This time there is only a 2 week gap between my last book review. It goes to show that I have been just reading, watching TV and gaming recently. I hope to be more active in the spring/summer. The weather has turned cold again, which isn't great. I have started to do some spring cleaning but have made time to keep up with my reading.
I am reading a few books at a time, depending where I leave them around the house. I've recently started War and Peace after watching Napoleon and that could take some time to finish! Anyhow, todays book review is the recently released book by Lyn Alden.
If you have followed any of Lyn's work, you would know she is crunching the numbers and providing lots of micro and macro type of analysis on not just Bitcoin, but the markets too.
It was then a great chance for me to pick up the book and give it a read. It is a big one with over 500 pages, so it wasn't some quick reading either. However, the book started very slowly with some very boring chapters and I thought oh no, this is going to be a bore fest and nothing useful here.
The first 4 chapters were really hard going, but luckily, they were not a pre-cursor to some later chapters in the book that were real gems. I am glad that I persisted because there were some great information tucked away and delivered in a really helpful manner to those researching Bitcoin, alts and the fiat monetary system from a more non-economics professor type of angle.
Whilst Jimmy Song's book cover a few of these topics, they were not so well back up with data and thoughtful analysis that you get in Lyn's book.
It even answered some of the questions that you might have such as What's wrong with Ethereum?. Why is it not a replacement of Bitcoin or even a compliment of it. Lyn goes into some great details about it here. Of course everyone knows about the pre-mine etc., but this and more is explained why proof of stake chains, including Hive and inherently centralising which was pretty interesting for me. When I look at Ethereum and Hive, they are quite centralised and Lyn tells you why, and how it comes about and why that isn't a good thing.
Lyn doesn't just cheerlead Bitcoin on without any critical thinking or analysis. She delivers many pages looking into known weaknesses and possible problems with Bitcoin. Not only through things like proof of work vs. proof of stake, but many of the possible frailities and lays them out for you and evaluates them. I appreciated these things as it is better to be aware of this than tread blindly not knowing about them.
Some of these discussed were quantum computing, political threats and lack of adoption. She openly discussed what in her view failure would look like, which I sort of agreed with.
There were many interesting topics once you started getting into the meat of the book. Some of my favorites are the cantillon effect and the monetisation of Bitcoin in which Jimmy Song also discussed at length in his book. He discussed the cantillon effect in more depth and the myriad ways that it is used in the fiat system to debase and destroy our society. Lyn also touches it quite well in a complementary way.
It is about those who are close to the money printers getting all the benefits at the expense of others. Lyn also covers things such as the long term debt cycles in fiat and also how things might be different under a hard money system.
The book has a huge wealth of useful information in many different topics that will interest anybody who has an interest in money, freedom, investing or generally trying to navigate the crypto world.
It is so well explained without that economics professor jargon that you can relate to it. Sometimes Lyn comes across quite heavy in her interviews, but in the book, it has the right balance of data and writing to implant the messages into your head.
You get the feeling that Lyn isn't gatekeeping you and is providing some solid information on the technology, financial world and side topics such as privacy and how they all relate to the money we use. In the end it comes down to a moral question and after reading this book, you can understand the risk environment and financial reasons to hodl Bitcoin.
My next book has just been delivered and I will be diving into this in the next weeks during Easter and delivering a review afterwards. If you have any good book recommendations, leave them in the comments below.
Thanks for reading.
Credits:
All photos are my own.
Let's connect : mypathtofire
I have lost the habit of reading books long ago. I have some books stored on the table. But, those are only being buried under the dust.
Thanks for the review.
HIVE is inherently centralized!!! 🤔😒
#aliveandthriving
You should try to keep the habit doctor, you cant beat reading a good book! I was very addicted at one point in my life and bought books by the "sack load"... literally!! haha I was so thirsty for information and reading...
Yes, it covers lots of things about PoS chains and how they tend towards centralisation.. and Hive is no different as can be seen by the top token holders not changing over time, control of the DAO etc.
Great review! Looking forward to your review of "Bitcoin is Venice" :)
Thanks, I cant wait to get stuck into the new book.
Interesting and educative book! Thanks for this nice review
!DHEDGE
!discovery 20
Thanks for checking it out.
Reading books is always a peaceful hobby and a book with informative content is a cherry on top.
Yeah, when I first started reading seriously, I was reading purely non-fiction (at least that is what it was labelled!) It is great to learn new things.
Man, must be nice! It usually takes me about six months to read a book. I'm just slow like that!
Thanks man, I rewarded myself by watching some of the Eras tour last night on Disney!
I haven't watched any of it yet. I need to though. I think I keep putting it off because I don't want to be bummed that I didn't see it live.
Yeah, some great performances. I know you are a Swifty too!
Thank you so much for sharing buddy I will read this. It's was helpful.
Its a great book, I can recommend it.
You did great to get through that! I would still be back in the first few chapters never making it past the slow part!
It was tough in the beginning, but I'm glad I persevered.
Nice ... I have pivoted to audio books and have "read" this one in audio format. I have found especialy educative the part where she describes the creation of the curent fiat money and the diffence between broad money supply and base money. Especialy with the examples.
Ah that's cool. Yes those charts and analysis are especially handy to understand how they have pivoted to a fiscal stimulus recently through the treasury rather than the broad money supply. The charts are really helpful there too.
Definitely a must read for me!! Great review on what to expect and explore in this big book :)
I think it's very irrelevant in the current times we live in.
I hope you will enjoy the book. It is worth reading imo.
This must be a great book with fantastic informations inside of it
It really is.
Broken Money seems to be a useful book, I hope I find an audio book of it free on YouTube or somewhere else.
You might do, good luck!
Hey there, great review.
Is there any community of book lovers/ book reviewers? I would like to be a part of that
Thanks, Im not really sure. I didnt find one so far.
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