For the first time in history, the US has sanctioned 2 bitcoin address

U.S. Department of the Treasury (Office of Foreign Asset Control) is adding two crypto addresses to its sanctions list. (Source)

These addresses belong(ed) to two Iranian men who have launched ransomware attacks for the last 5 years.

First of all…imagine that…being in bitcoin since 2013 and still reusing addresses.

Folks, please don’t reuse addresses, especially the same two for 5+ years.

So what is this list?

This list means that…

And from a legal perspective this means…

This last of Marco’s analysis is interesting.

As Marty points out, chain analysis companies have tracking techniques that are heuristic based and don’t provide 100% certainty.

Now, imagine telling someone who isn’t familiar with cryptocurrencies about bitcoin and these sanctions.

They would probably respond in a way similar to this:

Good point, right? Why isn’t there a mechanism to prevent people from interacting with folks on the SDN list (Specially Designated Nationals list)?

Well, because bitcoin doesn’t work like that.

As Pierre points out:

Oh, and again, don’t be reusing 5 year old bitcoin addresses.

And if you want some more technical thoughts on this, you can check out this tweet thread.