Tracers in the Dark

The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

By: Andy Greenberg

Narrated by: Ari Fliakos

From the award-winning author of Sandworm comes the propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin blockchain, exposing once-anonymous realms of money, drugs, and violence. “I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.” (Michael Lewis)

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 uncover 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?

Fantastic storytelling

Andy dives into the world of black markets and cryptocurrency investigations by walking us through some of the biggest cases of the past decade.

Without getting too much in the technical weeds, this one feels like a friend telling you a story over a beer. All with plenty of twists and turns.

If you’ve been following Andy’s work from previous books covering Cypher punks, this one will be a real treat. He pulls apart the aspirations of idealists and lays out the hard reality that the fantasy being sold by the crypto community of privacy is a crock.

Hoping for him to explore more in the future about the balance between needs for privacy and surveillance.

Bitcoin isn't as private as some think it is

This is a great book from an amazing technology journalist -- specifically covering the tools and procedures used to trace cryptocurrency transactions (e.g. Bitcoin) for law enforcement purposes.

Despite the public protestations of law enforcement (and some Bitcoin advocates) Bitcoin isn't even as private as regular banking systems -- it's a global public transparent ledger of pseudonyms, fully linkable through connections to external systems, patterns, and "metadata" analysis. We're currently living in a privacy dark age valley of "too late for physical bearer assets, too soon for Zero Knowledge online assets". Cryptocurrency has an edge in being permissionless and censorship resistant in many cases, but it's far from private as deployed today.

This book shows through tracing dark net markets participants (Silk Road, AlphaBay, and others), exchanges, and other bitcoin and cryptocurrency transactions what the true state of privacy on the blockchain is. A major element is the founding and history of Chainalysis, one of the first dedicated tracing firms, from the tracing of loss Mt Gox exchange assets, but there's also extensive coverage of various law enforcement agencies and how they use traditional forensic accounting techniques, as well as chain analysis tools and subpoena and other investigatory powers, to find undesirable activity.

It was a little disappointing that de-anonymizing Monero transactions and other more privacy focused transactions wasn't more of a focus, but this is probably not covered as much in open forums.

The book and writing style focuses on personalities and events, rather than technology, so it's approachable and interesting for a general audience, but as an expert in the field (I work for a cryptoasset insurance company and have been involved in anonymous electronic cash since the mid 1990s), it's technically accurate as well.

Strongly recommend.

Current and entertaining

Very entertaining and interesting cyber true crime stories all wrapped up into one book! Learned a lot about block chain.

Both very interesting and informative!

I found the narrative very compelling and a fascinating look into the dark side of cryptocurrency. Definitely worth your time.

Awesome read!!!!!!

I listened to this in one sitting and was totally hooked. It reads like a novel and has a ton of info in regards to cybersecurity and crypto. Well worth the credit or buy.