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)
Unchained Podcast on Ransomware