Decentralized exchange Uniswap has blocked 253 cryptocurrency addresses in collaboration with blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs for the past four months.
Uniswap has made wallet blocklisting data public for the first time.
Many of the addresses were blocked due to links to stolen money or firms that messed up transactions, including Tornado Cash, which the U.S. Treasury recently approved.
Yearn Finance core developer Banteg saved the data to a Twitter thread and GitHub, citing Uniswap software engineer Jordan Frankfurt as the source. We asked Frankfurt and Uniswap for comments; If we hear back, we’ll update this post.
Uniswap consists of three main components:
- Code that runs on the blockchain and is publicly visible.
- A front-end website provides users with a way to interact with the code.
- A US-based company that forms the protocol and contains the front-end website.
Crypto discourses are blocked at the front-end level.
In April, Uniswap and TRM Labs got together. When a user interacts with the Uniswap website, it receives the TRM Labs address and assigns it a level of risk
Uniswap is responsible for determining the degree of risk it is willing to accept
According to Frankfurt’s comments on GitHub, Uniswap was initially linked to blocklisted addresses with implicitly confirmed addresses, but has recently softened that. Now it only blocks addresses that receive approved, stolen, or hacked coins.
A graphic posted on GitHub details the seven types of illegal behavior that TRM Labs looks for when checking addresses . Stolen funds, funds from a transaction mixer, confirmed addresses, and funds from a known scam are the four main categories that are often detected. The remaining three categories include money used to finance terrorism, money from well-known hacking groups, and material involving sexual assault against children.
According to Banteg, 30 addresses have been associated with ENS names to make it easier to send cryptocurrency payments to these wallets. In Banteg’s view, most of them were probably authorized, users.
