I just finished Nathaniel Poppers book Digital Gold. Here are a few of my main takeaways:
1. Digital currency discussions have always been contentious. People like to note that Hal Finney and Gavin Andreessen were civil in the early days and things have fallen apart in the scaling debate. In fact Popper reports that the Cypherpunk mailing list was full of sniping comments from Nick Szabo and others. Heated debate is the norm.
2. Very easy and well written narrative of the early days of bitcoin. I had no idea about Marti Malmi or that Hal Finney was a bit of jock.
3. In the history of digital currencies bitcoin is still young. If it goes away and gets replaced its not the end of the world. It has started something important. Wences Cesares prediciton sums up my subjective thinking on this uncertainty. 30% chance of failure but more than 50% of big success. It is an asymmetric bet. The asymmetry is due to lack of understanding about its potential.
4. Listening to those who have remained calm the longest may be a useful strategy. e.g. Wences Cesares, & Dan Morehead.
1. Digital currency discussions have always been contentious. People like to note that Hal Finney and Gavin Andreessen were civil in the early days and things have fallen apart in the scaling debate. In fact Popper reports that the Cypherpunk mailing list was full of sniping comments from Nick Szabo and others. Heated debate is the norm.
2. Very easy and well written narrative of the early days of bitcoin. I had no idea about Marti Malmi or that Hal Finney was a bit of jock.
3. In the history of digital currencies bitcoin is still young. If it goes away and gets replaced its not the end of the world. It has started something important. Wences Cesares prediciton sums up my subjective thinking on this uncertainty. 30% chance of failure but more than 50% of big success. It is an asymmetric bet. The asymmetry is due to lack of understanding about its potential.
4. Listening to those who have remained calm the longest may be a useful strategy. e.g. Wences Cesares, & Dan Morehead.
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