Reading the chain
What addresses, wallets and transfers actually are, and what reading them lets you conclude.
Blockchain data is complete and narrow at the same time. Every transfer is recorded permanently and anyone can read it. Who held the keys, and why they moved the funds, is not recorded at all.
This section covers what the record contains, how to count it, and where the line sits between what you observed and what you worked out. Start here if onchain data is new to you.
In this section
Addresses and wallets
What an address is, what a wallet is, and where attribution comes from.
What a transfer is
What one transfer carries, and why two honest counts can disagree.
Why one customer has many addresses
Why one wallet means hundreds of addresses, and what a declaration captures.
What an address cannot tell you
The limits of the record, and where the rest of an investigation comes from.
Each step is a page. The last one is a limit, not a capability.
Last checked against the product on .