BitOasis, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange, will allegedly delisted ZCash and Monero after notifying customers via email.
This comes after the exchange received an “‘in-principle approval’ [IPA] from Financial Services Regulatory Authority [FSRA], its financial regulator, on May 13”. No information could be found through other official BitOasis communication channels other than screenshots of the email sent to customers. The email includes a request to customers to explain the source of funds, explain the ultimate purpose/end use of funds, the reasons for the withdrawal and beneficiary if the user had deposited, bought, or withdrew ZCash or Monero, respectively. The email also asks if they had purchased these privacy coins for “third persons”.
According to the email screenshot, BitOasis will still provide liquidation options for ZEC and XMR, but will not allow withdraws in those coins. Users will only be able to exchange them to AED or BTC. [tweet https://twitter.com/mohabbadi11/status/1130211488252215296 align=’left’] One twitter user pointed out that was not even possible to reply to the email asking questions about the reason behind the delisting or how to ensure they can get their money.
As popularity of privacy coins increase, so do clampdowns
More individuals are increasing their use of privacy coins and mixers as more individuals realize that cryptocurrency is only pseudo-anonymous and more governments are cracking down on these individuals. A recent data report by LongHash showed that privacy coin mixer use is up 300% from just nine months ago. Then newer mixers like Wasabi Wallet for Bitcoin and Cash Shuffle for Bitcoin Cash are emerging and seeing increased usage for individuals that want better privacy protection than what each of those coins can do on their own. Vitalik Buterin also recently proposed a new privacy solution for Ethereum, with Buterin saying that “[w]e need a first step toward more privacy”.
However, governmental agencies are starting to put more emphasis on cracking down on privacy cryptocurrencies. Europol recently shut down the European-based mixer, Bestmixer.io, by seizing six of their servers. Then the US DEA has also said that they are looking into ways to track cryptocurrencies, including privacy-oriented coins. Many of their calls about the need to track cryptocurrencies arise from the claim that these coins are used in illegal activities, even though the research does not definitively support that claim.
Dash working to provide more reliable alternatives
Dash makes its mixing service, PrivateSend, available as an option so users that do not want nor need the service do not have to burden themselves with extra work or costs. However, Dash did recently release version 0.13, which increased the the maximum number of mixing rounds from 8 to 16, much more than the single rounds of other mixing services. There is also a lower denomination of 0.001 Dash to help increase speed and lower costs.
A significant barrier to cryptocurrency mixer adoption is usability, especially since nearly all that properly obscure user transaction data in a trustless way are not available on mobile. With that said, the popular Dash wallet, MyDashWallet, makes a mobile PrivateSend feature available so long as users are willing to trust MyDashWallet since the mixing service will be utilizing their full nodes. However, the latest release of version 0.13 updated PrivateSend to make a trustless mobile client possible, which MyDashWallet is currently working to implement. These PrivateSend features give Dash additional mixing obscurity over other services, while keeping it within the network.
