Revisiting Anonymity and Privacy of Bitcoin

Abstract

Since its introduction, Bitcoin has received extensive attentions. With features like privacy and anonymity, Bitcoin has been widely used. However, the mainstream finance and business worlds have not fully embraced Bitcoin yet. This study analyzes the assumption of anonymity and privacy of Bitcoin, give a threat model to Bitcoin privacy. Then present a comprehensive overview on practical attacks on anonymity and privacy of Bitcoin and proposals to improve anonymity of Bitcoin. Compare the state of-the-art proposals that address the privacy threats and enables strong privacy in Bitcoin. Finally, future research directions on privacy of Bitcoin are discussed.