Decentralised digital security: Code, crisis, community

This epilogue returns to the guiding question, 'what can decentralised technology communities teach us about digital security?’, and argues that while decentralised security practices do not offer a ready-made solution, they provide a powerful lens for reimagining how we organise, incentivise, and govern security in a world where insecurity is the norm rather than the exception. This lens reve...

This chapter tells the story of the largest hack in history. Drawing on insider perspectives from within the security community, it traces black hats, white hats, and many shades of grey in action, revealing how incident response is coordinated across the ecosystem, when it succeeds in protecting the interests of end-users, and when it fails due to selfish ambition. The chapter underscores the end...

This chapter moves beyond individual hacks and exploits to examine how decentralised security operates at scale, with a focus on the intersection between cryptocurrency security and the geopolitics of blockchain infrastructure. It interrogates physical security, organised crime and state-backed actors – particularly the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group – as they target decentralised finance system...

Security in decentralised systems relies not only on technical robustness, but also on the interaction of social, economic, legal and institutional arrangements that enable coordination across diverse actors and make insecurity legible. This chapter examines how security is collectively produced and governed in decentralised contexts, focusing on the infrastructures that enable coordination.

The previous chapters have traced the historical, ideological and contextual foundations of blockchain security, from the early visions of hackers, cryptographers and Cypherpunks to the emergence of decentralised protocols and the burgeoning security landscape. This chapter introduces a new protagonist in the security landscape: the blockchain white hat hacker. Far from operating in the shadows, t...

This chapter examines the current state of blockchain security—or more accurately, persistent insecurity. Despite ideological commitments to cryptographic guarantees and protocol-level integrity from project founders, blockchain systems remain vulnerable. Security is not guaranteed by design but is continuously negotiated by a patchwork of stakeholders. Drawing on ethnographic analysis of security...

Security is a prerequisite for digital economies as it lays the foundational conditions for trust, exchanges of data and coordination. This chapter provides an intellectual history of digital security, setting out conceptual elements that are fundamental to understanding security in decentralised digital context. It is organised according to three historical eras. 1  The first era is defined by th...

In the digital age, security is often imagined as a fixed state – something that can be achieved through the right combination of technology, policy and enforcement. The assumption has been that well-funded, centralised entities – whether tech companies, governments or cybersecurity firms – could safeguard digital environments through proactive risk mitigation and regulatory oversight. This model...