The Cryptopians, Laura Shin
The Cryptopians, Laura Shin
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

The Cryptopians
Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze

Author: Laura Shin

Narrator: Laura Shin

Unabridged: 15 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 02/22/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

The story of the idealists, technologists, and opportunists fighting to bring cryptocurrency to the masses.

In their short history, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gone through booms, busts, and internecine wars, recently reaching a market valuation of more than $2 trillion. The central promise of crypto endures—vast fortunes made from decentralized networks not controlled by any single entity and not yet regulated by many governments.

The recent growth of crypto would have been all but impossible if not for a brilliant young man named Vitalik Buterin and his creation: Ethereum. In this book, Laura Shin takes readers inside the founding of this novel cryptocurrency network, which enabled users to launch their own new coins, thus creating a new crypto fever. She introduces readers to larger-than-life characters like Buterin, the Web3 wunderkind; his short-lived CEO, Charles Hoskinson; and Joe Lubin, a former Goldman Sachs VP who became one of crypto’s most well-known billionaires. Sparks fly as these outsized personalities fight for their piece of a seemingly limitless new business opportunity.

This fascinating book shows the crypto market for what it really is: a deeply personal struggle to influence the coming revolution in money, culture, and power.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jeff on January 17, 2022

5/10 (rounded up to 3 stars) Laura is a former writer for Forbes, she’s been covering crypto for years and hosts Unchained, arguably the best, most insightful podcast available about web3/cryptocurrency. Cryptopians is the story of how Ethereum was created and grew. Laura has done a massive amount of......more

Goodreads review by Rick on March 25, 2022

Really deeply researched and well sourced. I think this is a great book for someone who wants to know every step along the way to creating Ethereum. The problem is that this book seemed to bill itself as a high-level scope of several organizations in the crypto community. It is not that. It is a mon......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on March 09, 2022

Amazingly well sourced. The definitive history of the formation of Ethereum and the drama between founding and approximately 2020. Lots of insight into the personalities (and seems accurate for the ~4 of them I know reasonably well personally, so I'll assume accurate for the others), and for events.......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on May 02, 2022

First, this is a relatively long book with lots of expository detail for such a young field. For example, following some of the on-chain analyses of transaction histories can be quite tedious. Speaking for myself, the motivation to finish this book is a result of a prior interest in crypto & the cas......more

Goodreads review by Chris on April 20, 2022

I didn’t think I’d like this book, but Laura Shin did an incredible job. I typically don’t read books that are stories about events, which is why I stay away from history books and biographies. But, as someone who dabbles in crypto investing and is a huge believer that crypto and blockchain technolo......more