Bitcoin Or Bust

Depending on who you ask, bitcoin is rat poison, an interesting technology, or a world-altering wonder-currency that will lead a revolution in finance and alter our contemporary notions of privacy, wealth, governance, and security. Some say it will liberate the masses from financial oppression and deprivation. Others claim it's a ponzi scheme destined to destroy all who participate in it. Wall Street does not seem to care. It's happy to make money from those who want to buy it and those who want to bet against it. Does this mark the beginning of a shift of cryptocurrency away from bootstrapping developers and diehard believers towards professional money-makers? Will traditional finance rekindle the speculative frenzy that blasted cryptocurrency into mainstream discourse? How will cryptocurrency change Wall Street? More importantly, how will Wall Street change cryptocurrency?

"For readers of Bitcoin Billionaires comes a true tale of Bitcoin boom to bust: the inside story of fortune and new beginnings in the cryptocurrency Wild West Fresh out of university, Ethan Lou moves to Western Canada to write for Reuters, landing in an oil boomtown with deep roots in the past. But before that, he had another life, in the cryptocurrency world, crossing paths with the likes of the late Gerald Cotten of QuadrigaCX and Anthony Di Iorio, co-founder of Ethereum. When his early Bitcoin investments pay off spectacularly, the newly risen Lou builds a blockchain start-up, riding into a some-trillion-dollar frontier of open-bar pool parties, wealth-flaunting money giveaways, psychedelics, scams, scandals, and turmoil. Lou meets the wildcatters and the fast-talkers, the ambitious and the adventurous, and the exiles seeking fresh starts--all chasing hope, fortune, and the smell of gold. Yet nothing lasts. Calamity comes in waves. Overhead, vultures circle, and in the tall grass, lawmen lurk. This new world is harsh and unpredictable. A true story, Once a Bitcoin Miner is investigative journalism at its best: painstakingly researched through court and government records, extensive interviews, and confidential files and sources. It is also an accessible literary account: a richly told first-person narrative that delves deep into this prominent yet shadowy domain."--

Why do stock and housing markets sometimes experience amazing booms followed by massive busts and why is this happening more and more frequently? Boom and Bust reveals why bubbles happen, and why some bubbles have catastrophic economic, social and political consequences, whilst others have actually benefited society.

In the next decade Bitcoin will have passed through adolescence and reached adulthood. This book tells the fascinating journey of Bitcoin and why it could be the best investment opportunity of your life. You'll learn about Bitcoin's role in the history of money and why it's considered "good money" by many financial advisors, including the author, who has spent a decade and a half in the investment business. Bitcoin's value has grown exponentially over multiple boom and bust cycles spanning more than a decade. If Bitcoin reaches its potential, its value could rise by ten or even 100 times its current price. Bitcoin, like Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Microsoft, and Tencent, relies on the network effect (how many others are using it). But the market for money is much greater than the combined market values of the Internet giants.This book will help you understand why Bitcoin is the world's solution for the problem of money, the role of money in our economy, the current state of debt, and the particular intricacies of Bitcoin.

In the space of a few years, Bitcoin has gone from an idea ignored or maligned by almost everyone to an asset with a market cap of more than $12 billion. Venture capital firms, Goldman Sachs, the New York Stock Exchange, and billionaires such as Richard Branson and Peter Thiel have invested more than $1 billion in companies built on this groundbreaking technology. Bill Gates has even declared it ‘better than currency’. The pioneers of Bitcoin were twenty-first-century outlaws – cryptographers, hackers, Free Staters, ex-cons and drug dealers, teenage futurists and self-taught entrepreneurs – armed with a renegade ideology and a grudge against big government and big banks. Now those same institutions are threatening to co-opt or curtail the impact of digital currency. But the pioneers, some of whom have become millionaires themselves, aren’t going down without a fight. Sweeping and provocative, How Money Got Free reveals how this disruptive technology is shaping the debate around competing ideas of money and liberty, and what that means for our future.

Money Mania is a sweeping account of financial speculation and its consequences, from ancient Rome to the Meltdown of 2008. Acclaimed journalist and investor Bob Swarup tracks the history of speculative fevers caused by the appearance of new profitable investment opportunities; the new assets created and the increasing self-congratulatory euphoria that drives them to unsustainable highs, all fed by an illusion of insight and newly minted experts; the unexpected catalysts that eventually lead to panic; the inevitable crash as investors scramble to withdraw their funds from the original market and any other that might resemble it; and finally, the brevity of financial memory that allows us to repeat the cycle without ever critically evaluating the drivers of this endless cycle. In short, it is the story of what makes us human.

A multi-disciplinary framework through which to spot financial bubbles before they burst. Based on a popular undergraduate seminar, entitled Financial Booms & Busts, taught by the author at Yale University, Boombustology presents a multi-disciplinary framework for identifying unsustainable booms and forthcoming busts. The magnitude of our recent financial crisis mandates a firm understanding of this phenomenon before the next crisis occurs. Boombustology provides an in-depth look at several major booms and busts and offers a solid framework for thinking about future occurrences. Examines why booms and busts are not random and can therefore be identified Focuses upon various theoretical and disciplinary lenses useful in the study of booms and busts Contains a framework for thinking about and identifying forthcoming financial bubbles including several tell-tale indicators of a forthcoming bust. Illustrates the framework in action by evaluating China as a potential bubble in the making. If you want to make better decisions in today’s turbulent investment environment, understanding the dynamics of booms and busts is the best place the start. Boombustology can help you achieve this elusive goal. Vikram Mansharamani is a Lecturer at Yale University and a global equity investor.