#DELTA CRYPTO APP BACKUP CODE#

But Kim says one reason for that is that so many more people are involved in crypto now. It's a little bit lawless, and there is a ton of crime.

VANEK SMITH: So, you know, if all of this makes the world of decentralized finance sound kind of, like, Wild West-y, that is because it is kind of Wild West-y. And if law enforcement decides they want to investigate it, all they really have to do is go subpoena an exchange used to convert the funds and then get the identity behind the person. GRAUER: You can forever see every transaction that happened. And Kim says that's a huge disincentive for criminals. And you can't peel that Post-it off, ever. Every time that item changes hands, the transaction is noted on the Post-it - time, date, people involved - everything. Think of it like a Post-it that's attached to something - could be a document of some kind or a cryptocurrency token or a piece of art, maybe. The blockchain is like an electronic tag. HIRSCH: The blockchain - OK, so here's a quick blockchain explainer. It's cryptocurrency, and cryptocurrency is, of course, based on the blockchain. VANEK SMITH: But here's the problem for these thieves - those aren't actual dollars that were stolen.

#DELTA CRYPTO APP BACKUP CODE#

So anyone who is good at coding can actually go through the code records and look for a bug to potentially exploit. GRAUER: One of the things that people are exploiting is the fact that all code that is running and implementing these DeFi protocols is open source, which means it's open to the public. HIRSCH: One of the growing ways crypto criminals are stealing right now is by hacking. And, of course, that has attracted a lot of bad actors who are looking for a way to steal from the careless, the gullible, the unsuspecting and the possibly technologically overwhelmed. VANEK SMITH: The problem is that decentralization also means a lack of oversight. You no longer need a third-party human-run organization to approve a variety of different types of financial contracts that you want to execute. KIM GRAUER: What it comes down to is its financial contracts that are executed through a smart contract. Kim Grauer of Chainalysis calls this the world of decentralized finance, or DeFi. PADDY HIRSCH, BYLINE: And that includes exchanges and apps that let people lend to each other and trade different tokens in different ways. But over the last few years, entrepreneurs have developed this whole world of financial products that are connected to cryptocurrency. STACEY VANEK SMITH, BYLINE: Cryptocurrency activity used to just be buying a currency or token like bitcoin and trading it. Stacey Vanek Smith and Paddy Hirsch, from our daily economics podcast The Indicator, explained the growth of crypto crime and how law enforcement is using a strength of cryptocurrency to fight against it. They were allegedly involved in laundering billions of dollars' worth of stolen bitcoin. Crypto crime got a lot of attention last month after the arrests of an amateur rapper known as Razzlekhan and her partner.

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