Blockchain analytics company Elliptic said that its researchers have made progress in leveraging artificial intelligence to detect money laundering in Bitcoin.
Instead of identifying transactions made by criminals, a machine learning model is trained to recognize “subgraphs” – which are essentially chains of transactions indicating Bitcoin laundering. This method concentrates on identifying these subgraphs rather than illicit wallets, allowing Elliptic to concentrate on the broader “multi-hop” laundering process instead of the specific on-chain actions of individual criminals.
“We have barely scratched the surface of what is possible in this domain, but this work has already led to benefits for Elliptic’s users. Further collaboration and data-sharing will be key to advancing these techniques further and combating financial crime in cryptoassets.”AI tools are slowly showing exceptional capability in analyzing extensive data sets to flag patterns beyond human perception, such as identifying illegal money movements within the Bitcoin economy.