In September, the IRS announced a government procurement contract seeking contractors to provide protocols and software tools to trace privacy coins transactions. The proposal calls for “expert tools, data, source code, algorithms, and software development services” to assist IRS Cybercrime Agents in identifying wallets, transaction dates, times and amounts transferred by and through privacy coins like Monero and Bitcoin’s Lightening Network. The IRS hopes to better develop its internal expertise, so it does not so heavily rely on external vendors. It seeks to better trace transaction capabilities involving privacy cryptocurrency in an effort to identify criminal activity, including money laundering, terrorist financing, and child exploitation (and surely, tax evasion). Currently, its tracing techniques are largely inadequate in regard to privacy coins as opposed to more traceable crypto assets like Bitcoin. The government procurement proposal comes just shortly after an IRS Annual Report identifying cryptocurrency compliance as a focal point and current IRS initiative.