A Study of Existing Approaches to Transaction Analysis in the Bitcoin Network

Abstract

Today, the Bitcoin network faces a number of challenges, such as flawed user identification and fraudulent transaction methods that are used by criminals to conduct illegal activities. As a result, there is a growing need to improve existing tools for tracking transactions, as well as to develop new methods for identifying money in the Bitcoin network. The paper presents a study and systematization of the subject area problems, and also considers possible approaches to neutralize it. The purpose of this work is to analyze the existing methods of transaction verification of the Bitcoin network. Within the framework of the work, a system architecture is proposed, which includes a comprehensive approach to the process of transaction analysis. Each of the stages of this process is described: information gathering, aggregation, processing and analysis. An extended set of empirical rules (heuristics) for transaction analysis, which are used in existing clustering methods, is considered. The results of this work will provide an opportunity to improve the existing Bitcoin transaction verification methods and develop a new one with the possibility of increasing the efficiency of the process of identification of illegally obtained funds and their sources.