Bitcoin Forum

Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: boulderchain on July 22, 2018, 05:03:15 PM



Title: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: boulderchain on July 22, 2018, 05:03:15 PM
Are there any tools available which I can use to track the flow of multiple addresses. E.g.: I would like to analyse my own addresses and payment flows.


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: MadGamer on July 22, 2018, 05:33:50 PM
What do you exactly mean by that? If you want just want to see the transactions that you're sending and receiving then you could create a watch-only wallet in Electrum.


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: boulderchain on July 22, 2018, 06:31:02 PM
What do you exactly mean by that? If you want just want to see the transactions that you're sending and receiving then you could create a watch-only wallet in Electrum.

Let's take this article for example.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608716/bitcoin-transactions-arent-as-anonymous-as-everyone-hoped/

Quote
Web merchants routinely leak data about purchases. And that can make it straightforward to link individuals with their Bitcoin purchases, say cybersecurity researchers.

Just out of interest, I would like to take for example one of my purchases and see how much other purchases I can link.

Or the other way around, how did they manage to link individuals to their bitcoin purchases? They must have used some tools and I want to know which one they used and if they are available.


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: Kallisteiros on July 22, 2018, 07:02:18 PM
Quote
Web merchants routinely leak data about purchases. And that can make it straightforward to link individuals with their Bitcoin purchases, say cybersecurity researchers.
Use blockchain explorers, like blockchain.info (http://blockchain.info)

Quote
Just out of interest, I would like to take for example one of my purchases and see how much other purchases I can link.
As far as I know, there are companies that focus on blockchain analysis, with one of the most famous being https://www.chainalysis.com/. They usually use their own software + standard Bitcoin Core nodes to gather information.


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: pooya87 on July 23, 2018, 03:58:04 AM
Quote
Web merchants routinely leak data about purchases. And that can make it straightforward to link individuals with their Bitcoin purchases, say cybersecurity researchers.
Use blockchain explorers, like blockchain.info (http://blockchain.info)

Quote
Just out of interest, I would like to take for example one of my purchases and see how much other purchases I can link.
As far as I know, there are companies that focus on blockchain analysis, with one of the most famous being https://www.chainalysis.com/. They usually use their own software + standard Bitcoin Core nodes to gather information.

in most cases it is nearly impossible to use a block explorer like blockchain.info to analyze the blockchain and see where the payments come from and go to next.

and regarding  chainanalysis, that is not a free service, and i don't think they just give anyone a demo. use https://www.walletexplorer.com/ instead, it is the same company and it is free online tool.


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: boulderchain on July 23, 2018, 05:24:49 PM
Quote
Web merchants routinely leak data about purchases. And that can make it straightforward to link individuals with their Bitcoin purchases, say cybersecurity researchers.
Use blockchain explorers, like blockchain.info (http://blockchain.info)


Like pooya87 said, you can't really analyse addresses and the flow over mulitple transactions with the explorer.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like that there is open source software available for this.


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: Kallisteiros on July 23, 2018, 05:49:49 PM
Like pooya87 said, you can't really analyse addresses and the flow over mulitple transactions with the explorer.
Well it seems I have wrongly assumed you haven't heard of explorers, my bad. Everybody starts analysis from there (blockchain data), you just won't get insider information about the ownership of these addresses on a silver platter that investigators have access to.


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: boulderchain on July 25, 2018, 02:54:38 PM
Like pooya87 said, you can't really analyse addresses and the flow over mulitple transactions with the explorer.
Well it seems I have wrongly assumed you haven't heard of explorers, my bad. Everybody starts analysis from there (blockchain data), you just won't get insider information about the ownership of these addresses on a silver platter that investigators have access to.

That's basically what I am searching. I want a beautiful analysis on a silver plate ;-)


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: Kallisteiros on July 25, 2018, 04:38:05 PM
That's basically what I am searching. I want a beautiful analysis on a silver plate ;-)
And for free, you forgot to add :)


Title: Re: Open source tools to track bitcoin flows
Post by: boulderchain on July 26, 2018, 02:48:02 PM
That's basically what I am searching. I want a beautiful analysis on a silver plate ;-)
And for free, you forgot to add :)

Of course. I love the idea of FOSS. This is the only way to work in a productive way.