How transactions are tracking in the bitcoin network?

Bitcoin addresses are the ranks of Latin letters and numbers and do not contain information about the names of their owners, creating a false feeling of complete anonymity for users. However, the recording of transactions in the bitcoin network occurs without encryption, which means that they can be tracked.

Much depends on how the address is used and what traces of activities with its use remained on the network. For example, transactions for bitcoin address posted in the signature of its owner in e-mail or on forums, it is quite easy to track.

And if it was created in a separate system with access to the Internet via an anonymous Tor network and carried out bitcoins exclusively from a mining pool like Eligius, which does not require registration to start, the task is significantly complicated.

However, having involved serious analytical tools and spending some time and resources for some time, you can get close to the owner of bitcoins.

What can any user track?

The simplest solutions for tracking transactions are provided by numerous observers of blockchain blockchain blocks. They usually use them when they want to make sure that the operation was successful, and did not hang in unconfirmed.

At the same time, everyone can become a little detective and, using such online platforms, in several clicks, get information about previously made transactions with a certain bitcoin address, its current balance sheet, which have passed through it, the sums or addresses for incoming (output) and outgoing (output ) operations. Indicate the transaction identifier data (TXID, TXHASH), address, hash or block height – and you will instantly learn their status.

Try to get acquainted with blocks of blocks from Block Explorer or Blockchain services.Com. Similar data with different options for displaying information also provide OXT, TOKEN VIEW, BLOCKYPHER, Insight, Sochain and Blockstream Bitcoin Explorer services. https://gagarin.news/news/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-switched-from-pharma-to-the-crypto-industry/ With the help of Cryptocurrency Alerting, you can configure the notification of activity from the address of interest, and the Blockseer tool will allow “following bitcoin”, visualizing the connections between the addresses participating in the transaction.

Is it possible to hide from tracking?

Given the pseudo -enony nature of bitcoin, it is worth remembering that measures to counteract tracking transactions give only relative efficiency. Even such a popular technology for the anonymization of bitcoin transactions as Coinjoin, which combines several translations of different users into one transaction with a large number of outputs and at the same time does not require transmitting bitcoins to a third -party service, does not guarantee complete anonymity. After all, inputs and outputs will still be reflected on the network, and transactions can be identified by using a set of tools Coinjoinsudoku.

Nevertheless, such measures should not be neglected so as not to become a mild victim. For example, in some cases, you can generate a new address for each new transaction or counterparty, put a ban on sending confidential transactions through the accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges and use open source wallets.

Are there any commercial tools for tracking BTC transactions?

When transactions must be tracked very quickly or it is required to do it on an ongoing basis, manually analyzes data becomes ineffective. In this case, commercial solutions come to the aid of the researchers, which are built on the publicly accessible data layer of additional information, reflecting who interacts with whom and with whom. Let’s look at the most popular of them.

Chainalysis

Perhaps the most famous company in the field of tracking operations with bitcoin is the American analytical blockchain startup Chainalysis. Since 2015, it has been helping the US Federal Tax Service (IRS) in the disclosure of persons evading taxes from cryptocurrency operations. The company cooperates with Europol, law enforcement agencies of different countries and crypto -rhizas.

The main products of the company are Chainalysis Reactor and Chainalysis Know Your Transaction (Kyt). Reactor allows you to start an automatic investigation from any moment in the presence of at least a small clue with cryptod. KYT users, designed as a tool for countering money laundering illegally, with the help of API in real time monitor huge amounts of information and detect high -risk transactions. For example, since the fall of 2018, the Binance cryptocurrency exchange has been working with Chainalysis Kyt to “create a blockchain ecosystem, where everyone will feel safe”.

At the same time, Chainalysis tools do not imply public access, and therefore do not make it possible to evaluate the methodology used and exclude false positive results. There were cases when the participants in the trials of this questioned the reliability of the data on transactions provided by Chainalysis.

Crystal

In January 2018, Bitfury Group (one of the world’s largest developers and blockchain providers) introduced the Crystal tool for financial institutions and law enforcement agencies, which created specifically for investigations related to bitcoin.

Crystal analyzes the information in the Bitcoin blockchain, concentrating on the set addresses and sets of transactions, and also goes beyond the network and collects data related to the request for all available sources: sites, thematic forums, etc. P.

The tool visualizes the movement of funds up to the final address and the output of crypto assets into fiat currency and sends the results to the client’s mail. At the same time, if you manually encounter the problem of a large branches of the flows, the result of Crystal is a list of specific addresses that have reached the money, as well as the determination of all ways of their delivery.

The investigation may delve into the assessment of transaction risks and track suspicious transactions by BTC address, but the developers say that, ultimately, using a unique clustering algorithm, Crystal is able to identify the real name of the coin holder.

In version 2.2 Crystal for the convenience of investigators several more functions appeared. For example, customers can configure notification of activities at a specific address with the ability to one click to monitoring and visualizing the list of addresses participating in the transaction, as well as track operations performed between the addresses using intermediaries.

As an example of the effectiveness of Crystal, its creators provide an investigation into the Wannacry Monk-Monk. In May 2017, in 4 days, he inflicted almost $ 1 billion damage to his victims, the Great Britain State Health Service, the largest telecom company Telefónica, the American logistics giant of Fedex and users from 150 countries of the world suffered from him. Taking advantage of their instrument, the creators of Crystal traveled the movement of funds from the Bitcoin-wallets of the attackers (to the output points through the Changelly and Shapeshift crypto) and determined who was behind the attacks.

Bitfury also conducted an investigation into the hacking of the Japanese Bitcoin-Birzhi Zaif in September 2018, which lost $ 60 million in cryptoactives as a result of hackers, including 6,000 bitcoins.

Researchers determined that part of the stolen funds was sent to the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, the other part was divided into small amounts and distributed to numerous addresses through mixers, game services and other crypto -rhins, and 30% remained at the addresses that were previously not lit in the network, presumably belonging to the cracker. After that, the addresses registered to unknown persons were transferred for further observation in Crystal.

Elliptic

Created in 2013 in London, the analytical solutions in the Elliptic blockchain sphere once served as a cold wallet for storing private keys to bitcoin addresses, but then he reoriented to provide services to cryptocurrency exchanges and financial services in the field of money laundering obtained illegally.

Elliptic also developed by the software by which law enforcement agencies monitor the financing of terrorists with bitcoins. Elliptic collaborates with the FBI and the CIA and is known for investigations of criminal activity in Darknet.

As explained in the company, with the help of web-screening of “pure” web resources and darknet, as well as monitoring the register of court documents, you can get data with the mention of crypto-adajes, analyze them, and then try to join them in interaction or repeat their logic.

To calculate the real owners of the wallets in the darknet in Elliptic, machine learning algorithms are used: it is focused on addresses that are precisely used on a certain site, and then, using this technology, determines other addresses and transactions on the same marketplace. For law enforcement agencies, the received information is visualized graphically in the observation of transactions.

Information on the cooperation of the London startup with the FBI and the CIA is not subject to disclosure. However, it is known that the company played a significant role in the cases of a prison prison prison, a Darknet-narrator from the British Portsmouth, who traded ecstasy for bitcoins, as well as a businessman who tried to import details of firearms bought in the Dark for Bitcoin.
In addition, in July 2018, Elliptic experts said that Russian military intelligence officers (GRU) accused of intervention in the 2016 American presidential campaign conducted bitcoin transactions, and also laundered money through cryptocurrency through the BTC-E Exchange.