BlockTag: Design and applications of a tagging system for blockchain analysis
Yazan Boshmaf, Husam Al Jawaheri, Mashael Al Sabah

TL;DR
BlockTag is an open-source system designed to annotate blockchain data, aiding investigations and privacy research by linking addresses to online activities and facilitating complex analysis tasks.
Contribution
It introduces a novel tagging system for blockchains, enabling enhanced analysis and investigation capabilities not previously available.
Findings
Demonstrated BlockTag's effectiveness in privacy research
Applied BlockTag to law enforcement case studies
Showcased the system's ability to link addresses to online activities
Abstract
Annotating blockchains with auxiliary data is useful for many applications. For example, e-crime investigations of illegal Tor hidden services, such as Silk Road, often involve linking Bitcoin addresses, from which money is sent or received, to user accounts and related online activities. We present BlockTag, an open-source tagging system for blockchains that facilitates such tasks. We describe BlockTag's design and present three analyses that illustrate its capabilities in the context of privacy research and law enforcement.
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Taxonomy
TopicsBlockchain Technology Applications and Security · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection · Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data
