Title: Bitcoin Billionaires
Author: Ben Mezrich
Publisher: Little Brown
Pp: 275 (inc acknowledgements and bibliography)
ISBN: 9 781408 711903
Price: £20.00
There is no doubt that this book is good in parts, at times very good. It can be bright and breezy and entertaining, but even at this relatively modest length with generously leaded pages and much white space, it feels too long.
Not least because Ben Mezrich, who wrote The Accidental Billionaires which became the film The Social Network, goes off into too many tangents at times. But it is a must-read for anyone interested in the modern financial world.
As a writer myself, I recognise the desire to pass on knowledge obtained in the research process of a book, but a stronger editor would have tugged more firmly on the reins, at least occasionally, I feel. Now and again, it feels like listening to a classical epic in the ancient oral tradition when the performer goes off into sub-clause after sub-clause after sub-clause, vamping while trying to remember what he is supposed to say next in his memorised text.
But I do love discovering that Mark Zuckerberg, the god of Facebook, apparently uses a booster cushion as part of daily life, and not just when he is appearing in front of government committees.
Dear me, though, the book is SO repetitive. I lost count of how many times we are told the central characters, Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss, are identical twins (though not identical as one is left, the other is right, which Mezrich tells us again and again), that they are six feet five, and that they are Olympian rowers.
The Olympian feel extends throughout what is in essence a hagiography of the Winkelvii, as we are reminded several times they are nicknamed. Are they superhuman beings who have assumed divine form while on Earth? Or are they genuine gods come to disport themselves among us?
If they feel that being awarded $65m in compensation between them for their role in the early days of Facebook is inadequate, even insulting, perhaps it is indeed the latter. They are portrayed throughout without any apparent sense of irony as poor victimised creatures. On page 190, Mezrich actually describes these undoubtedly privileged Men of Harvard as ‘underdogs’.
I find the US spellings in Bitcoin Billionaires irritating. If you are going to do an English edition, do it properly. English English uses sceptic, not skeptic. Ahold is a Dutch international retailer (we say a hold, as in ‘a hold of’). And the English expression is 'on a par with', not 'on par with'.
And I do wish that Mezrich, and/or his editor, would recognise the difference between ‘its’ and ‘it’s’. Oh, and re the use of ‘peaked’ on page 37, it should be piqued.
Anyone looking to be educated on what Bitcoin is will surely be disappointed. The author uses Bitcoin and lord knows how many other words related to it from start to finish, but every attempt to explain bitcoin, BTW, fails miserably, reinforcing my own utter scepticism that it is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
But that is self-indulgent editorialising rather than reviewing. The circular reasoning used in the book, though, is, in my opinion, a dead giveaway. As in, bitcoin is great because it’s digital but bitcoin is great because it’s physical. And, to understand bitcoin, you only have to understand bitcoin.
The use of US references often baffles me, especially when being used to make a point of some kind. I personally have no idea of what the 208 and 101 in Silicon Valley are. I would hazard a guess at a busy road of some kind, but why not add a couple of words to tell those who have never visited the USA.
And I have no idea what a ‘peanut gallery’ is or what an ‘OG’ is. There is a helpful acronym in journalist to nudge the writer into explaining such references: DARK. Don’t assume the reader knows.
It is not often that I read a book about a subject at the same time as I am researching and writing an article about it, but this was the case here, so my senses were probably heightened a little bit more than usual, though my personal bullshit factor is switched on at 100% constantly.
I found other points grating, points which the non-financial specialist might not even notice. I did not realise, for instance, knowing a little bit about financial history since being forced to study it for my first batch of banking exams in late 1979, that New York was the ground zero of the world’s financial system.
Tell that to the Bank of England, founded by a Scotsman in July 1694, or to the Medici family and other famous Italian bankers in earlier history. Or the Knights Templar who in effect invented travellers’ cheques during the Crusades. Or to David Graeber, author of ‘Debt: The First 5,000 years’. I really don’t think the Mellon family created the financial system by founding a bank in 1869.
But I digress and am showing off. I really did enjoy the book, despite the reservations expressed above, and it is without doubt a must-read for anyone working in the modern financial world, whether as a practitioner or as an observer.
I can see it being made into a film, if only because it often reads like a screenplay and a lot of scenes being inserted (the father of the twins gazing over a favourite stretch of water and reminiscing, so well captured that I can almost see a slight mist and hear the sounds of the oars in the water and the rowers puffing and panting with their exertions) purely for cinematic reasons.
My favourite character is Charlie Shrem, the founder of BitInstant, a conduit for the buying and selling of bitcoin, who ended up being given a two-year jail sentence and accused by the downtrodden victimised twins, separately, of stealing 5,000 bitcoin.
BNP Paribas Securities Services reappointed by Poste Italiane
BNP Paribas Securities Services reports this morning that it has been reappointed by Poste Italiane as its local and global custodian.
Poste Italiane is the holding company of the Poste Italiane Group, one of the largest Italian companies in the service sector. With a history dating back more than 150 years, the company has nearly
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