Free CCAS sample questions

Correct answer: Peel Chain

A 'Peel Chain' is a common transaction pattern where a large amount of crypto held in one address is 'peeled' off in small amounts over a long series of transactions. The remaining balance (change) is moved to a new address each time, creating a long chain. This is often used to structure funds or make tracing more tedious.

Correct answer: In the UTXO model, balances are calculated by summing unspent outputs controlled by a private key, whereas the Account model maintains a global state of balances.

The UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model, used by Bitcoin, does not store wallet balances directly. Instead, a user's balance is the sum of all unspent outputs they can unlock. The Account model (Ethereum) stores balances as a state associated with an address.

Correct answer: Proof of Stake (PoS)

Proof of Stake (PoS) requires validators to stake (lock) their coins. If they validate maliciously, they risk losing their stake (slashing). This contrasts with Proof of Work, which relies on computational power (mining).

Correct answer: The ability to accept cash directly for crypto without face-to-face interaction with compliance staff.

The primary risk with crypto ATMs is the interface between physical cash and crypto. Smurfs often use them to deposit illicit cash into the crypto ecosystem. The lack of human interaction and the cash-intensive nature make them high risk for placement.

Correct answer: A 'coinbase transaction' is the first transaction in a block that creates new coins, whereas 'Coinbase' is a VASP entity.

In technical blockchain terms, the 'coinbase transaction' is the special transaction that rewards the miner with new coins. This is distinct from the company 'Coinbase'. If the funds came from the exchange Coinbase, the user was trading/buying, not mining.

Correct answers: They use technologies like Ring Signatures or zk-SNARKs to obfuscate sender, receiver, and amount.; Wallet addresses on the public ledger are often 'stealth addresses' that do not match the user's actual long-term public address.

Privacy coins utilize advanced cryptography (Ring Signatures for Monero, Zero-Knowledge Proofs/zk-SNARKs for Zcash) to hide transaction details on the ledger.

Stealth addresses allow a sender to generate a one-time address for the recipient, ensuring the recipient's actual address doesn't appear in the public transaction history.