In Catching Up to Crypto: Your Guide to Bitcoin and the New Digital Economy, celebrated crypto and Bitcoin expert Ben Armstrong delivers an exciting and fresh new exploration of Bitcoin and digital currencies. He explains what Bitcoin is, how it works, and how and why we’re all transitioning to a digital economy as we speak. He discusses the deficiencies of traditional fiat currency, how it’s commonly manipulated, and how we can all benefit from the adoption of new, digital assets.
In the book, you’ll discover how Bitcoin operates in the real-world and how the underlying technology - known as the blockchain - operates. You’ll also learn about: - The importance of decentralization, trust-less commerce and cryptographic consensus. - The humble origins of Bitcoin, as well as how it nearly died out, and how it went on to take over the world - How monetary and financial policy is being revolutionized by the introduction of Bitcoin and other crypto-assets.
An essential and engaging review of Bitcoin, digital assets, and the new digital economy, Catching Up to Crypto is the hands-on and comprehensive introduction to crypto that investors, enthusiasts, the crypto-curious, and finance professionals have been waiting for.
Table of Contents
Foreword xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xvii
1 The Great Devaluation 1
Central Banks 2
The Fed 4
2 Digital Money Tree 7
New Money 9
New Ways to Spend 11
3 First- Gen Giants 13
Cypherpunk 14
Disruptive Tech 17
4 Genesis Block 21
A Culture Is Born 25
Bitcoin for President 26
5 A Short Course in Blockchain 29
Blockchain 101 29
Blockchain 201 32
Blockchain 365 34
6 A Necessary Evil 35
Silk Road 37
The Streisand Effect 41
7 “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems” 43
BitInstant 45
Regulators Take Notice 47
8 What the Fork? 49
Shots Fired 52
ASICBoost 55
9 The Future Is Born 59
The Ethereum Team 61
Blast Off 62
The DAO 63
10 Digital Gold Transformation 67
Bitcoin Becomes Digital Gold 68
Halving 70
11 Crypto Turning Point 73
Buy Bitcoin 74
Moonboys and Lambos 77
12 New Layer to the Internet 79
DeFi 81
The Challengers 83
13 Brave New World 87
Stablecoins 87
Oracles 88
Memecoins 89
Community Coins 90
14 Investment Prep 91
Step One: Researching 92
Step Two: Choosing 94
Step Three: Deploying Capital 97
15 Tips of the Trade 99
Trading Tokens 100
Some Trading Caveats 102
Trader Training 103
Types of Trading 105
Risk Management 107
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained 107
16 Non- Fungible Tokens (NFTs) 109
Historical NFTs 110
The Next Generation 111
The Next-Next Generation 114
17 Web3 and the Metaverse 117
The Metaverse 121
Not a New Idea 123
18 Crypto FUD 127
The Long Arm of the Law 128
19 Crypto Warnings 133
Hackers 133
Scammers 135
Contagion 140
20 The Future of Crypto 141
Crypto Grows Up 141
Stablecoins 142
Blockchain Equities 143
The Flippening 143
Regenerative Finance 144
Universal Basic Income 146
21 Where Do You Go from Here? 149
Community Is Key 149
Mainstream Takes Time 151
Embrace Change 151
Appendix: Essential Resources and Tools of the Trade 153
Notes 159
Index 195
