THE uniswap, one of the most popular decentralized exchanges in the cryptocurrency market, has started taking actions against addresses associated with suspicious activity, blocking these users from the platform. Despite being common on centralized platforms, this move may cause concern to many who are in the decentralized market.
THE Uniswap with TRM Labs, will begin investigating all addresses that may be using the decentralized platform to conduct any kind of illegal activity. Addresses determined to participate in such activities may be blocked.
More specifically, all wallet addresses belonging to or associated with activities clearly illegal such as: evasion of sanctions, financing of terrorist activities, theft of funds or transfer of hacked assets, ransomware activities, human trafficking activities and material related to child abuse are blocked.
In practice, TRM Labs will combine blockchain data with information on investigations conducted by authorities around the world into malicious, illegal or major criminal activity.
Using this information, TRM will try to trace the addresses and wallets involved in various types of investigations, send UniSwap the relationship of these addresses to the crimes, and then block the broker from the service.
According to the broker, this new policy aims to prevent people associated with crimes from using the platform (and thus causing trouble with authorities around the world).
“It is Uniswap Labs’ policy to prevent people involved in illegal activities from using our app. We remain committed to the idea of developing products that provide a robust, transparent and secure financial infrastructure that can empower anyone around the world.”
Despite the blocking of accounts, the broker said that all actions were taken as a precaution and that no report is made to the police.
When attempting to perform any type of activity related to a suspicious address, the platform warns that:
“This address has been blocked in the Uniswap Labs interface because it may be associated with one or more blocked activities.”
In the event of a potential error, the address can be unblocked by speaking directly to the broker’s support through emails.
“Decentralized”
The problem with this is that if Uniswap has the power to block addresses from its central team’s decision, it centralizes the platform to a certain level, which is not the DeFi proposal that attracts so many users who want to escape centralization.
This immediately caused many to express displeasure with the platform’s decision.
“I strongly advise people not to use Uniswap.”
I strongly advise against using uniswap pic.twitter.com/GFXN1EP87W
— 0x9fd (@0x9fd) Apr 22, 2022
It is possible that in the short and medium term this will affect the trust that users have in the decentralized exchange because it is not so decentralized.
Many may be concerned that if they can simply block a suspicious address, the next step could be to block addresses that are not linked to illegal activity, but may face various kinds of sanctions.
The need to worry about security is real and helps to legitimize mediation for traditional authorities, but it can be a major drawback for those already looking to get away from the decentralized market tradition†
Source: Live Coins
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
