Social Networks are Divulging Your Identity behind Crypto Addresses

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are becoming increasingly prevalent mainly due to their anonymity, decentralization, transparency, and security. However, the completely public ledger makes the trace and analysis of each account possible as long as the identity behind the public address is revealed. Theoretically, social networks could make that happen when addresses are posted on social network platforms using accounts containing personal information. To verify such a possibility, we have collected public data from two major platforms, i.e. Twitter and Reddit, aiming to find potential privacy leakage behind the ETH public address. In the end, an easy-to-use retrieval application is also built for a better illustration.