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Title details for Tracers in the Dark by Andy Greenberg - Available

Tracers in the Dark

The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

by Andy Greenberg
Ari Fliakos
Audiobook
1 of 5 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 5 copies available
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?

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 15, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593628171
      • File size: 310345 KB
      • Duration: 10:46:33

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 26, 2022
      In this sobering account, cybersecurity reporter Greenberg (Sandworm) delves into the efforts of law enforcement agencies and cybersleuths to trace criminal activity involving cryptocurrency, starting with the takedown in 2013 of Silk Road, “the sprawling, Bitcoin-based, billion-dollar online black market for dark web narcotics sales, created by a pseudonymous figure known as the Dread Pirate Roberts.” It took the FBI, IRS, and DHS two-and-a-half years of dogged research to identify the site’s founder as Ross Ulbricht, a 29-year-old Texan with no criminal record, and arrest him in a San Francisco library. Other operations have targeted child pornography websites and ransomware attacks. Greenberg examines in fascinating detail how criminals have employed technology for their nefarious ends, along the way providing a history of Bitcoin and a look at a possible future technology that would make “truly untraceable and anonymous finances possible.” He brings to vivid life the assorted players, including the agents who cracked the crimes, those in law enforcement who succumbed to the allure of fast money on the dark web, and the private citizens who ushered in the golden age of cryptocurrency tracing. This is a must-have for the true crime shelf. Agent: Eric Lupfer, Fletcher & Co.

    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Journalist Greenberg (Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers), who specializes in cryptocurrency, digital surveillance, and the seedier parts of the internet, presents well-researched accounts of how law enforcement and crypto companies worked together to track Bitcoin through the blockchain to bust dark web markets. Reading with gritty intensity, narrator Ari Fliakos briefly describes Bitcoin basics (pointing out that Bitcoin purchases are indeed trackable), and then walks listeners through Greenberg's explication of four major cases. The author addresses the Silk Road and the imprisonment of its leader, the Dread Pirate Roberts along with the demise of its successor, AlphaBay. Then, the massive theft of Bitcoin from the Mt. Gox exchange. The book saves its most disturbing story for last: the takedown of Welcome to Video, a distribution site for child sexually abusive material. Throughout, Greenberg discusses how private companies sprouted up to specifically track digital currency, seemingly at their discretion. Greenberg concludes his narrative, requesting readers to consider the implications of these companies' existence. VERDICT Propulsively narrated by Fliakos, Greenburg's book tells a crypto true-crime story, and also critiques the complexities of financial privacy in the digital age.--Angel Caranna

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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