Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency by Andy Greenberg

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency rose as a means of making financial transactions in anonymity. Criminals have used bitcoin as the currency of choice for illicit transactions. However, the record is on the blockchain. People have been able to analyze the blockchain to help identify the transactions. This has lead to further attempts to anonymize transactions, which has lead to further attempt to trace.

This book follows a few major "busts" of dark web marketplaces and the people that have helped identify activity on the blockchain. Some of the identification was based on concepts from the initial blockchain whitepaper. Others remain "proprietary". There are a number of mathematical and problem solving skills needed to identify transactions. Leads and lucky breaks can also be helpful. Researchers will also set up accounts and transfer money within various exchanges to see how they record transactions. They have even attempted to create their own blockchain recorders to get details. (Though this has also backfired when it has gone wrong.) Often they can identify a mistaken leak of information in the online profile (such as the one time they accidentally sign with a true name, or forget to pass their IP through an anonymizer.)

The bulk of the  novel covers the "busts" of various criminals. There were some government figures that had stolen from the bitcoin markets they had infiltrated. Then there were attempts to crack down on the dark web marketplaces like Silk Road. The government used various mechanisms to tie the players to the marketplace. They also tried to track down missing bitcoin from other exchanges. This proved valuable in taking down other parts of the dark web. Even the most careful hackers had an occasional slip up. There were busts in the Netherlands and Thailand, with the Europeans operating a dark web marketplace for a few weeks and thus busting a number of individuals (and scaring many others.) Russians are among the most difficult to trace due to their government not cooperating. 

In addition to tracking the hackers, the blocktrain tracing has been used to trace users of blockchain. A child-abuse ring based on a South Korean's computer was brought down via transaction tracing. 

The hackers continue to fight back. There are more secure means of making block chain transactions. However, these have added expense (in time and money.) What will be the result of the blockchain arms race?

The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War

Today we often look back in disgust at the period of African slavery in the US. However, at the time, the situation was much more complex. Servitude was common. Many immigrants came as indentured servants. People were also often apprenticed to masters to learn a trade. Slavery was proscribed as a more compassionate punishment than death. The slave trade seemed like a logical outcrop of situation. However, somewhere in the process, a racial aspect was applied. (It wasn't clear whether Africans were deemed as inferior because they were slaves, or whether they were slaves because they were deemed inferior.) The African slaves were unfamiliar with the land and less likely to be flight risks. At first they were used primarily on tobacco farms in the upper south, but later the focus was on cotton in the deep south. The south ended up growing to have some of the greatest concentrated wealth in the country - all built on slave labor.
The north did not depend directly on slavery. However, they did benefit from the slave production. They had adopted a holier-than-though attitude. They hated slavery, yet they did not have a whole lot of respect for blacks. There was one story where they went through great lengths to get the freedom of a slave girl that was brought into a northern state. However, nobody wanted her and she ended up in an orphanage. The new territories also did not want slaves, but did not want free black residents either. This seems somewhat similar to our situation with immigrants today.
The fugitive slave law was seen as a compromise that may have delayed the civil war. However, it also helped increase tensions. The conflict was intense. Today it is easy for us to look at the god and the bad and the inevitable fall of slavery. However, at the time the outcome was not clear. Automation was still some time away from wiping out the need for slavery.
This book is a very balanced look at the complexities of the slave issue. There were no clear answers that would have neatly resolved the situation. The narratives adopted by both sides of the slave debate were filled with contradictions and holes.