Keynote: The Crypto Trap: Lessons from the Advent of Cryptocurrency Tracing and the Biggest Dark Web Bust in History

Once, Bitcoin was widely believed to be anonymous or untraceable. It would take more than a decade for a small group of detectives to prove that it was the opposite: That for those who can decipher the blockchain, it's possible to follow the money in the crypto economy even more clearly than in the world of traditional finance. Cryptocurrency's illusion of privacy, in fact, turned out to be a trap that seduced cybercriminals of every kind, giving them a sense of invisibility while leading investigators right to their doorsteps.

This is the epic story of how cryptocurrency tracers learned to shine a light into the dark web economy, carrying out a decade-long spree of many of the most impactful cybercriminal busts in history, including the biggest-ever takedown of a dark web drug market—and offering a parable about how technology's promises can betray us.