Canadian court certifies first Bitcoin expert

Blockchain security company CipherTrace announced today that CEO Dave Jevans has been certified as an expert witness in a Canadian criminal court. Jevans testified against drug dealer Matthew Phan, who sold drugs and weapons on the dark web.

First Bitcoin Certified Witness

The arrest of Matthew Phan in 2018 and the subsequent confiscation of his Bitcoin wallet was a first in Canada, and it was also the first time that Jevons was certified as an expert witness by the Canadian court system.

"When I initially conducted this investigation in May 2015, I was very keen to use tracing tools such as CipherTrace," said a lawyer for the prosecution. "The report Dave prepared was a key part of this case."

Matthew Phan argued that half of his digital currency did not come from drug dealing. He claimed that he only used Bitcoin on the dark web. However, Dave Jevans of CipherTrace painted a different picture in court.

While the CipherTrace press release states that the arrest took place in 2015, local police say the investigation began in March 2018 and concluded in May 2018. But as far as we can tell, the following statement in the press release is accurate: “At the request of prosecutors, Judge Kelly qualified Jevons to testify as an expert, making him the first qualified Bitcoin expert witness in a Canadian court.”

Matthew Phan used both Agora and Evolution. Agora may still be in operation. However, in early 2015, Evolution pulled the plug on the scam, and the journalist was interviewed by the BBC about it.

Asset slashing: getting current use cases for digital currencies right

During a search of Matthew Phan’s apartment, police found nearly all of the drugs they suspected he was selling. They also found his unencrypted Bitcoin wallet.

In the United States, if convicted of drug dealing, the government can seize most or all of your assets pending trial. Asset forfeiture laws make it so that simply carrying cash can result in the cash itself being charged as a crime. However, last month, the Supreme Court ruled that there is a limit to how many people the police can arrest.

In the Land Rover case, police alleged a $42,000 vehicle was linked to $225 worth of drug sales, marking the first time the government has applied constitutional protections against "excessive fines."

The ruling doesn’t change property risk much, but it allows people to argue they were fined too much, attorney Wesley Hottot told The New York Times: “What’s new now is that even if the defendant is guilty, they can argue that the court’s ruling was excessive.”

Matthew Phan's request to keep half of the digital currency was rejected. The government actually gained $1.2 million in wealth. It is not yet known whether they will auction off the digital currency like other governments have done.

This continues. Cryptocurrencies are popular in the dark web, a market where lucrative transactions can be made. Regardless of the government’s stance on drugs, such transactions would not be possible without cryptocurrencies.