Thread by @Dry_Observer

.@CNBC But why, you might ask, are #Cryptocurrencies not only of intense interest to the US .@FBI .@NSAGov .@IRSnews, but countries from .@Ukraine to .@Japan to .@Israel? Russia & so many others use it to move illicit money & it’s the most trackable exchange on Earth.

.@CNBC For those just catching up, *Every* #Cryptocurrency maintains a *public* log of all transactions in one form or another. Even if you’re a criminal who didn't use them, how many of the people are you tied to who did? Now combine w/a global FinCEN investigation.

.@CNBC #Cryptocurrencies were already a ludicrous way to do illegal transactions. I've kept silent for 1/2 decade+ of metastasizing – Letting everyone who wanted to expose themselves do so. But it’s still astounding how many made that self-evident error.

.@CNBC Russian intelligence, other spies, criminals & terrorists have reportedly become very deeply engaged in moving money through #cryptocurrencies, & now all of that is being rolled up. .@Ukraine .@EUCouncil .@PMOIndia

.@CNBC Using a method to pay bribes, evade sanctions, launder money, buy drugs or guns, fund dissidents or terrorists that you *thought* was invisible but actually permanently, publicly marks a connection between the parties online is devastating.

.@CNBC The Mueller investigation combines the work of US intel & law enforcement w/that of her allies, including a .@USTreasury #FinCEN/money laundering investigation. Combine confessions/deliverables/wired cooperators w/the .@FBI & warrants/intel intercepts w/#cryptocurrencies.

.@CNBC In the US, you only have to prove someone is evading taxes or violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act to charge them. Worse, worldwide these exchanges expose intelligence assets, terrorists & their fundraisers, criminals & their money launderers.

.@CNBC Not to mention exposing the money & how it’s moved in ways other than #cryptocurrency. Bank accounts, criminal banks, drug & gun shipments & just who these people are trying to pay off or influence.

.@CNBC And *then* there's everyone inadvertently swept up in it - unrelated crimes exposed through their connections. Even if you're a criminal/terrorist/spy *not* involved, how many people involved have already been exposed?

.@CNBC How many people have already exposed *you* if you have nefarious activities to be exposed? Whether by their confessions as they’re swept up or by the connections exposed between you?

.@CNBC #Mueller & #FinCen are seeing all of this exposed through #cryptocurrency while also sifting through the Panama & Paradise Papers’ terabytes of data, real-estate money laundering, intel tips & all of the above.

.@CNBC But why is that of interest to other countries, aside from an interest in the direction of the US? Because everyone has an immense counterintelligence interest in this – in their own countries.

.@CNBC Knowing how to blackmail or otherwise threaten people is very useful to spies & other enemies of the state, and information on enormous numbers of compromised people in any country is as valuable to those trying to tear it down as it is to its defenders.

.@CNBC It’s hard to overstate how devastating this information is over the long term. Once you winnow out the criminal activities & especially subverted intel sources – it’s essentially a public list of traitors.

.@CNBC People whose lives are often literally forfeit if uncovered *can* become double or even triple agents. Or simply lured into doing things even more foolish that whatever they’ve already done.

.@CNBC Aside from the ability to coerce these individuals, knowing about their other activities allows intel agencies to intercept “unofficial” communications w/their handlers & intelligence they expose through these actions.

.@CNBC Worse, if some individuals are considered too important to investigate, a nation is already sacrificing a degree of sovereignty to a hostile foreign power. If uninvestigated, does that mean that power is given impunity in their actions?

.@CNBC Worse still, what then happens when these “untouchable” pawns are touched by another foreign power? Or more than one?

.@CNBC Widespread efforts to subvert an incredibly broad range of people not just in the US but in her allies & in Russia’s allies & neighbors, by Russia & others is part of that. Other exposed criminals of influence is the other.

.@CNBC No sane government wants that information just floating out there. And it’s already been collected by too many sources. Figuring out who the people on these exchanges is all too easy for the private sector, much less for any competent intel agency.

.@CNBC The US has more tools than anyone else in this sector, especially since Russia essentially gave us their entire global network through #cryptocurrency & several other titanic flaws in their would-be coup.

.@CNBC But #cryptocurrencies are so appallingly exposed as a means of “subterfuge” that effectively everyone will know. Hostile powers, allies, neighbors, criminals, terrorists, news organizations, dissidents, etc.

.@CNBC And the above is just public information & knowledge by *one* random inventor. Imagine what the IC/FBI has & what even remains unsaid here.

.@CNBC And imagine what the people exploiting this weakness in a nation or nations may have already uncovered. This fatal flaw is too widespread and feeds destruction and chaos. It will be eliminated, one way or another.