Tracers in the Dark

“Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency” by Andy Greenberg is a fantastic summary of dark net crime over the past decade and a half. The book spans from cryptocurrency’s original dogma and practitioners all the way to the corporatization that we see today. I particularly enjoyed recollections about Sarah Merklejohn’s early work on Bitcoin clustering. What a fascinating portrait into an academic who has had such a profound impact on the space.

I had completely forgotten about the whole ‘Bitcoin is anonymous!’ era. What a trip down memory lane to the early 2010s of Bitcoin’s emergence. I also find myself recognizing the company ‘Chainalysis’ much more often on podcasts…

I highly recommend this book for technologists and regular folk alike. I will certainly reread this book in the future.