THE CRYPTOPIANS

With appeal to readers of John Carreyrou's Bad Blood, The Cryptopians brings together some remarkable characters (from a wunderkind, to a former federal prosecutor turned founder of billion dollar company Coinbase, to a child actor who is either broke or a crypto-billionaire) and tells the story of the idealists, would-be billionaires, and half-crazy dreamers who are fighting to bring cryptocurrency into the mainstream.

With cryptocurrency back in the news recently in a very big way, Laura Shin's The Cryptopians could not be more timely the story of the idealists, technologists, and opportunists fighting to bring cryptocurrency to the masses. Although there are books on cryptocurrency, the story of what happened in 2017the explosion of Ethereumis a dramatic and eye-opening story that has never been told before and Laura Shin does an excellent job with it. Laura was the first national reporter to cover cryptocurrency full-time and is frequently asked to speak about, and lead discussions, on cryptocurrency at places such as TEDx San Francisco and the IMF. Her podcast, Unchained, is one of the leading resources on cryptocurrencyit frequently gets more than 100,000 downloads per episode.

In their short history, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gone through booms, busts, and internecine wars. Yet today they are very much still with us: Bitcoin currently trades for almost $10,000, the value of all crypto assets is greater than $250 billion. The central promise of crypto is too good to pass upvast un-taxable fortunes made from decentralized networks not controlled by any single entity.

Cyrptocurrency was growing increasingly marginal until a brilliant new idea changed its fortunes once again: Ethereum. In this book, Laura Shin takes readers inside the creation of this new form of cryptocurrency network, which enabled users to launch their own new coins, and in so doing, created a new crypto fever. You'll meet people like Vitalik Buterin, the wunderkind whose idea quickly became a $20 billion empire; Charles Hoskinson, the initial CEO who left the project within five months; and Joe Lubin, a former Goldman Sachs VP whose early involvement in Bitcoin and Ethereum helped him become one of crypto's most well-known billionaires. Sparks flew as these outsized personalities fought for their piece of a seemingly limitless new business opportunity.

The fortunes of crypto continue to rise and fall, but the people fighting to take it mainstream are making and losing fortunes and careers on it. This fascinating book shows the crypto market for what it really is: a deeply personal struggle for a revolution that may come tomorrow, or not at all.

Laura Shin is a writer, crypto journalist, and podcaster. A former senior editor at Forbes, she left the magazine in 2018 to commit to her podcasts and videos, Unchained and Unconfirmed, which have had nearly 13 million downloads and views. Shin has spoken about and led discussions on cryptocurrency at places such as TEDx San Francisco, the IMF, Singularity University and the Oslo Freedom Forum. She lives in New York City.