Output Age Heuristics

Output age heuristics utilize the time elapsed between the creation of an output and its subsequent spending to gain insights into user behavior. Different types of actors, such as long-term investors or active traders, display distinct patterns in how long they hold their assets before moving them.

By analyzing these age distributions, forensic analysts can categorize addresses and predict future transaction activity. This heuristic is also used to filter decoys in privacy protocols, as users often select decoys that have similar ages to their own inputs.

Understanding the temporal dimension of transactions adds a critical layer to the study of market microstructure. It helps distinguish between passive storage and active, high-velocity trading.