Crypto Currency: How digital money could transform finance

We look at the latest book in the Penguin / Wired series of small handy guides to relevant technologies that are worth understanding at a good high level, this one is written by Gian Volpicelli, from WIRED. You can see more about the book here.

Crypto Currency: How digital money could transform finance reviewed

This is the 5th book in the new series that we have reviewed and it continues the run of targeting relevant topics, with writers who have a decent understanding of the particular topic assigned to them. For a newbie the first two sections on Bitcoin and Ethereum are strong, well written, and helpful in terms of giving a good background to what these crypto currency’s are, their origin, context and why / where they offer value.

One aspect that illustrates how fast / volatile the whole crypto world is that, although this book is published this coming week, it’s narrative around bitcoin, and it’s all-time highs, feels about six months out of date, and of course, bitcoin being bitcoin, after arguably two years of being fairly flat, it then went crazy again. Surging to 60k before falling back to a seemingly becalmed 30k. Knowing bitcoin it could go in either direction over the rest of 2021 too. This is no fault of Gian Volpicelli but it might have been kinder by the publishers to have had a shorter time gap between his final edit and publication.

The third section, ‘The ICO Bubble’ felt a little bloodless. There were so many crazy stories, great coins and truly sh#t coins too that the author could have really gone to town and shared some interesting insights. The entertaining and sadly departed John McAfee does not merit a mention, as well as many other colourful characters. You pay your money and make your choice but this section felt a little like the author was either sitting on the fence or watching from a distance during this interesting period.

There is a section on Libra, which was perhaps necessary, but surely the world doesn’t want to hand over the management of the world’s next universal coin to Facebook. It is true that it is not died a death yet, but in terms of brand reputation, ethics and trust this is surely / hopefully not the crypto token of the future. We shall see. This is perhaps symptomatic of the challenges of writing about something that is still so new, we are not at the end of the story yet. Probably barely even the end of the beginning.

Volpicelli writes well, and covers all the right areas, and explains it all well, but he might appreciate being able to draw a deeper analysis once a few live, very current issues have played themselves out. Will crypto manage to resolve the sustainability issues? Will the latest Chinese ban on mining and bitcoin have a lasting impact, or will  miners just migrate outside of China? Is El Salvador’s touting of being more bitcoin facing, merely posturing or will it bring greater benefits? It is an interesting and exciting area. For the summer of 2021 this is a good book to read.

More about the book

The past decade has seen the relentless rise of cryptocurrency as an alternative form of digital currency. But what precisely is it and what potential does it have to change the world of money?

In this brilliantly clear, one-stop guide WIRED Senior Editor Gian Vopicelli explains everything you need to know about cryptocurrency. He outlines its development and describes precisely how it operates. He demystifies the jargon it has spawned, from blockchain, Bitcoin and stablecoins to mining, smart contracts and forking. He looks at the political and economic ideologies that drive it. And he addresses the central question: will cryptocurrency have the transformative economic and social impact that its champions claim for it?

https://twitter.com/Gmvolpi/status/1402951291085721601

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