IDFEInstitute of Digital Forensic Examiners
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IDFE-BA · Free

Certified Blockchain Analyst

8h · 7 modules · 42 lessons

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Course contents

01 Reading raw blockchain data

  1. 1.1 The analyst's view of a blockchain
  2. 1.2 Blocks and headers as data
  3. 1.3 Raw Bitcoin transactions
  4. 1.4 Raw Ethereum transactions, receipts and logs
  5. 1.5 Node APIs and data access
  6. 1.6 Data quality, normalization and provenance

02 UTXO and account models

  1. 2.1 The UTXO model for analysts
  2. 2.2 Script types and address formats
  3. 2.3 The account model for analysts
  4. 2.4 Reconstructing balances and histories
  5. 2.5 Layer 2s, sidechains and bridges as data sources
  6. 2.6 Other chain designs analysts meet

03 Building transaction graphs

  1. 3.1 Transaction graphs: nodes, edges and direction
  2. 3.2 Tracing funds forward and backward
  3. 3.3 Graph metrics and patterns
  4. 3.4 Following value through exchanges and services
  5. 3.5 Mixers, CoinJoin and obfuscation in graphs
  6. 3.6 Cross-chain tracing

04 Clustering heuristics and their limits

  1. 4.1 What clustering is and why it matters
  2. 4.2 The common-input ownership heuristic
  3. 4.3 Change detection heuristics
  4. 4.4 Account-model heuristics
  5. 4.5 Attribution and labeling
  6. 4.6 Evaluating cluster quality

05 Token, NFT and smart contract flows

  1. 5.1 Reading token transfers
  2. 5.2 NFTs and multi-token standards
  3. 5.3 Decoding smart contract interactions
  4. 5.4 DEX swaps and liquidity flows
  5. 5.5 Lending, bridges and protocol accounting
  6. 5.6 Analyzing exploits and hacks

06 Querying chains with SQL

  1. 6.1 The analytics data stack
  2. 6.2 SQL foundations for blockchain tables
  3. 6.3 Joins, window functions and CTEs for flows
  4. 6.4 Querying UTXO data
  5. 6.5 Querying EVM logs and traces
  6. 6.6 Performance, cost and reproducibility

07 Analytical reporting

  1. 7.1 From question to hypothesis
  2. 7.2 Confidence, uncertainty and language
  3. 7.3 Visualizing flows and graphs
  4. 7.4 Writing the analytical report
  5. 7.5 Data protection, ethics and responsible disclosure
  6. 7.6 Case study: an end-to-end investigation