Once A Bitcoin Miner

A map to the new frontier, and a rollicking ride across it Ethan Lou goes on an epic quest through the proverbial cryptocurrency Wild West, through riches, absurdity, wonder, and woe. From investing in Bitcoin in university to his time writing for Reuters, and then mining the digital asset ― Lou meets a co-founder of Ethereum and Gerald Cotten of QuadrigaCX (before he was reported dead), and hangs out in North Korea with Virgil Griffith, the man later arrested for allegedly teaching blockchain to the totalitarian state. Coming of age in the 2008 financial crisis, Lou’s generation has a natural affinity with this rebel internet money, this so-called millennial gold, created in the wake of that economic storm. At once an immersive narrative of adventure and fortune, Once a Bitcoin Miner is also a work of journalistic rigor. Lou examines this domain through the lens of the human condition, delving deep into the lives of the fast-talkers, the exiles, the ambitious, and the daring, forging their paths in a new world, harsh and unpredictable.

Part autobiography and part investigation, the book describes the wackiness, the fraudulence, and the cycle of Bitcoin boom and bust and boom. We begin with scandal and conflict in Canada's cryptocurrency Wild West and spiral outward.

"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."--

A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of 2020 In a book equal parts travelogue and pandemic guide, the journalist Ethan Lou examines the societal effects of COVID-19 and takes us on a mesmerizing journey around a world that will never be the same. Visiting Beijing in January 2020 to see his dying grandfather, the Canadian journalist Ethan Lou unknowingly walks into a state under siege. In his journey out of China and—unwittingly—into other hot zones in Asia and Europe, he finds himself witnessing the very earliest stages of a virus that will forever change the world as we know it. Lou argues that the coronavirus outbreak will have a far greater impact than SARS, for example, simply because China is now many more times integrated with the increasingly interconnected world. Over decades, globalization has crafted a world painfully sensitive and susceptible to shocks such as this pandemic. A crisis like it has thus been long overdue—and we have yet to see it unfold fully. In our integrated world, events that may previously be isolated now ripple farther and wider and in ways we do not expect and cannot foresee. We have not seen the worst, and if and when we outlast this pandemic, nothing will ever be the same. Decisions now—or indecisions—will shape and define the world for decades. These ideas are fleshed out through the virus's spawning and how it spread, the unprecedented measures to contain it and an examination of past pandemics and other crises and how they shaped the world--and an argument for why this one's different. Lou shows how drastically the virus has transformed the world and charts the greater and more radical shifts to come. His ideas and arguments are framed around his unintentionally tumultuous journey around the world, whose path the virus seemed to follow until he landed safely in quarantine in a small town in Germany, where he was able to take stock and start telling his story.

Join the technological revolution that’s taking the financial world by storm. Mastering Bitcoin is your guide through the seemingly complex world of bitcoin, providing the knowledge you need to participate in the internet of money. Whether you’re building the next killer app, investing in a startup, or simply curious about the technology, this revised and expanded second edition provides essential detail to get you started. Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized digital currency, is still in its early stages and yet it’s already spawned a multi-billion-dollar global economy open to anyone with the knowledge and passion to participate. Mastering Bitcoin provides the knowledge. You simply supply the passion. The second edition includes: A broad introduction of bitcoin and its underlying blockchain—ideal for non-technical users, investors, and business executives An explanation of the technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architects Details of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer-to-peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principles New developments such as Segregated Witness, Payment Channels, and Lightning Network A deep dive into blockchain applications, including how to combine the building blocks offered by this platform into higher-level applications User stories, analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts

"Views differ on bitcoin, but few doubt the transformative potential of Blockchain technology. The Truth Machine is the best book so far on what has happened and what may come along. It demands the attention of anyone concerned with our economic future." —Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard, Former Treasury Secretary From Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna, the authors of The Age of Cryptocurrency, comes the definitive work on the Internet’s Next Big Thing: The Blockchain. Big banks have grown bigger and more entrenched. Privacy exists only until the next hack. Credit card fraud is a fact of life. Many of the “legacy systems” once designed to make our lives easier and our economy more efficient are no longer up to the task. Yet there is a way past all this—a new kind of operating system with the potential to revolutionize vast swaths of our economy: the blockchain. In The Truth Machine, Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna demystify the blockchain and explain why it can restore personal control over our data, assets, and identities; grant billions of excluded people access to the global economy; and shift the balance of power to revive society’s faith in itself. They reveal the disruption it promises for industries including finance, tech, legal, and shipping. Casey and Vigna expose the challenge of replacing trusted (and not-so-trusted) institutions on which we’ve relied for centuries with a radical model that bypasses them. The Truth Machine reveals the empowerment possible when self-interested middlemen give way to the transparency of the blockchain, while highlighting the job losses, assertion of special interests, and threat to social cohesion that will accompany this shift. With the same balanced perspective they brought to The Age of Cryptocurrency, Casey and Vigna show why we all must care about the path that blockchain technology takes—moving humanity forward, not backward.

Bitcoin: Is it a Boom or a Bubble? Hardly a day passes where Bitcoin isn't being discussed by the media. You need a high level of understanding and expertise to be able to swim safely in the Bitcoin pool. This book is the equivalent of the swimming lessons you took as a kid. Once finished, you'll be able to enter into the water safely, and be aware of both the potential dangers and thrills of the deep end. Bitcoin Decoded teaches you... What is Bitcoin How Bitcoin Works How You Get Bitcoin How to Make Money with Bitcoin How is Bitcoin created What is Bitcoin mining List of resources to find latest Bitcoin news and information online Don't worry about getting lost in technical terms. We are The Bitcoin Coaches and you will learn everything step by step in the only Bitcoin guide you will ever need. Bitcoin Decoded is packed with over 100 pages of up-to-date information about this new amazing way we pay for things and make money while doing it. We've updated the book with new information since the original was released early in 2014. In just a few months, the Bitcoin market has seen enough major changes that it we felt it important to keep our readers as up to date on developments as is possible. New information in this updated version of the book includes: Interviews with cryptocurrency pioneers Charlie Lee, Stan Larimer and Sunny King, shedding light on why so-called "altcoins" are so important How you can make money in the Bitcoin market and ... you won't read this anywhere else ... our EXCLUSIVE reasons why we believe Bitcoin's value will again skyrocket. (It's not a matter of IF, but WHEN.) You haven't read ... and won't read ... this anywhere else! You're here because you're looking for a way to understand more about Bitcoin. In "Bitcoin Decoded," you have discovered the book which has been and remains one of the top-selling books about Bitcoin on Amazon and Kindle. And now it's updated, so don't wait, order today! Scroll up and click "Buy Now" to access your book in under a minute!

Want to join the technological revolution that’s taking the world of finance by storm? Mastering Bitcoin is your guide through the seemingly complex world of bitcoin, providing the requisite knowledge to help you participate in the internet of money. Whether you’re building the next killer app, investing in a startup, or simply curious about the technology, this practical book is essential reading. Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized digital currency, is still in its infancy and it’s already spawned a multi-billion dollar global economy. This economy is open to anyone with the knowledge and passion to participate. Mastering Bitcoin provides you with the knowledge you need (passion not included). This book includes: A broad introduction to bitcoin—ideal for non-technical users, investors, and business executives An explanation of the technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architects Details of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer-to-peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principles Offshoots of the bitcoin and blockchain inventions, including alternative chains, currencies, and applications User stories, analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts