A Framework for Tracing the Real Identity of a Bitcoin Scammer

Abstract

Bitcoin stores its transaction details in an open distributed public ledger. In cryptocurrencies, the real identity of a user is hidden, and the only information about a user publicly available is his public address, which is not linkable to his real identity, and the transactions are sent to the public address. Among all the cryptocurrencies, bitcoin is renowned for providing the highest anonymity. This feature is exploited by the scammers and illegal users to perform their illegal transactions anonymously. To rein in such illegal activities, it is essential to expose the real identity of bitcoin users. In this paper, we propose a technique to trace the real identity of a bitcoin user. In this technique, the blockchain maintains a public ledger where every transaction of that chain is recorded and anyone within the blockchain can monitor that. The proposed platform will have a tracker for tracking a bitcoin user. A victim submits a complain to the platform giving the pubic address of the scammer. The platform continues to track the scammer. The proposed technique exposes the user identity exploiting the bitcoin and real-world currency conversion scenarios. While the existing transaction tracing techniques require the IP address and/or absence of the mixing services, the proposed technique is free of such kinds of requirements.