Bitcoin billionaires

Bitcoin Billionaires is a tale of Winklevoss twins and their outrageous venture into the chaotic world of cryptocurrency bitcoin exploring the techno-ideological experiments and financial manias.

Ben Mezrich, the New York Times bestselling author of the Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House comes his latest Bitcoin Billionaires.

 Harvard educated identical twins Cameron and Tyler lost out to Mark Zuckerberg at the peak of social networking. While still at Harvard they hired fellow student Zuckerberg to do some coding for the new site they were planning to launch only for the future Facebook founder to branch off and set up on his own.

The story starts with the final legal showdown with Zuckerberg, with the twins emerging winners with a settlement of $65m. With this money Cameron and Tyler dived early into Bitcoin starting in 2011 they bought 1 per cent of all bitcoin in circulation for a total of $11m.  By 2017, the price of the cryptocurrency surging past $10, 000 mark they were combined worth $2bn, making them billionaires on the block.

Planning to start a careers as venture capitalists, the brothers quickly discover that no one will take their money after their fight with Zuckerberg and while nursing their wounds in Ibiza, they accidently run into an eccentric character who tells them about a brand new idea cryptocurrency and made them realise ”crypto” is,  “either the next big thing or total bulls–t”. From the Silk Road to the halls of the Securities and Exchange Commission Bitcoin Billionaires will take us on a wild and ride exposing us to the illuminating economic future.

 

While cryptocurrencies promise a decentralised online world, against Facebook’s “walled garden” hinting at a future where each person can control their own data and transact freely setting the terms for all their digital interactions.

In the last chapter of Bitcoin Billionaires, the Facebook chief is sitting at his screen, tapping out his thoughts about the crypto phenomenon. Recently among the potential partners Facebook has discussed its crypto plans with the Winklevoss brothers’ own currency exchange, Gemini. Will the old entrepreneurs become peers in this new world, or will Zuckerberg outsmart the twins again.

Among the characters emerging from the background is the coder Charlie Shrem whose start-up BitInstant, was one of the first to make it easy to buy and sell bitcoin. Success turns his head and he falls into party scene. Shrem who lacks the discipline to run a booming financial business, was eventually accused by the FBI of turning a blind eye to drug money laundering taking place on BitInstant and is sentenced to two years.

 

 

 Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption by Ben Mezrich, Little, Brown £20, 288 pages.