Part of press release:
Our Bitcoin Big Bang visualisation summarises the entire six-year history of all bitcoin transactions – as recorded in the 35 gigabyte blockchain ledger. What insights can be extracted from data, and why are we doing this?
Elliptic is working to counter the illicit use of bitcoin, by providing businesses with tools that can analyse cryptocurrency payments and determine whether they are likely to be proceeds of crime. By identifying dark marketplaces, known thefts and other illicit activity on the blockchain we can help businesses to prevent money laundering.
Importantly, we are not using this data to invade users’ privacy, and we have removed identifying information from many of the entities in the visualisation. Neither are we passing judgement on any activity – we are simply providing businesses with information about links to criminal activity, in order to inform their compliance decisions.
Dark marketplaces such as Silk Road have dominated the media portrayal of bitcoin – and it’s certainly true that in the early days of bitcoin there were significant transaction volumes involving these Tor-based sites…
