Attribution of Cryptocurrency Wallets to Nodes in the Bitcoin P2P Network

Abstract

Bitcoin is considered an anonymous transaction technology. Transactions are not directly linked to real names or physical identities of users. However, each transaction is recorded in the blockchain, which is publicly available and allows anyone to perform detailed analysis. This bachelor thesis deals with the issue of attributing cryptocurrency wallets to specific nodes in the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network. The aim of the thesis is to examine the process of transaction propagation between nodes, identify factors influencing their order and propagation speed, and propose methods that will allow estimating the original node responsible for creating or first sending the transaction. The theoretical part describes the basic mechanisms of transaction propagation in the network and analyzes anonymization and deanonymization techniques. The practical part focuses on the design and implementation of heuristics combining propagation time profiles with topological information about the network. For this purpose, a modular platform was developed in the .NET environment, which enables the analysis of data from the P2P network. The contribution of this work is the combination of theoretical principles of transaction propagation with the practical use of data from a real network and the extension of existing methods for analyzing anonymity in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency environment.