Crypto 2.0 – New ways of performing old tricks? Exploring Crypto Typologies with Nick Furneaux

Any sufficiently new technology can seem like magic to the uninitiated, and it can become easy to assume that its abuse by criminals is equally magical and just as perplexing. It can also become a natural next step to assume that there is a particular type of ‘crime’ inherent to the new technology in question.

Rarely in recent years have new technologies been so quickly framed in this way as blockchain and cryptocurrencies. FinCrime discourse has quickly assumed that not only is cryptocurrency inherently riskier than fiat currency, but that there is a particular form of distinctive crime – ‘crypto crime’ – that is intimately linked to it.

But despite these presumptions, the truth about the criminal abuse of cryptocurrency is considerably more prosaic. ‘Crypto crimes’ are in fact just good, old-fashioned crimes, with a new ‘virtual’ twist, according to Nick Furneaux, Managing Director of CSITech and author of Investigating Cryptocurrencies. In this session, Nick will follow up his popular talk from our March conference with an exploration of the classic criminal typologies that get applied to cryptocurrencies and provide potential investors with a range of issues to consider when dealing safely in this evolving market.