Crypto analytics firm CipherTrace announced on Friday that it had filed two patents for technology capable of tracing transactions for privacy money Monero (XMR).

In a Friday blog from CipherTrace, the firm states that the patents would include forensic tools to explore Monero transaction flows to help in financial investigations, statistical and probabilistic methods for scoring transactions and clustering likely wallet owners, every bit well equally visualization tools and ways to rail stolen or illegally used XMR.

"CipherTrace'due south Monero tracing capabilities will let [Virtual Asset Service Providers] to identify when entering XMR may accept criminal origins, allowing them to adequately adventure charge per unit customer transactions per any required regulations," the blog states. "[Our] goal is to enable the detection of criminal users, therefore increasing the rubber and sustainability of privacy coins like Monero in the future."

While Bitcoin (BTC) is still the preferred medium of commutation for many darknet market users, at that place has been increasing acceptance for privacy coins like XMR. Law enforcement agencies accept not yet determined a reliable fashion to trace Monero, and firms like CipherTrace have an opportunity — the company has reportedly been working on a ways to trace XMR transactions since early 2019.

CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans told Cointelegraph in August that the business firm developed the offset tool for tracking Monero transactions. Such a tool could potentially support investigations of crimes and reduce incidents of coin laundering.

The company has stated information technology developed these Monero-tracing tools as part of a project with the United States Department of Homeland Security, but the latter isn't the only regime agency looking for a way to identify XMR wallets, transaction dates and times. In September, the Internal Revenue Service appear it would requite a compensation of up to $625,000 to anyone who can break Monero.

Capabilities for CipherTrace's tracing tools accept not yet been confirmed. One Monero Outreach representative told Cointelegraph in October that they would be "highly suspicious of any claims that corporations can trace Monero transactions" and whatever firm that did and so would exist unlikely to "trace the wallets or amounts for whatsoever transaction."

The cost of Monero is $123.37 at the fourth dimension of publication, having fallen 3.6% in the last 24 hours.