weather the storm of
initial backlash and still come out on top due to their large user
base and established reputation in the greater cryptocurrency
space. At the same time however, perhaps they are placing too much
faith in these factors.
Something likely needs to be done
at this point to regain the trust of Coinbase’s existing users, in
the face of a movement that calls for the mass deletion of
accounts. However matters shake out over the next few months,
expect things to remain complicated as there is not exactly another
service out there that provides such easy, reliable, regulated
access to crypto and fiat on and off-ramps at the same
time.
By: BGN Editorial Staff