Blockchain Visualization

Bitcoin has become the center of attention in recent years, the blockchain has experienced exponential growth since its introduction in 2009. Satoshi Nakamoto hoped to create a decentralized system where users do not need to trust a central authority. Ever since then, Bitcoin has been used to buy all sorts of items, ranging from a benign pizza to illicit drugs and services. In this presentation we will explore some novel ways of taint analysis and the challenges associated with our methodology. We introduce two heuristics, one which allows us to more easily explore the blockchain from output to input (as opposed to input to output). We also introduce a heuristic to assign taint to bitcoin addresses we think might be suspicious. We also intend to produce a visualization that we hope can be used to spot patterns associated with illicit activities or any mixing services.