Svmuu News: Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has released a new methodological proposal aimed at establishing a unified on-chain fund-tracking framework for law enforcement agencies and investigators to identify address clusters and determine potential control relationships.
The proposal defines the structure of on-chain analysis in the form of an “ontology.” At its core, it systematically breaks down the concept of “clusters” (groups of addresses)—for which the industry currently lacks unified standards—into wallet segments and functional roles, and describes on-chain relationships through a two-tier structure: The first layer defines the transaction graph structure, while the second layer evaluates the confidence level of inferences.
Chainalysis stated that the framework aims to enhance the interpretability and legal admissibility of on-chain forensic methods. Its design was validated based on the company’s practical experience in relevant cases handled by the U.S. Department of Justice, including its application in the analysis of the Bitcoin Fog mixing service case. Jacob Illum, the company’s chief scientist, noted that the proposal aims to answer the question, “On what evidentiary basis can these addresses be considered to belong to the same entity?” However, he emphasized that on-chain analysis alone cannot directly identify end-users and must still be combined with legal investigative tools from centralized entities such as exchanges.
Chainalysis stated that the proposed standard is currently open for industry discussion, with the hope of fostering more unified technical specifications for on-chain analysis methods in the fields of law enforcement and compliance. (CoinDesk)