A Survey of Anonymity of Cryptocurrencies

Abstract

The concept of virtual currencies is an emerging, and perhaps unexpected development in the modern financial world. Bitcoin can be regarded as the first successful virtual currency, followed by many other implementations. Analogous to paper currencies, it is apparent that privacy and anonymity are two pivotal considerations that affect the adoption of virtual currencies by users. However, many studies have identified several problems associated with the privacy and anonymity of Bitcoin. Consequently, a large number of attempts have been made to address these issues, yet it has been proven that many such solutions do not provide an acceptable level of anonymity. This survey presents an account of the level of anonymity achieved through those and attempts to provide a comparative evaluation across different constructions.