Robert Novy, assistant deputy director of the Office of Investigations of the Secret Service of the United States, presented an application for support before Congress to prevent anonymous cryptocurrencies, such as zcash (ZEC) and monero (XMR), from being used for illicit purposes.

However, in his testimony , Novy urges the congressmen to consider additional legislative or regulatory actions to face the challenges related to the anonymous cryptocurrencies . The official made such a request on Wednesday, June 20, before the Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance of the House of Representatives, which convened a hearing to address the issue of the use of virtual currencies for illicit purposes.

In his writing, Novy mentions a group of characteristics that, according to the investigations of the Secret Service, the delinquents look for in a digital currency for their use in illegal activities. The first of these characteristics is the "generalized adoption as a means of exchange for the planned criminal activities", in addition to the search for a "greater degree of anonymity" and "protection against theft, fraud and legal confiscation". Other properties that criminals seek in cryptocurrencies, according to Novy, are their "ability to transfer value quickly and reliably transnationally" and that can "easily be exchanged from and to their preferred currency."

In this sense, Robert Novy asked the congressmen to take the necessary actions to prevent some companies from preventing timely access to digital evidence and that, in compliance with the law, the "sources of evidence, regardless of where, or In what way, that information is stored. "

The official also pointed out that the recently enacted CLOUD Act represents a great advance in that direction, but it must be complemented with new regulations , since both jurisprudence and commercial practices are still in development. The CLOUD Act, approved in March of this year, allows the government of the United States and other countries to reach agreements to access user information, stored by technology companies outside its territory.

According to Forbes, the audience was attended by other personalities such as Thomas Ott, associate director of the compliance division of FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) who said that "financing of illegal activity is still mostly done through conventional means." However, he believes that without surveillance, these crimes could grow in the field of cryptographic currencies.

The request made by Novy against the use of cryptocurrencies such as zcash and monero contrasts with what happened a little more than a month ago, when it was learned that Gemini, a US-based cryptoactive exchange house, was authorized to include zcash in its platform, by the superintendent of the Department of Financial Services of the State of New York (NYSDFS), Maria T. Vullo.