admin The IRS has named the winners of its rewards program for tracking transactions on privacy tokens and Layer 2 protocols.
On Wednesday, the IRS awarded two $625,000 contracts for tracking tools for Monero and Layer 2 privacy token protocols. The winners were the blockchain analysis firms Chainalysis and Integra FEC.
The IRS initially published its search for a privacy-breaking analysis solution earlier this month. An IRS representative told Cointelegraph that the agency had selected the two winning firms from a field of 22 submissions received, although the only reason the representative gave for the agency’s decision was „a comparative analysis was used.
Chainalysis is among the leading firms in cryptanalysis and regularly wins such contracts with a variety of government agencies. Integra FEC is a relatively unknown name, despite millions of dollars in contracts with, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission for „Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services“.
Integra FEC had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comments at press time. Chainalysis refused to comment, as it usually does when asked about its work on privacy tokens.
As governments increase their interest in tracking cryptosystems, the field of companies working on cryptosystems tracking is likely to expand. In mid-September, the US Treasury made a mistake by imposing sanctions on a Monero wallet that turned out to be a payment ID.