Catching up to Crypto - Book review

Published: Jan 18, 2023 Est. read time: 11 minutes

Love or Hate Ben Armstrong (@Bitboy_Crypto) you cannot deny he has a massive influence and reach in the crypto space. So when he announced a book release, I had to get my hands on it.

Titled Catching up to Crypto - Your guide to Bitcoin and the new digital economy is Ben's first published book. My first impressions of the book are great - in today's digitised world, having a physical book is a nice touch, if not a bit ironic given crypto/blockchain is largely about digitizing things. It comes in a dust jacket with the inner book itself not having any print on the outside.

The book essentially takes us through a journey of time - both in Crypto and the traditional market, covering things like monetary policy. From the past, to today and beyond. It excellently covers how all the early days of disruptive tech came together to form the inevitable, trustless decentralized currencies.

The book is excellent for a complete beginner (even non-technical) but also a great refresher for those more involved in the industry or technology in general. I personally learned a few things in some of the later chapters.

Another thing I really enjoyed was reading about how Ben got into crypto relatively early. Often people found Crypto by ... let's say, "grey areas". Ben is no different - paying people for products or services that would raise concerns or have been blocked by traditional banking methods. Not that Ben's story involves anything untoward, but rather his need to pay for software from a developer whose traditional services, were blocked due to legal reasons. Thankfully the industry has grown up a lot since and Ben even covers this more in Chapter 6 - A Necessary Evil.

The book is well-structured, easy to read and linear in time. A real walk-through in time. It is broken down into 21 chapters so let's dive into each and what to expect.

Chapter 1 - The Great Devaluation

Old Money, Central Banks and the Fed

Nothing particularly deep here, but does give a great overview of how currencies work, and how Central Banks and the Fed operate, including a recap of the most recent 2008 financial crisis. Ben covers the devaluation of the USD dollar, the loss of purchasing power and how USD is becoming less relevant as the worlds central currency.

Chapter 2 - Digital Money Tree

eCash, E-Gold, and eBay

A good history lesson covering the evolution of money. Starting with what actually is 'money' and what properties 'money' must have to be defined as money. 1. Medium of exchange, 2. store of value and 3. a unit of account.

As the chapter involves it starts with the history of eCash back in 85 and how different the internet could have looked if payments were at the core of the early internet and if Microsoft didn't abandon the project. eCash obviously wasn't decentralised and required big corp backing which never gained any traction. Followed by DigiCash with their eGold coin offering - essentially digitizing gold for online payments and their ultimate demise via regulation and litigation.
To more modern times, PayPal. Ben then goes into why PayPal still has its limitations with its centralized setup.

Chapter 3 - First-Gen Giants

Cypherpunks and Disruptive Tech

This is the first chapter that starts to get into some technical details. Describing the importance of Cryptography online and the initial (and perhaps remaining) resistance from governments. The infamous history of the PGP software and what PGP author Phil Zimmerman faced by US authorities. It describes all the pieces of the puzzles coming together in the early days of the internet when email mailing lists were hugely popular and cryptographers and activists were coming together to discuss various issues, not just digital payments. Although PoW was theorised much earlier, this was now being used in real-world examples to combat email spam well before Satoshi's Bitcoin implementation. Goes into how disruptive tech began to surface after the closure of Napster, and how a peer-to-peer decentralized alternative rose to fame 'BitTorrent'. At this point, it all seems inevitable that with all this tech; PoW, peer-to-peer, and Cryptography something like Bitcoin would soon be born.

Chapter 4 - Genesis Block

Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin

At last, get to hear about Satoshi - who posted to the previously mentioned email mailing lists a proposal for a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. At this point, it's clear why all the previous topics were covered as it clearly sets the scene. This chapter goes into who Satoshi might have been and covers all the theories that have cropped up over the years such as Craig Wright, Hal Finlay, and his neighbour. Ben also covers the founding of Mt.Gox by Jed McCaleb

Chapter 5 - A Short Course in Blockchain

Hashing, Mining, and Forking

A fairly technical yet well-written description of the underlying technology that makes up a Blockchain. What I would expect in a high-level book. If you want a deeper understanding then you'll need a different / more detailed book as this is all wrapped up in 6 pages. Ben also briefly goes into the environmental concerns of PoW/Mining and gets it right about using green/eco-friendly energy.

Chapter 6 - A Necessary Evil

Silk Road’s Original Sin

I'm glad to see Ben acknowledge that without the early days of Silk road and subsequent dark-web websites usage of Bitcoin/Crypto that Bitcoin may not have received the attention and adoption it did. Thankfully we are mostly over the narrative of Bitcoin being used only by criminals, scammers and hackers ...mostly.

Chapter 7 - “Mo' Money, Mo'' Problems

BitInstant and BitLicense

We're starting to get into more about Mt.Gox and the ultimate failure and continuing from the previous chapter but also the story of BitInstant. The now defunct payment processor and how the resulting BitLicense came into existence.

Chapter 8 - What the Fork?

The Block-Size War

The early days of Bitcoin prompted a lot of chaos regarding how the Bitcoin blockchain should be built to support scaling and other features. As the code was open-sourced, it prompted some teams to fork off their own versions. Ben goes into this at great length to describe both those projects that exist still today, albeit on life-support and nowhere near the success of BTC, and those that ultimately failed

Chapter 9 - The Future Is Born

Ethereum and Smart Contracts

Ben goes in depth about Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, his earlier publishing project and his vision that Crypto could be used for much more than just a currency. Ben also covers the Ethereum team and how tensions arose regarding the structure of the Ethereum business (non-profit vs corporate entity) and how the original founders ended up breaking away with Charles Hoskinson getting a special mention. This Chapter also covers dApps, DAOs, and smart contracts along with some background on IPOs and specifically what Ethereum did.

Chapter 10 - Digital Gold Transformation

Cryptocurrencies and Crypto Assets

At this point in the book, were now discussing the 2017/18 era after the Bitcoin block wars and forking largely settled. Ben goes into the narrative change of Bitcoin being described as 'digital gold' and a special mention to Michael Saylor who entered the space as a big advocate of this narrative. This chapter also covers the Bitcoin halving cycles and how that relates to the term digital gold and 'mining'

Chapter 11 - Crypto Turning Point

The Crypto-Rich

A fun chapter covering moon boys, Lambos and all the media attention Crypto was getting around this time. Also goes into the success of businesses and the birth and rise of Binance.

Chapter 12 - New Layer to the Internet

Decentralized Finance

Following on in the 2017/18 era, Ben goes into the new narrative of DeFi. Explains what this means and how smart contracts and dApps enable a real challenge to the traditional finance world. Centralized organisations such as Stripe and PayPal were making moves but due to their structure and centralized nature, they wouldn't gain the adoption or backing that Decentralized players could offer. Uniswap and Pancake swap get a special mention too along with MakerDAO and Stable Coins. Ben also goes into the challengers that provide an ecosystem/platform for DeFi such as Binance's BNB Chain (BNB), Solana (SOL) and PolkaDot (DOT) has given a fair account of their history, shortcomings and future potential.

Chapter 13 - Brave New World

Beyond Bitcoin

After touching on some topics in previous chapters such as Stablecoins, this Chapter digs deeper into things outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum. From Stablecoins, Memecoins, Oracles and Community coins.

Chapter 14 - Investment Prep

NOT Financial Advice

Ben is clear here that nothing in the book is financial advice and sets expectations to those retail investors who are in it to 'get rich quick'. I like that Ben explains that it is rare to 'Lambo' and often it's not what retail investors should primarily focus on. This Chapter really covers research and preparation and how to get involved in Trading ready for the next chapter.

Chapter 15 - Tips of the Trade

Charting, Trendspotting, and Leveraging

The Chapter itself goes into tools and techniques used by traders such as charts, indicators, leverage and lots more. It's fairly comprehensive but not a complete guide to trading. More of a gentle introduction to those who may be less experienced.

Chapter 16 - Non-Fungible Tokens

NFTs

As you'd expect this chapter covers NTFs, what they are and the various major projects that have been hugely successful. I do think there is a lot more than Be could go into here. Ben also acknowledges how, like the wider Crypto market, VC and Whales do control a lot the market and that we really are in our infancy here.

Chapter 17 – Web3 and the Metaverse

Another self-explanatory chapter title. Ben clearly defines what Web3 means and has a bit of background on past 'iterations' with Web 2.0. Does a good job of explaining that it's not just a buzzword and has true value and meaning. Although it's still a term that is latched on to by some to sound more 'advanced' than they actually are. There is some further detail about ICOs and the SEC's views. Ben then goes on to explain that the Metaverse is supported by Web3 and the Crypto industry. He goes into explaining the common misconception that Metaverse is just another buzzword for VR. Also, Ben goes into Facebook's history and their investment/commitment to branding as 'Meta' and their Oculus VR headset.

Chapter 18 - Crypto FUD

Fear, Doubt and Uncertainty

I'm not sure why it's subtitled with "Doubt and Uncertainty" the "wrong way around", but this shouldn't put you off as much as it did me :)

This chapter explains FUD and its origin from the traditional markets and also debunks and describes the big FUD's we have in the industry such as Eco Concerns, Banning and Regulation.

Chapter 19 - Crypto Warnings:

Hackers, Scammers and Contagion

A timely topic for the industry - This Chapter largely follows on from the FUD chapter but describes the very real risks from hacks, and scams (such as rug pulls and Ponzies) and the impact that has to trust and adoption in the Crypto industry. Celsius and Three Arrows Capital get a mention as expected.

Chapter 20 - The Future of Crypto

Equities, ReFi, and UBI

Moving on to more forward-thinking Ben describes what the future may hold whilst not claiming to know for sure, as no one can predict the future. Ben makes common predictions such as Eth flipping Bitcoin and Stablecoins becoming regulated and/or transitioning into CDBCs. Some optimistic views on the end of tribalism and infighting which has plagued the industry up to now. The chapter finishes up on Universal basic income and how blockchains can support that along with earning via Play to Earn mechanics and monetizing content creation. I think some more information about tokenising traditional real-world assets would have been a good inclusion here.

Chapter 21 - Where do you go from here?

The final chapter is mainly a wrap-up but Ben does go into a few projects he likes such as Cardano (ADA) and Polygon (MATIC) to name two. He covers how communities and communication will be vital for future success and adoption.

The last 50+ pages are all sources for claims made throughout the book and an index for finding topics covered in the chapters. Very useful.

Summary

I've summarized earlier but I'll finish by saying all in all, this book does a good job covering the past, present and future. It is an easy read and for the price, is good value.

Few criticisms

As mentioned earlier, I'd like to have seen some more real-world use cases for blockchain technologies such as tokenising real-world assets. Home purchases / Land registry etc...

At the launch of this book the FTX saga had already been a couple of months in and there was no mention of this. This may be unfair given publishing and writing take time and Crypto events appear to come out from nowhere rapidly, but the collapse of FTX and Alameda is a major event and stain on the industry. Ben himself was involved in exposing the debacle and became somewhat of a superhero. This alone changed my views on Ben Armstrong and I'm grateful for his contribution. I guess I would have liked to have read more about it. Maybe a second book is in the works already :D

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