Traceability of Cryptocurrency Transactions using Blockchain Analytics

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies are increasingly used as a medium to conduct the illicit activity. The fundamental concept empowering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is the blockchain, which is a distributed ledger technology that transactions are stored on. The entire ledger, which is widely distributed among the peer-to-peer network, is susceptible to the temporal analysis of the transaction to be performed. This type of blockchain analytics threatens the expected privacy of transactions and has resulted in the growing number of privacy-oriented solutions that reduce the traceability and increase the anonymity of crypto transactions. Despite the evolving technological advancements of privacy-oriented features for cryptocurrencies, traceability of transactions is still possible. In this paper, the core features of blockchain are reviewed as well as their resistance to traceability. Existing countermeasures which attempt to obfuscate user activity are also considered. In addition, a prototype software solution is proposed that could be used in incidence response of criminal activity involving cryptocurrencies.