Description

From the awardwinning author of Sandworm comesthe propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin blockchain exposing onceanonymous realms of money drugs and violenceI 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 freelywhether in drug dealing money laundering or human traffickingthan 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 wasnt so cryptic after all An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry financial forensics and oldfashioned 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 Bitcointracing Danish entrepreneur and a colorful ensemble of hardboiled agents and prosecutors as they delve deep into the cryptounderworld The result is a thrilling globespanning 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 catandmouse story and a tale of a technological oneupmanship Filled with canny maneuvering and shocking twists it answers a provocative question How would some of the worlds most brazen criminals behave if they were sure they could never get caught