BitAnalysis: A Visualization System for Bitcoin Wallet Investigation

Bitcoin is gaining ever increasing popularity. However, professional skills are required if people want to check bitcoin transaction information from the blockchain. As pointed out in a recent study, there is a lack of tools to support effective interactive investigation of bitcoin transactions. Therefore, we present a novel visualization system, BitAnalysis, for interactive bitcoin wallet investigation. The analytical and visualization functions of BitAnalysis are defined and developed by following the advice and requirements of a group of entrepreneurs and regulators of bitcoin-related business. BitAnalysis provides a rich set of functions and intuitive visual interfaces for the users, such as law-enforcement officers and regulators, to effectively visualize and analyze the transactions of a bitcoin wallet (i.e., a cluster of bitcoin addresses) and its related wallets, to track the flow of bitcoins, and to identify wallet correlation using our novel clustering functions. To achieve these functions, we have designed new visualization techniques for presenting bitcoin transactions information and introduced the connection diagram and bitcoin flow map as new ways of analyzing, tracking and monitoring the trading activities of a cluster of closely related wallets. We also present an extensive user study that validated the effectiveness and usability of BitAnalysis.

Automated summary

Bitcoin is gaining popularity but lacks tools for effective investigation of transactions. To address this, we present BitAnalysis, a novel visualization system for interactive bitcoin wallet investigation. BitAnalysis was developed based on the advice and requirements of bitcoin-related entrepreneurs and regulators. It provides law-enforcement officers and regulators with intuitive visual interfaces and functions to analyze and track bitcoin transactions, identify wallet correlation, and visualize the flow of bitcoins. We also conducted a user study to validate the effectiveness and usability of BitAnalysis.