Anonymity in Cryptocurrency

A cryptocurrency is a decentralised digital currency that utilises blockchain technology to remove the role of a central authority. Monero is one of the cryptocurrencies that improves its anonymity by employing privacy-preserving cryptographic techniques, such as linkable ring signature. In this thesis, we explore three areas in Monero system that can cause anonymity problems. These areas are Monero transaction creation protocol, Monero protocol update, and Monero third-party services. We identify attack schemes to reduce honest users' transaction anonymity. We then investigate the impact of Monero protocol updates to transaction anonymity. Lastly, we study wallet service providers that can trace Monero transactions and mining pools that leak information.