Chainalysis used its experience in the US Department of Justice’s case against Roman Sterlingoff, the co-founder of Bitcoin Fog, a cryptocurrency mixing service, who was convicted on money laundering charges in 2024 to shape its ontology.
During the trial, the judge overseeing the case held a hearing known as a Daubert hearing to determine whether Chainaracy’s Reactor tool was rigorous enough to be used as a prosecutorial tool. Ultimately, Judge Randolph Moss ruled that “there is substantial evidence to support the government’s submission that the software is reliable.”
The company claims that its methodology has a strong foundation, relying on the fact that its software has already been tested in trials.
Illum said multiple times that Chainalysis has published proposals to “start a dialogue” with the broader crypto industry about what the standards would look like, but other than some initial discussions with law enforcement, it is not actively seeking much feedback yet.
cluster
The ontology itself begins with the idea that current blockchain analysis tools rely on the concept of “clusters,” a term that “does not have universal meaning across the industry,” according to a copy of the document seen by CoinDesk.
Chainalysis breaks this concept down into different components, starting with the wallet segment, which can be used as a deposit address, change address, or many other functions.
