3 ms·

I've been watching some of Coffeezilla's videos lately and he often gets into the analysis of "following the money" from one crypto wallet to another to show ho

I've been watching some of Coffeezilla's videos lately and he often gets into the analysis of "following the money" from one crypto wallet to another to show how lots of his subjects conducted their scams. Were these individuals just sloppy (probably) or is there some kind of forensic analysis that can be performed blockchains to trace the path of tokens/funds/credits through a mixer? Although I know nothing about crypto, blockchain, defi, I imagine credits/tokens/funds can be split and merged in every imaginable way by a "mixer" and transactions can probably occur across different blockchains via exchanges as well as occur outside in the real world, but I'm curious about any sort of signal that might be extracted from such analysis, other than signals arising from just pure sloppiness. BTW, I'm not disputing your asserting about being able to track people... more about breadcrumbs in general, even if they're anonymous.

yellow_lead 4y ago
I watch those videos as well but many of those influencers are dumb enough to put their wallets in their twitter bios (eg their ENS names), or its because they are linked to their project from the flow of large amounts of tokens.
limaoscarjuliet 4y ago
You are anonymous as long as you have not used your wallet somewhere where you can be identified. Read about "welcome to video" child porn bust possible due to chainanalysis. From https://www.wired.com/story/tracers-in-the-dark-welcome-to-video-crypto-anonymity-myth/ https://www.wired.com/story/tracers-in-the-dark-welcome-to-v... Chainalysis had combined these techniques for de-anonymizing Bitcoin users with methods that allowed it to “cluster” addresses, showing that anywhere from dozens to millions of addresses sometimes belonged to a single person or organization. When coins from two or more addresses were spent in a single transaction, for instance, it revealed that whoever created that “multi-input” transaction must have control of both spender addresses, allowing Chainalysis to lump them into a single identity. In other cases, Chainalysis and its users could follow a “peel chain”—a process analogous to tracking a single wad of cash as a user repeatedly pulled it out, peeled off a few bills, and put it back in a different pocket. In those peel chains, bitcoins would be moved out of one address as a fraction was paid to a recipient and then the remainder returned to the spender at a “change” address. Distinguishing those change addresses could allow an investigator to follow a sum of money as it hopped from one address to the next, charting its path through the noise of Bitcoin’s blockchain.

yellow_lead 4y ago

I watch those videos as well but many of those influencers are dumb enough to put their wallets in their twitter bios (eg their ENS names), or its because they are linked to their project from the flow of large amounts of tokens.

limaoscarjuliet 4y ago

You are anonymous as long as you have not used your wallet somewhere where you can be identified. Read about "welcome to video" child porn bust possible due to chainanalysis. From https://www.wired.com/story/tracers-in-the-dark-welcome-to-video-crypto-anonymity-myth/ https://www.wired.com/story/tracers-in-the-dark-welcome-to-v... Chainalysis had combined these techniques for de-anonymizing Bitcoin users with methods that allowed it to “cluster” addresses, showing that anywhere from dozens to millions of addresses sometimes belonged to a single person or organization. When coins from two or more addresses were spent in a single transaction, for instance, it revealed that whoever created that “multi-input” transaction must have control of both spender addresses, allowing Chainalysis to lump them into a single identity. In other cases, Chainalysis and its users could follow a “peel chain”—a process analogous to tracking a single wad of cash as a user repeatedly pulled it out, peeled off a few bills, and put it back in a different pocket. In those peel chains, bitcoins would be moved out of one address as a fraction was paid to a recipient and then the remainder returned to the spender at a “change” address. Distinguishing those change addresses could allow an investigator to follow a sum of money as it hopped from one address to the next, charting its path through the noise of Bitcoin’s blockchain.