- Address
- A public identifier for a wallet on a blockchain — a string of characters anyone can look up. An address can receive funds and display a balance; knowing one gives no control over it.
- Attribution
- Linking an address or wallet to a service, organization, or person using corroborating records. Good attribution always carries a stated confidence level; it is an inference, not a fact, until records confirm it.
- Blockchain
- A public, append-only ledger of transactions. Once a transfer is recorded it cannot be edited or reversed by anyone — which is why tracing works, and why sending to a scammer cannot simply be undone.
- Bridge
- A service that moves value from one blockchain to another, locking or burning assets on one side and issuing equivalents on the other. Traces follow funds through bridges by matching timing and amounts.
- Chain of custody
- The documented record of how evidence was collected, stored, and handled. Reports that may reach a court or an insurer are built so every exhibit’s custody can be shown.
- Exchange
- A platform where crypto is bought, sold, and held. Regulated exchanges keep identity records (KYC) on account holders — which is why funds landing at an exchange are often the most actionable point in a trace.
- Freeze request
- A request, backed by an evidence bundle, asking an exchange to hold funds in a deposit account while ownership is resolved. Freezes are time-sensitive: they work best while the deposit is still sitting in the account.
- Mixer
- A service that pools many users’ funds and pays out different coins, breaking the obvious link between deposit and withdrawal. Mixer use complicates a trace but does not always end it — timing and amount correlation can still connect the two sides.
- Peel chain
- A series of transactions that repeatedly move most of the funds to a new address while “peeling” a small amount off to the side. A standard obfuscation pattern; patient hop-by-hop logging defeats it.
- Phishing
- A deception — a fake site, message, or approval request — that tricks a wallet holder into signing or sending. Most wallet drains begin with a phishing approval, not a technical hack.
- Private key & recovery phrase
- The secret credentials that control a wallet. The recovery phrase (12 or 24 words) can regenerate them. Whoever holds them controls the funds — which is why no legitimate investigator, bank, or court will ever ask for yours.
- Token approval
- A permission you grant a contract or service to move a token from your wallet. Malicious approvals are how drains repeat: revoking them is a first-day step after a compromise.
- Transaction hash TXID
- The unique identifier of a transaction on the blockchain. It is the citation behind every finding in our reports — with it, anyone can pull up the exact transfer and check our work.
- Wallet
- Software or hardware that holds the keys to your addresses. A wallet does not hold coins the way a purse holds cash; the assets live on the blockchain, and the wallet holds the means to move them.
- Watch-only wallet
- A wallet view that imports a public address and displays its balance but holds no private key — nothing in it can be spent from that device. Scammers present watch-only balances as “your recovered funds.” Seeing a balance is not owning it.