# What are linked addresses?

Linked addresses are addresses that chain analysis attributes to the same owner, most often because they were spent together in one Bitcoin transaction. Once one of them is tied to a name, all of them are.

Also called the common-input-ownership heuristic or address clustering.

## The common-input heuristic

When a Bitcoin transaction spends coins from several addresses at once, all of them almost always belong to one wallet. The Bitcoin whitepaper already pointed this out: such transactions “necessarily reveal that their inputs were owned by the same owner.” Chain analysis uses it to group addresses into clusters.

## Other ways addresses get linked

- Change that goes back to the sender’s own address.
- The same amounts or timing showing up on both sides.
- Deposits from different addresses into the same exchange account.
- An address published next to a name, on social media or in a donation link.

## In Redacted

The wallet check on redacted.gg shows the addresses that were spent together with a Bitcoin address you enter, along with what else that address gives away.

More: [Check an address](https://redacted.gg/wallet-check/)

## Related terms

- [Address reuse](https://redacted.gg/glossary/address-reuse.md): Address reuse means receiving more than one payment to the same address. Every payment to it is then linked to all the others, and to everyone who sent them.
- [Chain analysis](https://redacted.gg/glossary/chain-analysis.md): Chain analysis traces funds on public blockchains and groups addresses into likely owners, using the public record together with outside data such as exchange records, address labels and leaks.
- [Anonymity set](https://redacted.gg/glossary/anonymity-set.md): An anonymity set is the group of people a given action could have come from. The larger it is, the harder it is to tell who did it.

Sources: [Bitcoin whitepaper, section 10](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf), [Common-input-ownership heuristic, Bitcoin Wiki](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Common-input-ownership_heuristic)
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Page: https://redacted.gg/glossary/linked-addresses/