From origins of blockchain technology decades ago to earliest use cases of digital or e-cash and the introduction of Bitcoin as the first cryptocurrency in 2008, few could have predicted the cultural phenomenon and dramatic market growth for Crypto-assets of the last few years — or the dramatic and wrenching collapse of Crypto-asset values and firms last year. While policymaking and oversight of Crypto-asset trading has understandably been through a financial regulatory lens, this report offers policymakers and policy-focused industry leaders and technologists a new perspective: assessing the technical cyber security risks and threats, as well as the sociotechnical security interactions between technological and human dynamics. 

As part of a basic primer for readers on blockchain and Crypto-asset trading, this report offers novel new insights from national representative survey conducted in October 2022 about the demographic profile of crypto users in Canada, levels of public trust in crypto asset platforms, and the types of harms purchasers of Crypto-assets report experiencing.

Authors: Tiffany Kwok, André Côté  |  June 2023