Unit 3 · Level 1 · Wallet anatomy
Nonces & fingerprints
Every address wears its biography in public. The nonce counts every transaction it ever sent. The first transaction reveals its age and who funded it. The rhythm of activity (hours, frequency, favourite contracts) forms a fingerprint. Two 'unrelated' wallets that wake at the same hour and use the same dapps in the same order? Probably one owner.
Free to play. No ads, no token, no account needed to start.
What you get asked
What does an account's nonce tell you?
It's a simple send-counter: nonce 0 means never sent anything, nonce 5,000 means a very busy wallet. One number, instant activity read.
A 'project team wallet' promising a big airdrop was created yesterday and has a nonce of 2. Why be suspicious?
Anyone can spin up a wallet in seconds and call it anything. Age and history can't be faked retroactively, which is what makes them useful evidence.
An address's age is revealed by its very ___ transaction, and by who funded it.
The first inbound transfer is the wallet's birth certificate. If wallet B was born from a transfer out of wallet A, that link never disappears.
Match the pattern to what it hints at
None of these is proof alone; they're clues. Analysts stack clues until the picture stops being deniable.
What's the privacy flip side of these fingerprints for your own wallet?
Everything you've learned to read about others applies to you. Pay a friend from your main wallet and they can browse your whole financial life. Worth remembering before you share an address. 🐜
The rest of this unit
Every address tells a story: age, habits, identity, and where the money went.