Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud

First off, I'm grading on a bit of a curve to give this 5 stars, since it's not exactly a perfect book. But it is the product of a lot of time, effort and money that went into unearthing truths that desperately tried to remain hidden, in a situation where it would have been dramatically easier and more profitable to just go along with the lies. I commend that effort, and it makes me more generous with the grade on the book. What surprised me about this book was how personal of a story it was, from the perspective of author Ben McKenzie. It is heavily infused with his first-person perspective, and as much as there is a narrative holding the chapters together, it is him. How he became suspicious of crypto, how he engaged Jacob as his collaborator, how he interviewed crypto celebrities, how he interviewed crypto victims, how he interviewed crypto investigators. It is an interesting way to construct the book, because Ben (as he repeatedly admits himself) is not a particularly remarkable or sympathetic protagonist. He's a moderately successful actor, largely on the strength of his good looks, with the disposable income and spare time necessary to engage in journalism-as-hobby. Still, Ben's voice comes through in way that feels very sincere and authentic, and his self-deprecating humbleness presents as a refreshing contrast to the hubris and bombast of some of the con-men he covers. The book is a bit dull over the first third or so, which is *just* a story about Ben. But then it heats up as he gets himself right in the thick of the fraud as it's happening in real time. He scores interviews with *major* players and asks them good questions that peel away at the lies covering the truth. He travels in person in El Salvador to get the real story of Bitcoin adoption. He meets with the internet sleuth who blew the lid off of Celsius. He exchanges DMs with SBF shortly before his arrest. The fact that the story is so much about Ben seems like a weakness early on, but becomes a strength as Ben finds himself, improbably, right at the middle of major events. Ben self-identifies his strength, from an actor background, as storytelling. And I think that mostly pays off. I was captivated by the storytelling even when it was 90% stuff I already knew, because it was well told. I do think this could be a bit better at extrapolating the micro-story of what specifically happened to more of a macro story, about human nature. A couple other books I've read that touch on similar topics are David Gerard's "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain" and John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Great Crash 1929", and I was impressed reading those books how they not only chronicled historical events, but also recognized patterns that were eerily predictive of future events after the book's were written. I'm not sure this book succeeds at finding that larger story, but maybe it's just too soon to judge.

翻訳版を早く出すと良い。

Great book. Well researched, funny, grounded and cuts through all the cyrpto BS.

Eine wunderbare Zusammenfassung von einer verzerrten Welt, sehr gut erzählt. Es ist Crypto. Kein Bezug zur Realität, keine Regeln, kein Schutz, nur Vorgaukeln und Betrug. Mehr muss man über crypto nicht wissen. Weniger sollte man aber auch nicht wissen. Die Brücke zur realen Welt schlagen sog. Stablecoins, wertlose Tokens, vergeudete Computerrechenleistung, die ihren Wert ausschliesslich aus dem Dollar-Pegging bekommen. Shitcoins haben nur einen Wert indem man sie in $, €, £ ausdrückt. Ein Bitcoin sind 25.000 Tether. Few.

Buch gibt guten Einblick und deckt doch sehr lustig die Wirrungen der Crypo-Blase auf. Teilweise etwas repitetiv und mit kleinen Längen. Aber insgesamt ein gutes und wichtiges Buch. Nachfolger zum Thema NFT wäre bestimmt auch sehr lustig...