Jess Symington, research lead at Elliptic, a blockchain forensics company, discusses the massive upswing in DeFi hacks during 2021, resulting in over $10 billion of DeFi value lost. Show topics:

• the state of crime in DeFi
• how much value has been lost to exploits
• whether the majority of hacks are the result of user or developer error
• the various types of exploits
• how to confirm when a project did, in fact, rug pull
• which blockchains are most susceptible to having exploits
• what has been happening recently in ransomware
• how DeFi hackers cash out
• why ransomware attackers, who usually request payment in Bitcoin, have a tougher time cashing out than DeFi hackers 
• whether hackers trend towards a specific profile/demographics 
• how easy it is for law enforcement to find hackers 
• whether blockchain’s transparency is proving to be a helpful tool for regulators
• Jess’s advice on how to prevent hacks for both protocols and users

 

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Episode Links

 

Elliptic

• Website: https://www.elliptic.co/ 
• Blog: https://www.elliptic.co/blog 

 

Hack Coverage

• Elliptic Research
• • DeFi: Risk, Regulation and the Rise of DeCrime: https://www.elliptic.co/resources/defi-risk-regulation-and-the-rise-of-decrime
  • https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/14/common-defi-crypto-related-scams-and-how-to-protect-your-wallet.html 
  • https://cryptobriefing.com/elliptic-estimates-12b-lost-to-defi-exploits/ 
• Rekt Leaderboard (giving a dollar figure for recent hacks along with a summary of what happened)
• • https://rekt.news/leaderboard/ 

 

Unchained Podcast on Ransomware

• https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-ransomware-evolved-into-a-big-business/ 

 

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