Number Go Up is a look at the crypto currency “industry” though by the end readers are left with the distinct impression that crypto is more about scamming people and a very few people earning big bucks on the backs of the losses of many. Ostensibly the author is looking for the real world US Dollars that are said to be backing the Tether stable coin, but we get an insight into a world that just keeps going further down the rabbit hole.
Chapter 11 is titled “Let’s Get Weird” but by that point any sane person is already thinking that the big players in blockchain are crazy idiots with far more money than sense, but yes it does get weirder.
If you want a look at how dump crypto is, this is a good book. While it doesn’t focus on FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, it was finished as he was charged so it can’t help but have a large section looking at this once influential player in the ponzi scheme that is crypto.
It would seem that most of the monetary movement in crypto currency comes down to criminal activity. People getting fooled into jobs in Asia and then held in jail trying to scam other people, or paying ransoms, or cyber-criminals. Plus crypto uses so much power that it dwarfs the power usage of many countries.
There really doesn’t seem to be much to redeem the industry.