Bitcoin Transactions – Are They Traceable?

Many government authorities, such as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, have expressed concern about criminals and terrorists using cryptocurrencies.

With the rapid development of the crypto space, this notion has become a significant exaggeration. Less than one percent of all bitcoin usage is associated with unlawful and criminal activity, according to a report published nearly two years ago by a cryptocurrency business called Elliptic.

Since it is so difficult to trace the origins of laundered funds, it has long been a preferred method of funding criminal enterprises. Because cash is physically transferred, there is almost no way to determine where it came from or where it went because of the lack of a paper trail.

When contrast to Bitcoin, tracking down a transaction's origin and destination is a breeze.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, this article will go into the level of traceability that surrounds Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies functioning around the world.

Determining the History of Bitcoin Transactions

Like I indicated earlier, Bitcoin transactions can be traced with relative ease. Information about every Bitcoin transaction is kept and saved on what is termed a ledger, often popularly known as a blockchain, which is accessible to the public. This is so even though Bitcoin can be created, transferred, and stored independently of any central authority.

In practice, it is possible to trace every single Bitcoin back to its original owner and the person who currently has it. However, it's important to remember that the blockchain only stores the public address of digital cryptocurrency wallets, which may or may not correspond to the actual proprietor of the wallet.

This effectively transforms Bitcoin into something closer to pseudonymous than true anonymity. For the purposes of exchanging Bitcoins on a particular Bitcoin network, a "Bitcoin wallet address" is essentially a special form of coded address. It's equivalent to a username or account number in email or banking contexts.

Moreover, with the advent of Bitcoin explorers, it is now very difficult to conduct Bitcoin transactions under a completely anonymous identity, as was noted above in the section on blockchain.

Bitcoin explorers are tools that assist bring to light the transactions taking place on the Bitcoin blockchain, making it possible for anybody to see the full path of a Bitcoin's journey from its initial wallet to its final recipient. With such a public ledger, keeping tabs on Bitcoin transactions is a breeze. The blockchain can be thought of as a transparent database.

When we compare Ethereum and Solana, two other prominent cryptocurrencies, we see that they, too, have explorers that make their blockchains public. Etherscan is the name of the Ethereum explorer, while SolScan is the name of its Solana counterpart.

These explorers make it simple to trace blockchain transactions, revealing details like the sending and receiving addresses and the total value of cryptocurrency exchanged. Despite this, many people persist in the myth that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can be used to perform totally anonymous transactions.

One thing to consider is that Bitcoin was originally conceived as a mechanism to protect users' anonymity. Bitcoin's supposed anonymity stems from the fact that its users can generate a wallet address online without disclosing their true identities.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the man behind Bitcoin, pointed out in the original whitepaper that wallet addresses could be used to track down individual profiles that lead to a common identity, and he himself recommended that Bitcoin users should use a fresh address to perform each transaction, helping them in maintain a good level of privacy, but it is important to remember that the transaction itself cannot be hidden in the blockchain.

Aspects that Allow for the Tracking of Bitcoin Transactions

As has been made abundantly evident, it is possible to trace Bitcoin transactions with ease since the Blockchain that underpins the cryptocurrency keeps a transparent record that can be viewed by everyone.

Over the past decade, numerous studies have been conducted on this topic. However, the capacity to conduct a transaction with complete anonymity does not exist, particularly when it comes to the fundamental notions of a blockchain ledger, which will continue to be completely open and accessible to anybody interested in looking.