Etherscan, one of the most popular block explorers for the Ethereum blockchain, has released a new tool meant to help users identify tainted addresses called ETHProtect.
The new tool traces tainted funds down to their origin, and keeps track of them on the blockchain so users know when they’re dealing with an address that has received funds associated with fraudulent activities, phishing schemes, hacks, scams, or exploits.
ETHProtectj uses a so-called Taint Inference Analysis Engine, which according to Etherscan can “modify parameters and identify tainted addresses for each unique scenario as addresses can be compromised under various circumstances. The system is complemented with an off-chain database of addresses.
Announcing the feature, Etherscan wrote:
With an increasing number of scams, hacks and fraudulent activities, we aim to identify potential tainted addresses and to make available this information to all our end users.
The system behind the tool whitelists addresses associated with well-known projects on the Ethereum blockchain, preventing them from being identified as false positives. Users who believe their addresses may have been identified as false positives may also contact Etherscan directly for assistance.
As an example, Etherscan pointed to an address that has about 9,000 ether, currently worth $1.2 million, from the Upbit hack. The address has a warning at the top of the page asking user to “exercise caution when interacting with this address,” and has a flashing red shield users can click on to find out more about the funds’ movements.
Featured image via Pixabay.
