{"id":78911,"date":"2026-10-01T10:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/neutral-networks-cant-pick-who-can-transact\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T10:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:30:36","slug":"neutral-networks-cant-pick-who-can-transact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/neutral-networks-cant-pick-who-can-transact\/","title":{"rendered":"Neutral Networks Can&#8217;t Pick Who Can Transact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"@container mb-[25px] rounded-sm overflow-clip py-0.5 pr-0.5 pl-2.5 bg-success-100\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-m overflow-clip rounded-[6px] !bg-success-10 p-3 @[420px]:p-m\">\n<h2 class=\"m-0 flex items-center gap-s text-[19px] !text-[#1c1c1c] md:text-[20px]\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"10\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 10\" fill=\"none\" class=\"shrink-0 text-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M1 1.5h14\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><path d=\"M1 8.5h10\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><\/svg><span>Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"m-0 flex list-none flex-col gap-m pl-0\">\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Chad Barraford says recovery hinges on 2 chokepoints: exchanges and fiat off-ramps.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Public tracing across neutral protocols allow investigators to label and monitor stolen funds in real time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Thorchain will maintain its permissionless structure despite rising pressure on DEX platforms.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Resistance to Wallet-Blocking Demands<\/h2>\n<p>Thorchain co-founder and lead developer Chad Barraford criticized the crypto industry\u2019s tendency to shift focus from compromised exchanges to the protocols used by hackers to move stolen funds. According to Barraford, this misdirected focus stems from the transparent nature of decentralized plumbing, which makes tracing stolen assets visible to everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Barraford told Bitcoin.com News that while he sympathizes with victimized exchanges, he refuses to play a blame game, preferring instead to focus on how digital asset recovery actually works.<\/p>\n<p>Barraford\u2019s remarks come <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/crypto-news\/thorchain-faces-heat-as-bitget-hack-revives-bybit-controversy\/\">amid controversy<\/a> over Thorchain\u2019s steadfast refusal to honor a request by Bitget CEO Gracy Chen to freeze hacker-linked wallets. Chen made the request a few days after suspected North Korea-backed hackers stole over $388 million in digital assets from Bitget. While Chen frames the move as an essential defense against bad actors laundering funds on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/exchange\/what-is-a-dex\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">decentralized exchanges<\/a> (DEX), Thorchain maintains that preserving permissionless, decentralized infrastructure takes priority.<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time Thorchain, which has been live since 2021, has resisted external pressure. In 2025, the protocol faced intense scrutiny after <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/bybit-ceo-ben-zhou-provides-update-on-hacked-funds-and-recovery-efforts\/\">rebuffing a request<\/a> by Bybit, supported by the FBI, to blacklist wallet addresses tied to state-sponsored North Korean cybercriminals.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, as on-chain sleuths looked on in frustration while alleged North Korean cybercriminals moved at breakneck speed to launder stolen funds, calls for DEX oversight have only intensified. This growing scrutiny has led Barraford to forcefully dispel the notion that protocols like Thorchain have <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/exchanges\/bitget-hack-xrp-157m-cannot-be-frozen\/\">built-in switches<\/a> to selectively blacklisted wallets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat switch does not exist, and it was never built, on purpose,\u201d Barraford said.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, DEXes like Thorchain do have an <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/THORChain\/status\/2104460133132562449\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency halt<\/a>, but according Barraford, this is a blunt instrument which operators can use to pause trading across the whole network or on a particular chain if the protocol itself is under threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt stops everyone at once. It\u2019s a circuit breaker, not a scalpel. There is no function to reach in, single out one person\u2019s transaction, and deny it while everyone else keeps trading,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>Building selective blocking features, Barraford argues, would inherently create <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/wallet-security\/privacy-protection\/what-is-censorship-resistance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">censorship capabilities<\/a> and empower a select few to decide whose funds can move. The entire point of the network is to ensure no one holds that kind of power:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo when we say we can\u2019t selectively block an address, we mean can\u2019t, not won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The Unavoidable Cost of Protocol Neutrality<\/h2>\n<p>Addressing the broader debate over whether permissionless networks should block specific transactions, Barraford emphasized that critics often confuse what a protocol should do with what it can do. He argued that cross-chain swap layers must remain as neutral as Bitcoin miners or Ethereum validators to retain user trust.<\/p>\n<p>Warning that building censorship tools inevitably leads to misuse, the co-founder acknowledged that maintaining a neutral network comes with unavoidable tradeoffs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo my honest position is that neutrality has a real cost, and I won\u2019t pretend it doesn\u2019t,\u201d Barraford said. \u201cIt means the network gets used by people you\u2019d rather it wasn\u2019t. I think that cost is worth paying, because the alternative is worse for exactly the people the system is meant to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As cybercriminals adopt artificial intelligence (AI) tools to widen their attack surface, centralized exchanges face an escalating threat environment. While DEXes inevitably draw heat when stolen funds flow through their rails, Barraford maintains that such backlash is misdirected, arguing that asset recovery rarely, if ever, occurs at the swap layer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt happens at the edges, where crypto touches the traditional financial system. Exchanges, fiat off-ramps, the regulated chokepoints where someone has to identify themselves to cash out,\u201d the co-founder said.<\/p>\n<p>These financial gateways represent the true friction points: the exact locations where assets can be frozen and where authorities possess actionable leverage.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, DEXes and public infrastructure provide transparency by keeping network swaps visible, allowing investigators to track funds, label addresses, and monitor transactions in near-real time. According to Barraford, this transparency should be viewed as an asset and not a liability:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe tracing works precisely because the rails don\u2019t hide anything. Closing them wouldn\u2019t stop theft; it would just make the money harder to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/featured\/thorchain-co-founder-neutral-networks-cant-pick-who-can-transact\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways Chad Barraford says recovery hinges on 2 chokepoints: exchanges and fiat off-ramps. Public tracing across neutral protocols allow investigators to label and monitor stolen funds in real time. Thorchain will maintain its permissionless structure despite rising pressure on DEX platforms. Resistance to Wallet-Blocking Demands Thorchain co-founder [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":78912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}