Bitcoin Users Warned of Government Scrutiny Through Public Block Explorers

A warning has been issued to Bitcoin users to avoid entering their own wallet addresses into public block explorers, as it can expose their IP address and potentially lead to government scrutiny.

Public block explorers allow anyone to enter an address or transaction identifier to retrieve records from a blockchain. However, the operators of these websites may collect connection details and requested page data, which could be linked to specific queries.

The policies of several popular block explorers have been examined, revealing varying practices in collecting and retaining visitor information.

WalletExplorer, for instance, explicitly states that it shares visitor information with other Chainalysis business lines and service providers, while mempool.space says its nginx webserver logs collect IP addresses together with requests made to the site. However, only WalletExplorer documents a relationship with Chainalysis through corporate ownership and internal sharing.