Bitcoin Tracker launched by Longhash

Longhash, the Blockchain accelerator and cryptoanalyst, recently launched their very own Bitcoin tracker. The objective with this tracker is to “offer more peace of mind to investors, regulators and the general public,” to find the exact source of the Bitcoin in question.

“Cryptocurrencies can seem murky, Bitcoin transactions are pseudonymous, which makes them attractive to criminals,” compared to other financial services, argues Longhash. They also believe that a well-structured crypto-system which will bring in a wave of adoption in the future, it is essential to have the required tools to ensure transparency.

Most of the proponents of the new coins are pushing for a more privacy based system and not one where the origins of their digital currency are revealed. Their main aim is to curate cryptocurrencies to the non-traceability principles of hard cash, and hence this recent Bitcoin tracker does not seem very appealing to them.

This Bitcoin tracker can bring in large institutional money, and hence the above trend does not worry them. They state, “when you send money to a Bitcoin address, who exactly are you dealing with?”

Longhash further clarifies, “we are not revealing the identities of Bitcoin holders. We just hope to offer more peace of mind to investors, regulators and the general public. The mainstream perception that cryptocurrency is associated with crime is not good for the industry as a whole.”

Longhash provides two sets of bitcoin address searches, Fuzzy and Precise. The former will only require a “few characters of an address” to conduct its search, customized searched can also be done, like “10,000 richest bitcoin addresses.” The Precise search allows information like balances, sent and received amount and transaction history revealed upon entering the Bitcoin address.

Origins of the Bitcoin

“We rate addresses by analyzing their transactions as well as the addresses that it sends money to and receives money from. If we find, for example, that an address is transacting with another address that is affiliated with crime, the first address will get a lower rating. The higher the address rate, the more trustworthy the address,” said Longhash, with reference to its Address Rate.

To track the Bitcoins present in your wallet, Longhash has created four categories that classify the addresses that have sent cryptocurrencies your way. “We classified four main address types,” they further state, “the light-blue refers to a mixing service, which purposely disguises the source of a Bitcoin transaction. The darker blue refers to a cryptocurrency exchange. The magenta refers to a mining pool, and the orange refers to a gambling site. The light purple refers to an old address that is no longer in use.”

Concentric Circles showing Bitcoin Addresses

The charting of these classifications also provides a great deal of insight. The Bitcoin’s origin is known through the inner-inner ring. If its first 30 moves were through formal crypto-exchanges then the ring would be blue. If it has moved across crypto-exchanges and gambling sites than the ring would be a mix of purple and orange. In the example above, they claim that this particular Bitcoin “came from a combination of cryptocurrency exchanges, mixing services and mining pools, gambling sites.” They conclude by affirming, “by using this chart, you can see if a Bitcoin has any relationship to dirty money.”

See also: US SEC suspends Bitcoin Tracker One and Ether Tracker One