Following the digital breadcrumbs and graphing the blockchain

· 2 min read

Breadcrumbs is a blockchain analytics platform accessible to everyone. It offers a range of tools for investigating, monitoring, tracking, and sharing relevant information on blockchain transactions.

Inspired by the tale of Hansel and Gretel, our brand is committed to helping users find their way through the blockchain by following the digital breadcrumbs.

A visualization of the ransom payment made for the colonial pipeline hack from payment to fund seizure by the FBI as shown in Breadcrumbs investigation tool

Tale as old as (crypto) scams

In 2018, Lorne Lantz was scammed by an ICO that led him to lose the funds he and his family invested. He approached existing blockchain analytics companies who told him they could only assist him if he paid a step fee of almost $30,000. Upset that this system further victimizes individuals who do not come from money, he decided to build his own blockchain analytics tools to ensure that anyone can investigate the blockchain and vowed to make it free and accessible to everyone.

These tools are made available to the public as Breadcrumbs.

Following the digital breadcrumbs

Despite having free blockchain explorers that allow you to view blockchain data, Breadcrumbs wanted to take it a step further by letting its users visualize and understand blockchain transactions even when they do not have a technical background. Relational databases are great, but a graph database solves this better as it helps you get a bigger picture of causality and causation.

Breadcrumbs decided to reach out to GraphAware to help in visualizing blockchain data using Neo4j - a graph database management system the company was learning while using. With the expertise of the GraphAware team, they were able to guide us in designing the database schema that crunches 6 billion crypto transactions and organizes it in a way that our tools can update and show data in a matter of seconds.

Following crypto transactions has never been made easier! Breadcrumbs tools are very intuitive and easy to use. Whether you’re a journalist investigating cryptocrimes, an auditor at an accounting firm, an ICO investor conducting due diligence, or a casual crypto enthusiast tracking the movement of funds – our tools are made for everyone.

Living happily ever after in a (decentralized) kingdom not far away

Breadcrumbs continue to commit to the ethos of the blockchain. As the world endeavors to push our digital boundaries and innovate, the values of transparency, accessibility and community will be embedded in everything we do.

Breadcrumbs seek to help build a community that values the trustless nature of the blockchain and, in the process, self-regulates and self-polices. To help us get there, we understand the importance of partnerships such as that with GraphAware to move us forward – together.

We have been closely watching the development of Hume as a unified platform for knowledge-graph exploration; it could very well be the go-to solution for any graph-based fraud detection cases. Ask GraphAware for a demo or discovery call here: https://www.graphaware.com/contact/humedemo/.

Rieya Piscano - Chief Data Officer at Breadcrumbs