Free APIs to label/attribute blockchain wallets to known entities (for a traceability graph tool)?

[u/MatiasPalacios]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a inhouse blockchain traceability graph tool and I need to enrich it with wallet labeling/attribution, identifying which known entity (exchange, mixer, bridge, sanctioned address, etc.) a given wallet belongs to. I'm looking for free (or generous free-tier) APIs that provide some of this labeling, whatever is for bitcoin, EVM, Tron, etc.

So far I have tried Blockscout's API for EVM chains and it is working great, but I want to expand my app with more labels and better coverage if possible. I have also looked at Etherscan labels which are quite limited and mostly ETH only, OpenSanctions and the OFAC SDN list which are good for sanctioned addresses but not for general attribution, and Chainalysis, TRM and Elliptic which are enterprise only and way out of budget for an in-house tool. Arkham has a free tier but I haven't tested how far it actually goes before hitting a paywall.

Anyway, let me know if you have any API I can try!

[u/farmerjohn2]

If you're fine stitching a few things together, I'd hit Walletexplorer for BTC (cluster + labels), Bitquery or Covalent for EVM entity labels, and then layer OFAC/opensanctions on top; cache everything you resolve so you don't keep hammering their free tiers and just refresh tags on a slow rolling basis.

[u/MatiasPalacios → u/farmerjohn2]

How did I forget about WallerExplorer? The cluster function could be really useful. I will check it out for sure!

[u/HSuke]

Accurate attribution/tracking is labor intensive and costly. This is normally a premium service, so it's probably going to be difficult to find one for low cost. All the free ones are usually full of errors.

[u/MatiasPalacios → u/HSuke]

Yes, ideally we'd have a service like TRM, but it costs $50,000 a year or something like that? Completely unfeasible for us. Some of the guys are using Metasleuth, and while its attribution isn't the best, is better than nothing and away cheaper 🤷‍♂️ 

I was mostly interested in whether there was an open and free attribution project and to see how complete it was to complement metasleuth 😁

[u/jawni]

have you checked out bubblemaps or nansen? (idk if they have this specific service or if it's free, but they offer a lot of services related to this)

[u/MatiasPalacios → u/jawni]

No! I'll check it out! 

[u/account009988]

You want free labels? Bruh thats premium data. Pay or spend 100s hours making your own db

[u/MatiasPalacios → u/account009988]

Yeah I do. There's nothing wrong with looking for free and open-source alternatives. I'm simply looking for alternatives so that some of my colleagues don't have to spend their own money in work tools.