Sources for Further Information

Many technologists have long been critical of crypto, and they are increasingly vocal about it. Here are some good sources. (Note: Crypto Twitter is deliberately left out, as these issues are better grasped in book form or long blog posts rather than 280 characters.)

Books

Non-Technical Books

  • Faux, Zeke. Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall. Crown Currency, 2023.

    From investigative reporter Zeke Faux (Bloomberg), a well researched and entertaining analysis of crypto and its nefarious underbelly globally, for example in El Salvador, where Bitcoin is legal tender, the Philippines, where blockchain game Axie Infinity made some rich and many poor, and Cambodia, where victims of cyber trafficking are forced to engage in pig butchering scams. Also features SBF in some depth, Razzlekhan, and an ApeFest.

  • Gerard, David. Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum and Smart Contracts. 1st ed., 2017.

    An early critical and trenchant examination of BTC and ETH, including their ideological underpinnings, by long-term crypto critic David Gerard.

  • Howson, Peter. Let Them Eat Crypto: The Blockchain Scam That’s Ruining the World. Pluto Press, 2023.

    A thorough refutation of several of crypto’s utopian (but hollow) promises and pretensions, such as ‘banking the unbanked’, saving the gorillas, or freeing people from oppressive governments.

  • Lewis, Michael. Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon. W. W. Norton & Company, 2023.

    Famous finance author Michael Lewis’s book on SBF and his downfall. Lewis largely lets the facts speak for themselves and is non-judgemental, even sympathetic, to Bankman-Fried.

  • McKenzie, Ben, and Jacob Silverman. Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. Harry N. Abrams, 2023.

    Another well-researched examination of fraud in crypto by actor/economist Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman, featuring SBF, Brock Peirce of Tether, and others.

  • Thielen, Markus. Crypto Titans: How Trillions Were Made and Billions Lost in the Cryptocurrency Markets. Our Nature Ltd., 2023.

    By former macro trader and hedge fund manager Markus Thielen, a magisterial work on the history of the crypto industry and its major players through the major bull/bear market cycles up to the present. The book is not critical per se, but objectively outlines all the shady dealings and shady figures, as well as hacks and scams characteristic of the industry from early on.

Technical Books

  • Antonopoulos, Andreas M. and Harding, David A. Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain. Third Edition, O’Reilly, 2023. Available online.

    The standard reference on the technical aspects of Bitcoin.

  • Song, Jimmy. Programming Bitcoin: Learn How to Program Bitcoin from Scratch. First Edition, O’Reilly, 2019.

    For programmers. A guide towards a full implementation of a Bitcoin client from scratch.

Blogs

Podcasts and Videos