From headlines about millions of dollars in losses to court dramas involving shameful crypto executives, public perceptions of blockchain often seem like never-ending scandals.
In the latest episode Clear crypto podcasthosts Nathan Jeffay and Gareth Jenkinson, with Jennie Levin, chief legal and operational officer of the Algorand Foundation, figured out the noise to explore what really happened, and why it is often about cryptocurrencies and more about human misconduct.
The same scam
While mainstream coverage is often fixed on crashed swaps like FTX, Levin points out that basic misconduct is not usually unique to Crypto. It’s just a new, sometimes confusing name.
“Leading securities trading has been happening in traditional finance,” she said.
“It’s just one way to do this using the cryptocurrency industry. It’s native to the cryptocurrency industry, but the theme of fraud is happening elsewhere. There are ways to do it now in the technical aspects of the crypto community.”
In fact, many of today’s most destructive crypto crimes are highly technological exploits of blockchain protocols, often dedicated to those with in-depth knowledge of regulations.
“If you messed up the order of the underlying system and blocks, then yes, you can use it to your advantage,” Levin said.
“It requires understanding the protocol code, understanding the different actors, and being able to have a deep understanding.”
Crime and punishment
The technology creates a grey area of law and ethics in depth, especially in the case of so-called white hat hackers who exploit vulnerability, and then returns the stolen funds. Levine pointed out: “Crime is a crime is a crime.”
“Authorizing goodwill does not negate the elements of a crime or crime. From a strict legal perspective, you can still be charged.”
Still, law enforcement is not always so black and white. “Perhaps the Justice Department or other investigators won’t be adding these types of white hat hackers,” Levin added.
However, regulations continue to lag behind. Jenkinson notes that in some jurisdictions, regulators have misunderstood the way decentralized systems work.
“If you violate the rules when it comes to holding data, you may have to delete the blockchain,” he said. “But that’s not that feasible.”
To listen to the complete conversation on the Clear Encrypted Podcast Page,,,,, Apple Podcast or Spotify. And, don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s other lineups!
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