The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has chosen Chainalysis and Integra FEC to develop tools to track transactions with the privacy-focused crypto Monero.
The IRS announced last month its intention to pay up to $625,000 to any company that can offer it a solution to decipher Monero transactions. A $625,000 contract will be awarded to each of the companies, which means the IRS will spend a total of $1.25M.
The initial payment will be $500,000. If the proposed tools pass the tests and are finally approved, both firms will receive the remaining amount: $125,000 each.
An IRS spokesperson has reported 22 different companies have submitted proposals. The selection process was based on a "comparative analysis." Blockchain analysis tools are widely used in the industry and by regulators. Integra FEC has a multi-million dollar contract with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for "other technical consulting services."
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