Apple, Microsoft and Google may confiscate cryptocurrency - former top manager of Coinbase
Date: 2023-06-20 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: IN WORLD
The largest US IT giants may, at the request of the authorities, confiscate cryptocurrency from users' devices, a native of the Coinbase crypto exchange warned
American tech giants like Apple, Microsoft and Google are able to confiscate cryptocurrency from users at the request of the authorities. This was stated by the former technical director of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, Balaji Srinivasan, in an interview with the Impact Theory podcast.
According to him, it is these three companies that carry the greatest risk, since they offer a whole set of operating systems for their users. Companies could, in theory, develop updates for their programs that would search for private keys to a cryptocurrency wallet, if required by the authorities. For example, Apple and Google can get access to cloud storage, and Microsoft can hide the scanner in one of its constant updates, Srinivasan admitted.
However, the former CTO of Coinbase admits that the issue of confiscation of cryptocurrencies is still open. It is unclear who will be the first country to be able to come up with a method to confiscate virtual assets.
So far, regulators around the world are working on the legislative intricacies of confiscation. For example, in the Russian Federation, back in the summer of 2021, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Igor Krasnov, said that the authorities want to apply "restrictive measures and confiscation in relation to virtual assets" through changes to the criminal procedure legislation. Since then, however, the Russian Federation has not found a universal technological means for the confiscation of cryptocurrencies. In April 2023, Krasnov complained about the reluctance of foreign crypto exchanges to cooperate with local authorities.
He also stated that the recognition of cryptocurrency as property was not enough to "counteract money laundering and terrorist financing." According to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, crypto exchanges need to be "forced" to register their business in the country for cooperation with the security forces.
At the same time, it cannot be argued that cryptocurrency exchanges do not cooperate with law enforcement agencies at all. For example, Israel's National Bureau for Combating the Financing of Terrorism previously seized more than $137,800 worth of cryptocurrency from more than 80 accounts on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange.
