Identity Discovery in Bitcoin Blockchain

Abstract

Blockchain-based systems such as the one proposed to support the Bitcoin protocol are primarily used to enable the execution of financial transactions in a decentralized manner. The characteristics of blockchains have inspired the development of new types of applications that are shifting from its original purpose. Besides supporting the recording of crypto-currency transactions blockchains are also being exploited as mediums of recording arbitrary chunks of data. One technique for embedding such data on the public Bitcoin blockchain is using the OP_RETURN opcode creating an unspendable transaction.