the other computers, even if it
generated a digest with the
correct number of zeroes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Like Bitcoin, this book was
an act of group invention
made possible by many
wonderful people. Andrew
Ross Sorkin brought me into
the job that allowed me to
start
writing
about
this
fascinating topic. Later on he
saw that there was a bigger
story to be written about
Bitcoin and pushed me to
write it. I can’t thank him
enough. My agent, Andrew
Wylie,
gave
me
the
confidence I needed to take
this idea out into the world
and find it the right home. At
HarperCollins, Tim Duggan
immediately understood what
I was hoping to do with this
book, and Jonathan Jao made
sure I did it. Both of them
were the kind of editor every
young writer dreams of
finding. Emily Cunningham
was my guide and good fairy
through the entire process. I
am also grateful for the help I
was given by Joanna Pinsker,
Stephanie Cooper, and the
rest
of
the
staff
at
HarperCollins.
This book is, at its core,
the story of several people
who opened up their lives to
me. I have to thank, most of
all, Wences Casares, Barry
Silbert, Bobby Lee, Charlie
Shrem, Roger Ver, Martti
Malmi, Gavin Andresen, and
Tyler
and
Cameron
Winklevoss. But the story
wouldn’t have come together
without
the
time
and
cooperation of Fran, Hal, and
Jason Finney; Dan Morehead;
Patrick
Murck;
Erik
Voorhees;
Jesse
Powell;
Mark Karpeles; Mike Hearn;
Naval
Ravikant;
Jed
McCaleb; MiSoon Burzlaff;
Nick Szabo; Reid Hoffman;
Eric
O’Brien;
Federico
Murrone; Charlie Lee; Amir
Taaki; Jamileh Taaki; Alex
Rampell; Emmauel Abiodun;
Nicolas Cary; David Marcus;
Jorge Restrelli; Bill Tanona;
Pete Briger; Jamie Dimon;
Max
Neukirchen;
Andy
Dresner; Paul Walker; Marty
Chavez; Alexander Kuzmin;
Nicole Navas; Lyn Ulbricht;
Josh Dratel; John Collins;
Jennifer
Shasky
Calvery;
Sebastian
Serrano;
Chris
Larsen; Chris Dixon; Balaji
Srinivasan; Marc Andreessen;
Kim
Milosevic;
Brian
Armstrong; Fred Ehrsam;
John O’Brien; Belle Casares;
Patrick Strateman; Yifu Guo;
Marcie Braden; Alex Waters;
Brian Klein; Nejc Kodric;
Paul Chou; Jeff Garzik;
Adam Back; Laszlo Hanecz;
Leon Li; Gil Lauria; Monica
Long; Michael Keferl; Daniel
Kelman; Jack Smith; Tim
Swanson; Rui Ma; Jack
Wang; Ling Kang; Huang
Xiaoyu; Kathleen Lee; Ayaka
Ver;
Alex
Likhtenstein;
Jeremy Allaire; Matt Cohler;
Larry Lenihan; Fred Wilson;
Michael
Goldstein;
Phil
Zimmerman; Yin Shih; Perry
Metzger; Tony Gallipi; Bruce
Wagner; and Justin Myers. I
also was lucky to be writing
about a topic that had already
been
covered
by
smart
journalists, academics, and
filmmakers
like
Nicholas
Mross, Joshua Davis, Kevin
Roose,
Eileen
Ormsby,
Izabella
Kaminska,
Felix
Salmon, Andy Greenberg,
Sergio Demian Lerner, Sarah
Meikeljohn, Nicolas Christin,
Susan
Athey,
Adrianne
Jeffries, and Andrea Chang.
This
book
immensely
benefited
from
my
first
readers, some of whom are
also my best friends: Teddy
Wayne, Peter Eavis, Lev
Moscow,
Mark
Suppes,
David Segal, Benny Gorlick,
Alex
Morcos,
and
Ben
Davenport.
My
friends
Danielle and Alex Mindlin,
and Gal Beckerman and
Deborah Kolben gave me lots
of good advice and listened to
my
griping.
Mirta
Kupferminc and her family
graciously put me up while I
did my work in Argentina.
I’m lucky to work for the
New
York
Times
and
DealBook,
where
the
exceptional staff make it
exciting to go to the office
each day. In my time at the
paper, Arthur Sulzberger Jr.,
Jill Abramson, and Dean
Baquet have kept the paper
dedicated to the ideals that
made it a place I wanted to
work for from the time I
became a journalist. Several
wonderful editors helped me
develop my ideas and put up
with my absence while I
developed them into a book.
They include Jeffrey Cane,
Dean Murphy, Vera Titunik,
David Gillen, and Peter
Lattman, who brought me
into my very first Bitcoin
story. My colleagues Charles
Duhigg, Jim Stewart, Ron
Lieber, Barry Meier, and
David Gelles shared wisdom
that made it a bit easier to
navigate the book-writing
process for the first time. I am
also forever indebted to the
editors and journalists who
gave me a shot at various
points in my career and
helped me grow. The list
begins with J.J. Goldberg and
extends to Ami Eden, Alana
Newhouse, John Palattella,
Geraldine
Baum,
Davan
Maharaj, Tom Petruno, and
Larry
Ingrassia,
among
others.
This book was, in the end,
possible only because of my
family: Lewis, Sally, and
Miriam
Popper;
Juliana,
Robbie,
Florence,
and
Beatrice Dapice; and my
broader family, the Strauss
clan, with special thanks to
Jona, Martin, and Alanna,
who helped care for my
family when I could not. My
son, August, put up with too
little time with his father and
gave me an incentive to
finish. My beloved wife,
Elissa, did everything that no
one else could do for me, and
more,
allowing
me
to
accomplish things that would
be impossible without her.
SOURCES
The bulk of this book is based on over three hundred interviews I conducted with the people involved, in places as far flung as Buenos Aires; Beijing; Shanghai;
Tokyo;
Austin;
San
Francisco;
Palo
Alto;
Reykjavik;
Toronto; Washington, DC; Amsterdam;
and New York. I was often able to confirm the recollections with private emails and other contemporaneous
documents that were shared with me. In
the end only a handful of the people mentioned in this book declined to talk
to me.
Unless I have specified otherwise in
the notes below, readers can assume that every moment described in this book came to me directly from at least one or, when possible, more than one person present at the event described.
Most of the direct quotes come from contemporaneous