From Address Clustering to Evidence Standards: Chainalysis Redefines Blockchain Tracing
Chainalysis has unveiled the "Blockchain Tracing Ontology" (BTO) data framework to establish a unified, transparent, and verifiable standard for blockchain analysis. Inconsistencies in address clustering across different tools have long hampered forensic investigations and regulatory compliance, with conflicting results from the same transaction data.
The new framework replaces the traditional "Cluster" concept with a hierarchical "Wallet Fragment" model, providing a more granular and standardized approach to address aggregation. Additionally, BTO mandates documenting the source of evidence, reasoning process, and confidence level for each analysis step, aiming to elevate on-chain tracing to a level of evidence acceptable in court and interoperable across institutions. This standardization effort is expected to drive the blockchain forensics industry toward a more rigorous evidence chain.