The Cryptopians: Book Review
When reading and writing this book review for The Cryptopians — Idealism, Greed, Lies and the making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze by Laura Shin, I couldn’t help but remember something from my past.
I remembered a feeling I got from one of my favorite movies.
From the opening credits — right when you start to hear the subtle piano plying — the movie The Social Network had always pumped me up and made me want to start working. There was something about that internet craze that was exhilarating. (I also think it was easily one of the best movies of the 2010’s — and Quentin Tarantino agrees).
And that’s exactly the same feeling I get when reading The Cryptopians. The book is thrilling, inspiring, and highly entertaining. It captures you right from the get-go, and is the definition of a page turner.
In fact I really do think there is a possibility that this book will one day be used as the basis of a movie. It’s that good (and there just has to be a movie about crypto someday — right?).
What is The Cryptopians about?
The book was originally going to be about a number of different events pertaining to the world of cryptocurrency. It’s goal was for it to be about cryptocurrency as a whole, and Ethereum would just be a part of it. However at some point Shin realized that Ethereum was the story.
The book takes you on a wild ride on how Ethereum came to be — from “kernel” to “popcorn.” It also details the inner workings of several additional companies that built platforms on top of Ethereum — most notably the DAO, which was famously hacked in 2016 (Shin actually recently doxxed the DAO hacker in a cover story on Forbes as well as the information on how much money the developer, and former crypto CEO, made off with).
Meet Vitalik Buretin…
The Cryptopians also gives you an exclusive look at the life of Vitalik Buretin, the founder of the blockchain Ethereum and it’s native cryptocurrency Ether.
You’ll read about how the founder navigated through the not-so-clear waters of the the blockchain’s early years, what his personality is like, the type of people that he likes to keep close to him, and how he himself and others that have worked for him view his management style.
You’ll get a glimpse of all of this as he works along side several co-founders that consisted of both software engineers as well as businessmen — all of which have their own interesting personal backstories.
Want an idea of what it was like to actually be working at a crypto startup company? You’ll get that too.
At times, you’ll feel like you’re sitting right there in the Zug, Switzerland apartment where the organization spent many of its early days hashing out who took on certain responsibilities of the project (Zug is known as “Crypto Valley”). You’ll know exactly what kind of technical problems the company faced and how they went about solving, as well as all of the juicy drama details.
And there’s no shortage of backstabbing, gossiping, accusations, and intense moments where hard decisions are made.
Infamous attacks from hackers…
The chapter on the DAO attack is like a digital version of the Pirates of the Caribbean, and the each event builds on the last.
Shin takes you through exactly what happened in one of the most infamous hacks that ever took place, how the hacker did it, how community as well as several DAO employees responded, and all the nitty gritty of the technical details as well.
Even though shin breaks it down to bite sized explanations, technical talk is a large portion of the book. Shin has stated that she spent a large amount of time fact checking things like the price points of tokens on certain dates, technical processes involved, and even crypto slang terms.
The amount of work put into interviews, verification, sourcing, and general fact checking is astounding. The Cryptopians truly raises the bar when it comes to combining an enticing story, thorough fact checking, as well writing on actual IRL events.
Major crypto events…
Major events that have moved the industry forward are highlighted in The Cryptopians in ways that help you understand the crypto world better — like when the price of Bitcoin soared due the the Winklevoss twins announcing a Bitcoin futures product on their crypto exchange Gemeni.
These types of stories help readers to learn what the essence of crypto is, how it moves forward, and who the major players in the sphere are.
And speaking of the Winklevoss twins — two individuals that also had a role in the creation of Facebook in The Social Network — I think the only thing to do next is figure out who Justin Timberlake is going to play in the potential movie adaptation. That and write The Cryptopians 2.
