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What you absolutely need to know

What you will learn in this book and how you should read it.

I stumbled across Bitcoin late—not until 2016. Maybe you discovered it even later than me, or years before me. Regardless of when Bitcoin came to your attention, I am sure you have a few questions that no-one has been able to give you a satisfactory answer to. I am also sure—since you’ve picked up this book—that you are interested in the topic of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. As an author and journalist, I am fascinated by the subject of crypto. However, no matter how hard I tried to grasp it, to understand it, to get a handle on how it all works, I kept finding myself in a deep dark wood. The more I learned, the more questions I had.

Even after reading dozens of reports, listening to even more podcasts, attending conferences and speaking to lots of crypto experts, I was still in those woods looking for clear answers. But my problem had changed. It wasn’t dark in the woods anymore. On the contrary; now the sun seemed to be illuminating my path, but I could no longer see the wood for the trees. Total information overload.

More conversations, more reports, more articles, more podcasts, and none of it really helped. The only reassuring thing was that I was finding more and more people who were experiencing the exact same uncertainty. There was more confusion than expertise in this new, specialist area. Again and again, I participated in conversations until both sides exhausted our logic and still were no closer to clarity. Why was that so, and how could it be solved?

I believe that anyone who has had any dealings with Bitcoin, blockchains and other cryptocurrencies will know instinctually that this new technology will change the world for the better. Many are intuitively of the opinion that we are approaching a new industrial revolution, or perhaps are already within it. But the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain is anything but intuitive. It runs counter to every framework and system that form the foundation of our modern lives. In large part, it is counterintuitive, strange, unknown, alien. I have often stood with almost literal question marks on my face, my lips forming one astounded “Pardon?” after another. I kept hearing the same stock answer from my friends: “I just don’t believe that.”

Understanding Bitcoin and blockchain runs counter to everything we know.

A change in thinking was not the only thing missing in my understanding of what is happening with cryptocurrencies. I lacked the central theme, the overarching framework, or maybe—as I now think—the deeper meaning of Bitcoin and blockchain.

When I realized something was missing from my conceptual framework, I started to seek it out. I looked for a new paradigm.

Many people who get involved with crypto see it as an opportunity to gamble. They want to take a chance at the possible windfall that comes with investing early in new technologies. With Bitcoin, the rate rocketed from a few hundred to over $ 14,000 within one year, and investors experienced wild fluctuations, up and down, again and again.

The cryptocurrency Ethereum, whose rate shot from under § 10 to nearly $ 700, experienced even wilder fluctuations. Ethereum investors gambled with so-called “Alt-Coins” and via ICOs—but more about that later in this ebook.

Oh yes, and all that happened within nine to twelve months. Bitcoin shot up 900% in twelve months (October 2016 to October 2017), while Ethereum skyrocketed 3,600% in twelve months (Ethereum from October 2016 until October 2017).

Nearly every crypto-portfolio made the profits of Warren Buffet—the best investor in the world for the last 40 years—look like pocket change. These profits in the thousands of percent were new for everyone, even the high-powered professionals who gamble every day with their financial instruments and move billions back and forth.

But others who come into contact with Blockchain see even more in it. They see better workflows in their company, more peace for mankind, the solution to all problems, the universal world computer.

The truth is probably—as it so often is—somewhere in between. However, this recognition does help us to further understand what it all means. What are the long-term implications of Blockchain? Are there any? Is it all just hype, a new software? Like Windows 10, 11 or 12?

The aim is to understand without being able to program.