0
If I was to search the blockchain for address X, then I see that it has two inputs in a transaction, X and Y.
I can safely assume that X and Y are owned by the same person?
Now if I look at all of the transactions for Y, and I see that it has a transaction with two outputs, Y and Z.
Then I can now assume that X, Y and Z are all owned by the same person, right?
If a wallet has 10 addresses, then could I not get all of those addresses using the above method?
So I essentially assume that, all inputs and outputs belong to the same person for a given address lookup.
Also, if X is both on the input and the output, then it is safe to assume that X being on the output was just used as a change address.
Thanks Nate for the clarification.
If we take out the possibility of a mixer and we can determine the change addresses. Can the assumptions not then be more feasible? – Kyle Graham – 2018-01-12T13:27:17.183
It would be plausible to guess that one of the output addresses (namely, the change address) belongs to the same person as the inputs, assuming you can tell which of the outputs it is (though I know of no reliable way to do that). It's nonsensical to assume that all the outputs belong to the same person as the inputs. That would mean that nobody could ever transfer money to anyone else. – Nate Eldredge – 2018-01-12T14:52:09.373