Trillions of dollars in illicit financial flows slosh around our financial system today, facilitated by the most powerful centralised instiutitons. Current efforts to address IFFs are ineffective and result in harmful side effects for some of the most vulnernable in society. In this article, we investigate the causes and impact of IFFs. Despite what certain bankers and politicians might have told you, the transparency and programmability of cryptocurrencies are a solution to, not a cause of, the