Were these individuals just sloppy (probably) or is there some kind of forensic analysis that can be performed blockchains to trace the path of tokens/funds/credits through a mixer?
Although I know nothing about crypto, blockchain, defi, I imagine credits/tokens/funds can be split and merged in every imaginable way by a "mixer" and transactions can probably occur across different blockchains via exchanges as well as occur outside in the real world, but I'm curious about any sort of signal that might be extracted from such analysis, other than signals arising from just pure sloppiness.
BTW, I'm not disputing your asserting about being able to track people... more about breadcrumbs in general, even if they're anonymous.
Chainalysis had combined these techniques for de-anonymizing Bitcoin users with methods that allowed it to “cluster” addresses, showing that anywhere from dozens to millions of addresses sometimes belonged to a single person or organization. When coins from two or more addresses were spent in a single transaction, for instance, it revealed that whoever created that “multi-input” transaction must have control of both spender addresses, allowing Chainalysis to lump them into a single identity. In other cases, Chainalysis and its users could follow a “peel chain”—a process analogous to tracking a single wad of cash as a user repeatedly pulled it out, peeled off a few bills, and put it back in a different pocket. In those peel chains, bitcoins would be moved out of one address as a fraction was paid to a recipient and then the remainder returned to the spender at a “change” address. Distinguishing those change addresses could allow an investigator to follow a sum of money as it hopped from one address to the next, charting its path through the noise of Bitcoin’s blockchain.
The whole premise is that you put money in and are given some different money out. But where does your money that you originally put in go? If it went to North Korea, congratulations on your crime.
