Tracking funds on a blockchain has typically required specialized tools, and the process can sometimes be opaque, but crypto analytics firm Chainalysis is taking a swing at solving that\u00a0problem.<\/p>\n
The company rolled out an ontology outlining how investigators can trace funds to wallet clusters and identify which wallets might be under the control of the same entity, in the hopes of creating a standard that law enforcement entities can use in investigations, it said in a blog post published Monday.<\/p>\n
Jacob Illum, Chainalysis\u2019 chief scientist, told CoinDesk on a call that the ontology is aimed at establishing standards for blockchain analytics to reassure investigators or prosecutors about the usefulness of the data they might use in a\u00a0case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was the one who needed this information to actually either convict on or prosecute or investigate, what would I want a tool to do?\u201d Illum said of how he approached the proposal. \u201c\u2026 what\u2019s supported by the data? That\u2019s my job, to tell an investigator as much as possible what you can do with what the data tells\u00a0us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chainalysis used its experience in the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s case against Roman Sterlingov, the co-founder of crypto mixing service Bitcoin Fog, who was convicted on money laundering charges in 2024, to shape its ontology.<\/p>\n
During the trial, the judge overseeing the case held what\u2019s known as a Daubert hearing to determine whether Chainalysis\u2019 Reactor tool was rigorous enough to be used as a prosecutorial tool. Ultimately, Judge Randolph Moss ruled that \u201csubstantial evidence supports the government\u2019s submission that the software is highly reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company is leaning on the fact that its software has already been tested in a trial to argue that it has a strong foundation for its methodology.<\/p>\n
Illum said multiple times that Chainalysis was publishing its proposal to \u201cstart that conversation\u201d with the broader crypto industry about what standards could look like, but hasn\u2019t actively solicited much feedback yet, beyond some initial discussions with law enforcement groups.<\/p>\n
The ontology itself starts with the idea that current blockchain analytics tools rely on the concept of a \u201ccluster,\u201d and this term \u201cdoes not have a universal meaning across the industry,\u201d according to a copy of the document viewed by CoinDesk.<\/p>\n
Chainalysis breaks down the concept into different components, starting with wallet segments, which in turn might be used as a deposit address, change address or a number of other functions.<\/p>\n
Crypto analytics firm Chainalysis proposes standards for blockchain tracing<\/a> was originally published in Coinmonks<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tracking funds on a blockchain has typically required specialized tools, and the process can sometimes be opaque, but crypto analytics firm Chainalysis is taking a swing at solving that\u00a0problem. The company rolled out an ontology outlining how investigators can trace funds to wallet clusters and identify which wallets might be under the control of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":189978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/189978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}