A few days ago I #threaded a question which says is it possible to freeze a cryptocurrency on the blockchain after being reprimanded for a crime just like they do in the traditional method? I got some interesting answers which I would be sharing but first, we will take a look at the reason for the question.
Asking about who can freeze your crypto is an interesting question because when someone is being arrested for a crime relating to crypto activities, you usually see in the news that the crypto assets are being frozen to avoid transactions carried out with it, or you hear things like the crypto are being monitored by government authorities. Most times these activities are being carried out due to the requests of it being an international case.
But the question still remains the same, how is it possible to freeze it on the blockchain when the first basic nature of crypto is it being decentralized and permissionless, which means no one has authority over it or can control it?
Answers and possibility
However, after much research about the question, I found out there’s a way your crypto can only be frozen and it all depends on what kind of tokens they are in the first place. The only possible way crypto can be frozen on a blockchain is if they are blacklisted by a smart contract for some particular reason.
Talking about blacklisting I think have seen someone experience the same thing on Binance it happened when he initiated a P2P transaction and the buyer claimed he has sent the funds and wanted the release of the crypto but he said he hasn’t received the funds and the issue went to appeal. Until the issue was settled the crypto was practically “frozen” by Binance because no one was the owner at that point.
Another interesting answer was that the crypto that gets frozen are centralized cryptocurrencies which I can say is fair enough. Centralized cryptocurrencies or exchanges are those that are run by companies.
Also, the fully other ways in which crypto can be frozen you should check out this article which says Steem vs Tron: The rebellion against a cryptocurrency empire it’s about a crypto war that happened on steemit and how Hive came to be.
Despite what the reasons may be for freezing cryptocurrency there’s however one thing we should know and that is, it’s impossible to freeze cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum and maybe some other top coins.