Open sesame: Will 'cracking' Monero reveal treasure or fool's gold?

"Some initiatives can be beneficial to investigating cryptocurrency crime for authorities such as: running a large network of their own Monero nodes, analyzing any data seized by shuttering non-compliant service providers that involve Monero and utilizing spy software and wallets - the latter of which is particularly useful for investigations."

Monero serves as one of the crypto industry's most well-known anonymity-focused assets.

Since its inception in 2014, Monero has had the ability to hide transaction values and sender addresses.

"Our tools do not reveal the identities of the users sending or receiving monero transactions. It is up to law enforcement to find that information from mapping data from addresses, wallets, payment IDs, etc."The IRS steps in.

"I am highly suspicious of any claims that corporations can trace Monero transactions," a representative from Monero Outreach told Cointelegraph.

As an independent workgroup, Monero Outreach teaches the public about the privacy-focused asset.

"Monero's construction is quite different from Bitcoin's, so most likely, tracing Monero will always be more predictive than completely deterministic; however, a big break-through in reducing Monero's anonymity would likely cause the price to go down initially," he said, adding that privacy-seeking owners of the asset might quickly head for the exits, offloading the asset onto the market.

Monero already trades on a vast number of crypto exchanges, providing a potential counterpoint to Jevan's expectation.

Monero is known for its privacy-focus, which becomes null if its privacy is broken.

"Cryptocurrency users, including bad actors, often have to choose between using a cryptocurrency like Monero for its enhanced privacy and Bitcoin for its convenience, availability and liquidity. Bitcoin already usually wins, especially as exchanges increasingly delist privacy coins in light of regulations."