>Coinbase Tracer, formerly known as Coinbase Analytics, has faced controversy before. The branch of the exchange responsible for the software’s development emerged from Coinbase’s 2019 acquisition of blockchain intelligence firm Neutrino, whose executive team previously worked with a startup that sold spyware to several governments, including Saudi Arabia, known for human rights abuses.
I don't know why we should assume good faith on coinbase's part when the same group of people working on this used to sell spyware to human rights abusers.
https://decrypt.co/36608/coinbase-ceo-reflects-on-neutrino-a...
> Armstrong said that after realizing that Coinbase could’ve hired some “black hats,” he insisted on first speaking to Neutrino staff to find out how much of this was true. After assessing the situation, he sacked some of the ex-Hacking Team members but did not specify who.
> All of the key people who had “some kind of question mark or reputational or values issue” were let go from the company, he said. While some lower-level engineers who “were not the decision-makers and weren’t as culpable” remained with the company
I literally quoted the article that this entire page is about, and I'm also obviously referring to Neutrino seeing as how I directly quoted them. Please read the articles before telling people they need to share more.
Regardless, I don't trust Brian on this. This is the same guy who shit all over his own staff for being "whistle blowers", claiming that these things have to stay in house. Coinbase failed to do their due diligence, bought a company that made spyware, and then claimed that they fired some people but never clarified who. He also explicitly said he only fired some of the "hacking team" that was responsible for the issues, not the entire team itself.
At the end of the day there's absolutely no reason to take them at the word here, and plenty of reason not to.
I don't know why we should assume good faith on coinbase's part when the same group of people working on this used to sell spyware to human rights abusers.