Hi, everyone. We're taking a break from our usual gadget lab programming this week.

And instead, we're going to play an episode from earlier this year that we really enjoyed.

It's an episode where we talk with Wired Security writer Andy Greenberg. His recent book, Tracers in the Dark,

is about cybercriminals who tried to use cryptocurrency to hide their crimes, thinking that that would make them untraceable.

But of course, unbeknownst to them, there were clues hidden in the crypto exchange that

helped detectives to hunt them down.

It's a fascinating conversation.

And it's something you should listen to if, like me, for a while, you've been saying things

like, but crypto is anonymized, right?

Not so much. So thanks for listening to this one,

and we'll be back next week with a new show. Lauren. Lauren, when you buy something

using cryptocurrency, do you feel like you're making that transaction anonymously?

Oh, when I buy something with cryptocurrency. Like when I go up to my morning coffee shop and I open

my metamask and I'm like, hey, do you guys take BTC or ETH or, you know, good coin?

Yes. No, I don't do any of that. And I really haven't thought too much about the anonymous prospects of this. Although I know that's a big part of cryptocurrency, right?

It is. The prevailing thought is that if you use it, people wouldn't really know what you're buying or how much you spent or that you even participated in a transaction in the first place. But that is actually kind of a myth.

Interesting.

Yes.

Do you want to hear more about it?

I definitely do.

Then let's bring on our guest.

Hi, everyone.

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