Chainalysis Unveils Draft Blockchain Tracing Standards

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has released a blockchain tracking ontology proposal aimed at establishing industry standards for on-chain address clustering and tracking. The document breaks down "clusters" (address groups) into finer structures like "wallet segments" and proposes a two-layer framework: the first layer builds address relationship graphs, while the second layer marks the credibility of analysis, to help law enforcement and procuratorial bodies determine whether the data can be used in case handling. Chainalysis drew on its practical experience in the U.S. Department of Justice’s money laundering case against Roman Sterlingov, co-founder of mixing service Bitcoin Fog. A judge in the case ruled its Reactor tool was "highly reliable" following a Daubert hearing. The company emphasized that on-chain analysis alone cannot directly identify end users’ identities, requiring coordination with offline information such as court subpoenas, and called on the industry to conduct independent reviews and provide feedback on its methodologies.