E-Book (Kindle Unlimited) & Print Editions
ISBN:
E-Book:978-625-96458-1-0
Paperback:978-625-96458-9-6
Hardcover:978-625-96458-8-9
The Story
The Story You Thought You Knew Was the Biggest Lie Ever Told.
Act 1: Center Stage - Deciphering an International Legend
The year is 2008. The world watched, holding its breath, as the billion-dollar empire of the cyber underworld, DarkMarket, came to its epic collapse. Pulitzer-nominated journalist Kevin Poulsen in his groundbreaking book "Kingpin"... Award-winning writer for the BBC and The Guardian, Misha Glenny, in his work that rewrote the history of cybercrime, "DarkMarket"... And on WIRED magazine's legendary "Threat Level" blog, the giants at the pinnacle of this dark world were declared: the American genius hacker Max "Iceman" Butler and the forum's mysterious, untouchable Turkish administrator, ChaO.
According to the legend, FBI special agent Keith Mularski (under the alias "Master Splyntr") infiltrated DarkMarket in a breathtaking two-year operation, earning ChaO's trust by co-administering the site alongside him, and ultimately brought the entire empire down. But what if this is only the part of the story the FBI allowed you to hear?
"Chao: Code, Conspiracy and Penance" shatters this official narrative, revealing for the first time the truths behind one of history's greatest cyber wars, straight from the mouth of the commander of that war himself.
Silent Chess: Was the FBI Agent a Victim? Contrary to what was told in Kingpin, this was not an infiltration operation; it was a challenge initiated by ChaO himself. By asking the FBI agent to try and catch him, even ordering state-of-the-art computers for him and saying, "Come and get me," ChaO unwittingly turned one of a nation's most skilled agents into a pawn on his own chessboard. This book is the untold story of how the power and intentions of an intelligence agency were tested and manipulated.
The Spy Hunt and the Encrypted Message The whole world learned from the headlines of WIRED that ChaO had "kidnapped and tortured" an informant (Mert Ortaç, codenamed "Kier") and served his exemplary photo to the entire underworld. As RSA security analyst Uri Rivner said, this event caused "cybercriminals to be genuinely afraid for the first time in years." But what was the real reason behind this brutal act? This book reveals for the first time that this event, coded for the public as "torturing an informant," was actually a brilliant spy-hunting operation designed to expose the agent networks (FBI, Secret Service) embedded within the forum, conducted against deep-state pawns trying to drag ChaO into the Ergenekon conspiracy.
The Unsolved Mystery: The Hunt for Lord Cyric After DarkMarket, Misha Glenny wrote another special book: "The Hunt for Lord Cyric." The whole world was after this ghost, but no one could find him. Why? Because only one person knew the ghost's true identity, a person who remained silent even under torture: ChaO.
Fabricated News and a Digital Fog of War Weeks before ChaO's official arrest, the underworld was abuzz with news of his "capture." Everyone thought it was a rumor. But what if this news was part of a "Digital Fog of War" operation, personally directed by ChaO to drive his enemies into a panic and force them to make mistakes?
Act 2: Deep Waters - The Invisible War and a National Conspiracy
If the FBI Was Just a Pawn, Who Were the Real Players?
The international arena was merely a smokescreen. The real storm was brewing within. While ChaO played chess with the FBI, he was also fighting for survival against the betrayal of shadows in his own country. This was a war beyond cybercrime, a war for the state itself, and ChaO had unknowingly fallen right into its center.
"The Simons" and the Deep State's Offer This time, it wasn't FBI agents knocking on ChaO's door, but the untouchable "Simons," known in those years as the "true owners of the state." They wanted to install him as the "financial brain" of the Ergenekon case, the biggest frame-up in Turkish history.
The Predecessor to ByLock and a Rejected Dirty Legacy While under threat, ChaO created a revolution: ChatMonster. An untraceable, decentralized communication network. This technology whetted the appetites of the shadows targeting him. They wanted him to turn this system into a weapon for their own dirty organizational communications. That day, ChaO refused one of history's most dangerous offers. So, were the seeds of ByLock, which ruined the lives of millions, sown on the day ChaO said "No" to the FETÖ organization?
The Rejected Witness Protection At the end of this invisible war, he flatly rejected the witness protection program and the promise of a new life in America offered to him. Because ChaO never agreed to be a pawn in anyone's game.
Act 3: Ground Zero - The Birth of an Architect and a President
An Empire Isn't Built by Chance. It Is Coded.
Where did the power and unbreakable will of the untouchable strategist, ChaO, who made headlines internationally, come from? The answer lay not in today's billion-dollar underworld, but in the forgotten technologies of the past and in the coldest of concrete cells.
The Architect's Code (God Mode) It all began with the curiosity of a boy who learned to break systems by reverse-engineering Assembly. This book chronicles the evolution from a "phreaker" who challenged telecom giants with a BlueBox to an architect who created the "ATM Monster" that neutralized the most advanced defense systems of banks.
The Rise of the President (Bayrampaşa) In a prison he entered innocently, he merged his theoretical genius with the brutal rules of the street. Behind those walls, the "kid" at the keyboard died; a "President" who ruled an underground republic was born.
An Unprecedented Resilience A total of 23 years spent in 23 of Turkey's most terrifying high-security prisons... Two successful escapes... This ordeal, which no hacker has ever experienced or could even imagine, proves his unbreakable will and his ability to find a way out of any system, whether digital or physical.
Act 4: Checkmate - Betrayal, Love, and the Final Penance
Every Empire Crumbles Not from Without, but from Within.
ChaO, who brought systems to their knees with code, manipulated states with conspiracies, and survived 23 hells for 23 years, had only one vulnerability: Humans.
The Blows from Within The betrayal of his most trusted right-hand man, Hakkan, the mountain he leaned on... The bitter story of how years of friendship and camaraderie were crushed under the weight of money and power.
The Only Crack in the Armor (Gülce) The one unbreakable code and the greatest vulnerability of the man who ran a billion-dollar empire and played chess with nations: his love for a woman.
The Moment the Signal Was Lost All wars could have been won. All conspiracies could have been thwarted. But one day, the phone rang that made everything meaningless. In that moment, the codes fell silent, the conspiracies lost their importance, and the owner of a billion-dollar empire was left all alone under the greatest rubble of his life.
The Vow of Silence (Penance) The world wrote that ChaO was caught in an FBI operation. But that wasn't the truth. The truth is that a man, with no reason left to fight after that last phone call, pushed victory away with his own hands. This book tells not of a man's defeat, but of a "Vow of Silence" he took by his own will when faced with the greatest pain. This is not a surrender, but a penance paid for the ultimate loss.
A Testimony That Could Not Be Silenced
The first draft of this book was written as a letter in prison, and due to the truths it told, it was censored in 2021 by a court order, deemed "objectionable" and "threatening." Years later, with freedom that came on March 2, 2025, that silenced voice was reborn, and this book was written, rising from its ashes.
Voices That Received The Signal
“Some books are read, some are lived. This book is like a system update - once you read it, you can no longer think the same way.”
— c0d3_monk3y
“We always saw him as a rival. The guy who stole our market share, who was smarter than us... Turns out he was in a completely different league, fighting a war beyond our comprehension. While we were stealing money, he was fighting governments. I respect that.”
— SilverGhost_SC
“I heard his name as a child, read his story growing up. But now, for the first time, I understand why he actually stayed silent.”
— digital_native_99
“Prison is a machine built to destroy humans. But this book is proof of the resistance that emerged from within that machine.”
— Free Spirit
“He was one of those names that made headlines back then. Now I see that the headlines were just a smoke screen. This book reveals the scene behind the smoke.”
— Nostalgic Archivist
“For years we wrote the heroic story the FBI told us. Turns out we had only watched the trailer of the movie. This book is where fiction ends and reality begins. Reading about the conspiracies behind those headlines made me ashamed of my profession.”
— DeepThroat_TR
“In the room I was in, no one would say his name out loud. Now that silence speaks in the pages of this book.”
— WhisperInTheDark
“In our world, the rule is simple: You don't talk. ChaO didn't break this rule even as his empire crumbled. This book explains why he's a legend. He chose honor over money and power. We all went to prison, but only he entered with his head held high.”
— LastSamurai_CP
“What struck me most in this story wasn't the crime, but the loneliness. The man was defeated not by the system, but by his own heart.”
— Dr. MindReader
“I never sat at the same table with him, but I remember the money I lost against him. Now I've found what that loss taught me in these pages.”
— BrokenDreamer
“He wasn't loud like the Americans or cowardly like the Europeans. He built quietly, managed quietly, and finally left the stage quietly. We did our job for money, but he was doing it for a cause.”
— KaradenizWolf
“For us, he was a legend, until he proved he was real. Now we see the human behind the legend.”
— MythHunter_UG
“There was curiosity on the first page, anger on the last. But the real emotion emerged somewhere in between: Respect. Deep, unshakeable respect.”
— Book Worm
“Governments leave fake logs behind, we clean them up. ChaO opened the dirtiest system logs of that era and saved them to a new file called 'truth'. Without cracking anyone's password, he just showed what happened. This isn't a hack, it's a system restore.”
— The Janitor
“Some called him a criminal, some a hero. When I finished this book, I realized he was just human. But not ordinary.”
— Objective Observer
“For years we chased the ghost we were after. We wrote 'Operation successful' in reports, but deep down we knew something was missing. This book is the confession of that missing piece. Now I understand why we couldn't 'catch' him for a month and why we finally had to knock on his door.”
— Agent_Regret
“We always knew him as a 'hacker'. But these lines show that he was a thinker. He fought not with code, but with ideas.”
— CyberPhilosopher
“For years I read what was written about this man, listened to conspiracy theories. Something was always missing. This book is like the missing piece of the puzzle that makes everything meaningful.”
— Truth Seeker
“For us, ChaO was an exemplary case in digital forensics classes. Reading this book, I realized he actually taught us more than those who wrote the textbooks.”
— Prof. DigitalForensics
“When he entered, you'd think a huge storm had calmed down. He didn't say a word for months. He talked to the wall, not to us. Everyone was asking 'Why?' Turns out he had left his greatest punishment outside.”
— Silent Witness
“Even in the darkest markets of the cyber world, his name was whispered. Now I understand it wasn't a whisper; it was a suppressed scream.”
— DarkMarket_Veteran