Hi All,
I am starting to use Yoroi with a Ledger Nano.
I see that new addresses are generated to protect privacy when spending.
When I put internal and external addresses in cardanoexplorer the balance shows as 0.
But I am interested in transparency as a deterrent against crime.
I would like the ability to preemptively provide law enforcement with a public key for my account that they could use to follow spending on the account should I be forced to turn over my private key. In that case, they would be able to follow the spending until funds show up on an exchange or until funds are sent to a known account. I would like for law enforcement to be able to follow all spending without giving them the private key. The idea is to provide the public with complete transparency of where my funds come from and go to while maintaining sole control of the private key.
This has other applications as well - for instance, transparency of public spending.
It would be great if all citizens could see how public funds are spent.
Please tell me if this is possible and if so how is this accomplished with Yoroi managed accounts.
Thanks, John
Sorry @Trigger,
I clouded the issue by mentioning that I am using the Ledger Nano.
Even if you have a hardware wallet someone can force you to provide access to the account.
To counter this threat when using other blockchains I like to give law enforcement my public address.
This way they can follow the money to find any would be criminals.
That’s what makes public ledgers so great.
There is no reason for criminals to harm other people in order to get their money when spending the money points to the criminal’s identity.
This is why I want law enforcement to be able to see where the money in my account comes from and where it goes.
Of course there are many valid reasons citizens may need to keep accounts private but there are also many valid cases where citizens may require their accounts to be public.
Politicians for example may want the public to be able to see where public funds come from and what that money is spent on.
I wish to know if there is some public address listed in the Yoroi wallet that I may give to another party (or post publicly) that would allow others to follow all the deposits and withdrawals in my account.
Also, what blockchain explorer should be used with this public address to provide a complete listing of where the money came from and where it went?
Thanks, John
Perhaps I dont understand your requirement completely - but if you wish to provide an address for others to follow , you can reuse your existing one - its not a necessity to use a new address when making a new transaction. This also allows you to track funds using single address via explorer. So it’s really an option for the individual
(Note that remainder funds after an outgoing tx do get transferred to new change addresses, but they can still be linked to source - so its not exactly cause of concern as per your requirement, so as long as incoming funds are being reuse existing address - your particular use case should be alright)
Hi @Priyank,
Yes, thank you, I think that’s what I was looking for.
If I understand correctly…If I only receive with one address then that address when pasted into cardanoexplorer will show all in going and out going transactions for that account.
I will try that and report back here.
Thanks for your help
that is correct. If you have ada on different addresses within the wallet then send your whole funds in the wallet to the one address of that wallet you want to use.
Also, if you have to show your spending to law enforcement for what ever reason, your wallet shows your history, which you could show to someone if required.
Thanks @Lgbeano, @rdlrt, @Trigger
Great, so with your help I see that it is possible to make the sources of my income and destinations of my spending transparent simply by using the first receiving address of my Yoroi wallet only.
I have two follow up questions please.
-
Now let’s suppose that I am forced by criminals to send my funds to a newly generated address on their Yoroi wallet. Then they send my funds to an exchange. Would it be possible for law enforcement to enter my receiving address into cardanoexplorer, and follow the transactions to the exchange where they could learn the criminal’s identities?
-
Is it possible to make a Yoroi wallet public without sharing the private key? I notice that when setting up the wallet with my Ledger Nano, Yoroi interrogated the Nano for the public key. So I am wondering if there is a way to extract the public key from the Nano and if there is a way for law enforcement or the public to recreate my wallet on their own machines. These would be read only, of course, because the private key can only be generated by the Nano.
Please allow me to explain why I am asking about transparency.
According to the book Moneyland by Oliver Bullough: kleptocrats, warlords, and drug cartels are stealing money in their own countries and laundering that money in the US and European nations through the use of shell companies, offshore accounts and a corrupt international banking industry.
I see transparent blockchain ledgers as a way to stop the large scale corruption that causes so much human suffering. Before blockchains, secrecy was necessary for security. If criminals or a corrupt government were aware of your money then they could force you to hand it over in the case of criminals or just confiscate your accounts and deeds in the case of a corrupt government.
But criminals can not use transparent money and governments can not confiscate assets controlled by a private key. As such, secrecy is no longer required in order to have security.
So blockchains make it possible to enjoy the benefit of transparency assuming transparent blockchains can displace the current financial infrastruture.
So when transparent blockchains dominate there will be no more kleptocrats, no more warlords, and no more drug cartels. In order to achieve this benefit however, all people would need to agree to use transparent money.
Of course there are many legitimate reasons why people, corporations, and governments must be able to spend in secret.
To manage these opposing needs I am imagining light chains and dark chains which could coexist on Cardano infrastructure. People could place their money on a transparent ledger (a light chain) and enjoy the security of knowing that their money is from clean sources (not supporting criminal activity) and that criminals can not steal and spend this money without exposing themselves.
People could still buy and spend on dark chains when secrecy is required but the money from light chains and dark chains would never mix.
I am willing to bet that the incentives will cause light chains to become the predominant form of currency and that human suffering will diminish as a result.
Anyway, this is why I am asking how I may choose to work transparently with Cardano.
Thanks, John
Its possible for exchanges to track the funds, law enforcement officials can track address in explorer - but eventually they’d need to work with exchanges (from where it becomes a black box, because most of the exchanges accumulate funds from different accounts into shared wallets), and not all exchanges do KYC.
The ledger is always public, but I think all of your thinking comes down to a single point of failure - which is: not all exchanges do KYC , some allow you to transfer funds to a black box (a wallet combined between multiple users) and then transfer & extract it to an anonymous account to cash out.
Thus, you’re not really solving the actual issue by making your keys public.
So what you’re looking for does not solve your requirement.
Thank you @rdlrt,
It is a comfort to hear that the Cardano ledger is always public and that funds from my public address can be tracked all the way to an exchange. I wonder if we could make a light chain which restricts exchanges to those which verify the identities of it’s members. I think people would opt in for the opportunity to work with clean transparent money.