A Survey on Bitcoin Deanonymization

Abstract

Blockchain has become a technology and business disruptor with a significant potential for both use and misuse. The distributed architecture combined with the integrity assurance given by the hash as well as the anonymity provided because of the use of identity derived from the public key has made this a revolutionary combination. The positive popularity is because of the anonymity it provides to the transactions and the same is also the reason that regulators, governments, and law enforcement authorities the world over are genuinely concerned about it. Hence it is essential for anyone who wants to track this technology to understand the depth of anonymity it provides. In this paper, we survey, analyse and present the methods by which it is possible to deanonymize and reveal the identity of interesting entities of bitcoin transactions.