Glossary Archive - CipherTrace

A 51% attack is an attack in which malicious actors gain control over 51 percent of nodes in a network. In Bitcoin, Proof-of-Work (PoW) has been the main method of securing against double-spend attacks. A 51% attack on PoW means that malicious actors controlling more than 50% of the network’s mining hash can use this…

In a cryptocurrency context, an address is a cryptographic key that “owns” bitcoins or another cryptocurrency. This address is use to uniquely identify the cryptocurrency funds. The person or persons who know the corresponding private key can send those funds to any other address on the blockchain. The cryptographic keys that control an address are…

The word “altcoin” is an abbreviation of “Bitcoin alternative,” and thus describes every single cryptocurrency except for Bitcoin. Altcoins are referred to as Bitcoin alternatives because – at least to some extent – most altcoins hope to either replace or improve upon at least one Bitcoin component. Popular altcoins include Litecoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin etc.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules are in place to help protect against and report suspicious activity regarding financial transactions. These rules mainly focus on those actions which predicate money laundering, terrorist funding, market manipulation, and securities fraud.

What is an ASIC? Short for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, an ASIC is a dedicated piece of hardware used for – in this context – cryptocurrency mining. ASICs are designed with a singular purpose in mind: to mine a certain cryptocurrency using that currency’s specific algorithm. Each cryptocurrency has its own algorithm through which it enforces…

A Bitcoin ATM (Automated Teller Machine) is a business who operates physical kiosks that allow a person to purchase Bitcoin by using cash or debit card. Some Bitcoin ATMs offer bi-directional functionality enabling both the purchase of Bitcoin as well as the sale of Bitcoin for cash. In some cases, Bitcoin ATMs providers require users…

Simply put, an atomic swap is the exchange of one type of cryptocurrency for another, like bitcoin swapped for ethereum, without the supervision of a trusted third party. A relatively new notion, cross-chain atomic swapping looks to change the way users transact with one another. In order to prevent one user withholding their agreed upon…

Attribution is the process of attributing otherwise unhelpful data (account numbers, addresses, etc.) to real-world people, entities, and events. Attribution data points on cryptocurrency addresses include information such as account type, account holders, contract types, contract owners, and other metadata. CipherTrace Attribution aggregates and curates millions of open source and private references, geolocation data, decoy…

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) is U.S. legislation aimed toward preventing criminals from using financial institutions to hide or launder money. Among other things, the law requires financial institutions to provide documentation to regulators whenever their clients deal with suspicious cash transactions involving sums over $10,000.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is the primary global standard setter for the prudential regulation of banks. The mandate of the BCBS is to strengthen the regulation, supervision, and practices of banks/financial institutions worldwide with the purpose of enhancing financial stability. The BCBS does not possess any formal supranational authority. There is no…