Book “Crypt. Investigative journalist Andrei Zakharov’s “How Cryptojackers, Programmers, and Crooks Fettered Russia with Blockchain” has been released for sale and is available to those who pre-order online.
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“Chained by Blockchain”: an investigative book on the history of the crypto movement in Russia was published
.
The story revolves around the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in assets from the BTC-e/Wex exchange. The creators of the cryptocurrency exchange have Russian roots. On June 9, exactly the day the book appeared in the Moscow publisher’s Individuum store, the U.S. Justice Department filed
charges against Alexey Bilyuchenko, a Russian, for, among other things, “conspiracy to operate the BTC-e exchange from 2011 to 2017.”. The conspiracy refers to the relationship between Bilyuchenko and Alexander Vinnik, who was arrested back in the summer of 2017, and then charged with laundering $9 billion through BTC-e. Just as Vinnik’s detention begins “Crypt.”
The investigation becomes an occasion to tell about all notable personalities who shaped the Russian crypto community and launched the first notable crypto projects. This includes the creation in 2011 of the BtcSec forum, which, along with Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin.org, was blocked by Roskomnadzor in 2014, and after winning in court and unblocking it became Bits.media.
Andrei Zakharov is a four-time winner of the Editorial Board Journalism Award. Worked for Fontanka, RBC, Project, BBC Russian Service. Author and co-author of investigations into the “troll factory,” meddling in the U.S. presidential election, St. Petersburg’s Svetlana Krivonogikh and her and Vladimir Putin’s alleged joint daughter. In the fall of 2021, the Russian Justice Ministry recognized Zakharov as a foreign agent. At the same time Andrey received
Blockchain Awards for his contribution to cryptojournalism for his series of articles about the BTC-e exchange.