How are transactions in the bitcoin network tracked?

Who can track the transaction?

The simplest transaction tracking solutions are provided by numerous Bitcoin blockchain block observers. Usually, they are used when they want to make sure that the operation was successful, and not hung in unconfirmed.

At the same time, everyone can become a little detective and using these online platforms in a few clicks get information about previously completed transactions with a specific bitcoin address, its current balance, the amounts passed through it or address lists for input and output operations. Specify transaction identifier data (TXID, TxHash), address, hash, or block height in the block browser search line and you will instantly know their status.

Try to get started with block browsers from Block Explorer or Blockchain.com. OXT, Token View, Blockcypher, Insight, Sochain and Blockstream Bitcoin Explorer also provide similar data with different display options. Using Cryptocurrency Alerting, you can set up activity alerts for yourself from the address of interest, and the Blockseer tool will allow you to “follow Bitcoin” by visualizing the relationships between the addresses involved in the transaction.

Can I hide from tracking?

Given the pseudo-anonymous nature of bitcoin, it is worth remembering that measures to counteract transaction tracking give only relative effectiveness. Even such a popular Bitcoin transaction anonymization technology as CoinJoin, which combines several transfers of different users into one transaction with a large number of outputs and does not require transferring bitcoins to a third-party service, does not guarantee complete anonymity. After all, the inputs and outputs will still be reflected in the network, and transactions can be identified using the coinjoinsudoku toolkit.

Nevertheless, such measures should not be neglected so as not to become an easy victim of crypto fraudsters. For example, in some cases, you can generate a new address for each new transaction or counterparty, put a ban on sending confidential transactions through accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges and use wallets with closed source code.

What do Bitcoin network addresses look like?

Bitcoin addresses are a series of Latin letters and numbers and do not contain information about the names of their owners, creating a false sense of complete anonymity among users. However, transactions are recorded on the Bitcoin network without encryption, which means that they can be tracked.

Much depends on how the address is used and what traces of activities with its use remain on the network. For example, transactions by a bitcoin address posted in the owner’s signature in an e-mail or on forums are pretty easy to track.

And if it was created in a separate system with access to the Internet via the anonymous TOR network and credited bitcoins exclusively from a mining pool like Eligius, which does not require registration to get started, the task is much more complicated.

However, using serious analytical tools and spending some time and resources, you can get close to the owner of bitcoins.