English language
Published Jan. 15, 2022 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.
But what if the centerpiece of this dark economy held a secret, fatal flaw? What if their currency wasn’t so cryptic after all? An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry, financial forensics, and old-fashioned persistence could crack open an entire world of wrongdoing.
Tracers in the Dark is a story of crime and pursuit unlike any other. With unprecedented access to the major …
Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.
But what if the centerpiece of this dark economy held a secret, fatal flaw? What if their currency wasn’t so cryptic after all? An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry, financial forensics, and old-fashioned persistence could crack open an entire world of wrongdoing.
Tracers in the Dark is a story of crime and pursuit unlike any other. With unprecedented access to the major players in federal law enforcement and private industry, veteran cybersecurity reporter Andy Greenberg tells an astonishing saga of criminal empires built and destroyed. He introduces an IRS agent with a defiant streak; a Bitcoin-tracing Danish entrepreneur; and a colorful ensemble of hardboiled agents and prosecutors as they delve deep into the crypto-underworld. The result is a thrilling, globe-spanning story of dirty cops, drug bazaars, trafficking rings, and the biggest takedown of an online narcotics market in the history of the Internet.
Utterly of our time, Tracers in the Dark is a cat-and-mouse story and a tale of a technological one-upmanship. Filled with canny maneuvering and shocking twists, it answers a provocative question: How would some of the world’s most brazen criminals behave if they were sure they could never get caught?
This book recounts the tales behinds some of the biggest bust, not only for crypto, but in America’s history. Definitely worth a read if you are interested in crypto or internet history.
Greenberg follows a group of researchers and law enforcement through some of the more notable investigations of cryptocurrency-funded crime. Bitcoin's blockchain was once widely believed to be untraceable, hence its widespread adoption by the criminal underworld. It wasn't, and this is the story of how that belief backfired.
I've removed one star due to some of the limitations of the technical explanations. There's always a fine line to walk between providing so much detail it loses readers versus providing just enough so that non-technical people get the gist of what's happening, and I don't feel that Greenberg walked that line particularly well here. What Bitcoin's blockchain is and how it works just isn't explained well enough given it's the central character in the story.
Otherwise, Greenberg does an excellent job revealing the mystery and provides a great look at some of the darker parts of the Internet.
A good history of cryptocurrencies from the perspective of how tools and services have been developed to trace transactions and how this lead to successful prosecutions of people who had assumed that they were anonymous. Worth a read.
