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Were these individuals just sloppy (probably) or is there some kind of forensic analysis that can be performed blockchains to trace the path of tokens/funds/credits through a mixer?
Although I know nothing about crypto, blockchain, defi, I imagine credits/tokens/funds can be split and merged in every imaginable way by a "mixer" and transactions can probably occur across different blockchains via exchanges as well as occur outside in the real world, but I'm curious about any sort of signal that might be extracted from such analysis, other than signals arising from just pure sloppiness.
BTW, I'm not disputing your asserting about being able to track people... more about breadcrumbs in general, even if they're anonymous.
Chainalysis had combined these techniques for de-anonymizing Bitcoin users with methods that allowed it to “cluster” addresses, showing that anywhere from dozens to millions of addresses sometimes belonged to a single person or organization. When coins from two or more addresses were spent in a single transaction, for instance, it revealed that whoever created that “multi-input” transaction must have control of both spender addresses, allowing Chainalysis to lump them into a single identity. In other cases, Chainalysis and its users could follow a “peel chain”—a process analogous to tracking a single wad of cash as a user repeatedly pulled it out, peeled off a few bills, and put it back in a different pocket. In those peel chains, bitcoins would be moved out of one address as a fraction was paid to a recipient and then the remainder returned to the spender at a “change” address. Distinguishing those change addresses could allow an investigator to follow a sum of money as it hopped from one address to the next, charting its path through the noise of Bitcoin’s blockchain.
The whole premise is that you put money in and are given some different money out. But where does your money that you originally put in go? If it went to North Korea, congratulations on your crime.
I merely sold 5000 euros worth of bitcoin to a Chinese OTC exchanger. There wasn't any real legal theory behind the charges. The court and prosecutor just assumed without any evidence that 1) the money must have been from criminal source and 2) I was using the Chinese exchanger specifically to obscure the source of those funds and not because he was someone I'd been working with since before cryptocurrencies existed.
I received a suspended sentence, wasn't worth appealing to recover the 5000 euros. Wasn't gonna get rid of the suspended sentence, there were counts I was totally guilty of.
