What do you think?
Rate this book
Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond
The innovative investor’s guide to an entirely new asset class—from two experts on the cutting edge
With the rise of bitcoin and blockchain technology, investors can capitalize on the greatest investment opportunity since the Internet. Bitcoin was the first cryptoasset, but today there are over 800 and counting, including ether, ripple, litecoin, monero, and more. This clear, concise, and accessible guide from two industry insiders shows you how to navigate this brave new blockchain world—and how to invest in these emerging assets to secure your financial future.
Cryptoassets gives you all the tools you
* An actionable framework for investigating and valuing cryptoassets
* Portfolio management techniques to maximize returns while managing risk
* Historical context and tips to navigate inevitable bubbles and manias
* Practical guides to exchanges, wallets, capital market vehicles, and ICOs
* Predictions on how blockchain technology may disrupt current portfolios
In addition to offering smart investment strategies, this authoritative resource will help you understand how these assets were created, how they work, and how they are evolving amid the blockchain revolution. The authors define a clear and original cryptoasset taxonomy, composed of cryptocurrencies, cryptocommodities, and cryptotokens, with insights into how each subset is blending technology and markets. You’ll find a variety of methods to invest in these assets, whether through global exchanges trading 24/7 or initial cryptoasset offerings (ICOs). By sequentially building on the concepts of each prior chapter, the book will provide you with a full understanding of the cryptoasset economy and the opportunities that await the innovative investor.
Cryptoassets represent the future of money and markets. This book is your guide to that future.
With the rise of bitcoin and blockchain technology, investors can capitalize on the greatest investment opportunity since the Internet. Bitcoin was the first cryptoasset, but today there are over 800 and counting, including ether, ripple, litecoin, monero, and more. This clear, concise, and accessible guide from two industry insiders shows you how to navigate this brave new blockchain world—and how to invest in these emerging assets to secure your financial future.
Cryptoassets gives you all the tools you
* An actionable framework for investigating and valuing cryptoassets
* Portfolio management techniques to maximize returns while managing risk
* Historical context and tips to navigate inevitable bubbles and manias
* Practical guides to exchanges, wallets, capital market vehicles, and ICOs
* Predictions on how blockchain technology may disrupt current portfolios
In addition to offering smart investment strategies, this authoritative resource will help you understand how these assets were created, how they work, and how they are evolving amid the blockchain revolution. The authors define a clear and original cryptoasset taxonomy, composed of cryptocurrencies, cryptocommodities, and cryptotokens, with insights into how each subset is blending technology and markets. You’ll find a variety of methods to invest in these assets, whether through global exchanges trading 24/7 or initial cryptoasset offerings (ICOs). By sequentially building on the concepts of each prior chapter, the book will provide you with a full understanding of the cryptoasset economy and the opportunities that await the innovative investor.
Cryptoassets represent the future of money and markets. This book is your guide to that future.
369 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 19, 2017
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 207 reviews
December 23, 2017
My college roommate called me the other day. He told me he was retiring to Thailand. I found it odd because as far as I knew he hadn’t yet found a job to retire from.
The proliferation of blockchain technology has created a new class of investor. Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond provides a balanced account of the new craze.
The book excels in providing the best explanations of the major crypto-whatevers I have ever read. It dives into regulatory topics, the topic of worthiness of an investment, events of historical significance, and investor mentalities. Regardless of where you’re at on the bullishness scale, this is probably one of the most important books you can read or gift someone this holiday season.
Where the book fails is by empowering a new wave of value investors to jump into a high volatility market and lose their shirts. We can admit it now or later, but, as with anything, there are only a few geniuses out there (which may or may not include that guy featured in the “master class” ads). The rest of people—including thousands newly minted millionaires—are mainly just lucky.
There is an illusion of expertise provided by reading a white paper, and many people feel that they actually have the ability to know whether a coin will succeed or not. What this book and the fabulous creation of wealth proves, over and over again, is that crypto investing is the same as stock picking (with a much higher chance of getting your money stolen outright).
Early on, the authors advocate for holding a nontrivial percentage of alternative investments in your portfolio (especially if you are high net worth). I subscribe to this belief. Over the last few weeks I’ve been fielding calls from friends and acquaintances who want to know more about crypto. My advice to them is that intelligent investing is supposed to be boring. Intelligent investing is for the long run. But nobody ever wants to end the conversation there. What I tell them next is that if they’ve maxed out their tax sheltered accounts for the year, go ahead and throw a grand into a crypto that you think will be most interesting to talk about back at the office. If they haven’t the first clue about investing, I say how about you invest an amount equivalent to what you earn in one hour on the job. I feel that, especially in this climate, the authors had a duty to be greater custodians of dumb peoples’ paychecks.
In short, this is a great book that marks a clear place in history and will remain significant for a long time. But, please understand, if you aren’t interested in contributing to the community in a meaningful way, aren’t willing to invest with discipline and for the long run, and aren’t using cryptoassets for anything more than an investment vehicle, becoming an innovative investor will not be sending you to Thailand.
The proliferation of blockchain technology has created a new class of investor. Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond provides a balanced account of the new craze.
The book excels in providing the best explanations of the major crypto-whatevers I have ever read. It dives into regulatory topics, the topic of worthiness of an investment, events of historical significance, and investor mentalities. Regardless of where you’re at on the bullishness scale, this is probably one of the most important books you can read or gift someone this holiday season.
Where the book fails is by empowering a new wave of value investors to jump into a high volatility market and lose their shirts. We can admit it now or later, but, as with anything, there are only a few geniuses out there (which may or may not include that guy featured in the “master class” ads). The rest of people—including thousands newly minted millionaires—are mainly just lucky.
There is an illusion of expertise provided by reading a white paper, and many people feel that they actually have the ability to know whether a coin will succeed or not. What this book and the fabulous creation of wealth proves, over and over again, is that crypto investing is the same as stock picking (with a much higher chance of getting your money stolen outright).
Early on, the authors advocate for holding a nontrivial percentage of alternative investments in your portfolio (especially if you are high net worth). I subscribe to this belief. Over the last few weeks I’ve been fielding calls from friends and acquaintances who want to know more about crypto. My advice to them is that intelligent investing is supposed to be boring. Intelligent investing is for the long run. But nobody ever wants to end the conversation there. What I tell them next is that if they’ve maxed out their tax sheltered accounts for the year, go ahead and throw a grand into a crypto that you think will be most interesting to talk about back at the office. If they haven’t the first clue about investing, I say how about you invest an amount equivalent to what you earn in one hour on the job. I feel that, especially in this climate, the authors had a duty to be greater custodians of dumb peoples’ paychecks.
In short, this is a great book that marks a clear place in history and will remain significant for a long time. But, please understand, if you aren’t interested in contributing to the community in a meaningful way, aren’t willing to invest with discipline and for the long run, and aren’t using cryptoassets for anything more than an investment vehicle, becoming an innovative investor will not be sending you to Thailand.
November 19, 2017
Cryptoassets is a groundbreaking and approachable book explaining the what, why and how to invest in cryptocurrencies exploring blockchain based technology using top cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, ripple, monero, dash, and zcash as case studies. I felt a similar excitement and mind-opening bliss reading this, to how I felt reading the Intelligent investor years ago. The new era of innovative investors can consider cryptocurrencies as an alternative asset class to invest in using a disciplined and principled approach. The early internet ushered in a new wave of companies and innovations and cryptocurriences are positioning themselves to do similar. However, with the web, most of the value was captured in the application layer from the companies that built on top of the shared protocols of the internet (TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, etc). With blockchain, most of the value is captured on protocol layer, i.e the Bitcoin network, which reward participants in the network a share of the network value via cryptographically secured and accessible tokens.
Cryptoassets provides a framework and various mental models to start thinking about cryptocurrency valuation so you can cultivate independent thought around your investments and research. Some of the criteria and resources outlined to use for fundamental analysis of cryptoassets are identifying it’s potential utility via the technical white paper, or it’s use in the community, it's decentralization edge and security model, the current valuation & supply, it’s issuance model, it’s community and developers base, it’s relation to it’s digital siblings, exchange and wallet support, trading pairs, miner decentralization, number of transactions and user adoption.
The authors break down the assets types of cryptocurriences using digital commodities (cryptocommodities), provisioning raw digital resources, i.e Ethereum, or digital tokens (cryptotokens), provisioning finished digital goods and services, bitcoin. Decentralization and security are primary features of blockchain technology and the book does a great job at explaining other differing value propositions of each of the top cryptoassets.
The book also does a great job and providing historical context and the technical evolution and core value proposition behind each of the cryptoassets it uses for case study. The financial history and comparison was enlightening and highlighted the staying power and performance of Bitcoin including how it has performed against other alternative investments. Another strong inclusion in this book was information around Portfolio Theory, Asset Allocation and Risk Management, things often overlooked and underestimated by investors.
A core principle behind Graham’s Intelligent Investor is to focus on the inherent value of an investment without getting caught in the irrational behavior of the markets. The book talks about investment speculation, and how individuals speculating is less dangerous than the speculation of the crowds or speculation fueled by a ton of leverage and credit. As well as how to spot Ponzi schemes and various ways to store and protect your cryptoassets. It also explores ICOs which have been the source of great speculation as well opportunities.
Overall, I am really impressed with the level of research and detail put into this book which felt like a companion analyst and I highly recommend it. I have a finance background and still came out learning more about finance and investing. I have been exposed to the crypto-space and received, even more, exposure and insights from this book. The depth, quality, and clarity of cryptoassets make it a great book for beginners and experts alike.
Cryptoassets provides a framework and various mental models to start thinking about cryptocurrency valuation so you can cultivate independent thought around your investments and research. Some of the criteria and resources outlined to use for fundamental analysis of cryptoassets are identifying it’s potential utility via the technical white paper, or it’s use in the community, it's decentralization edge and security model, the current valuation & supply, it’s issuance model, it’s community and developers base, it’s relation to it’s digital siblings, exchange and wallet support, trading pairs, miner decentralization, number of transactions and user adoption.
The authors break down the assets types of cryptocurriences using digital commodities (cryptocommodities), provisioning raw digital resources, i.e Ethereum, or digital tokens (cryptotokens), provisioning finished digital goods and services, bitcoin. Decentralization and security are primary features of blockchain technology and the book does a great job at explaining other differing value propositions of each of the top cryptoassets.
The book also does a great job and providing historical context and the technical evolution and core value proposition behind each of the cryptoassets it uses for case study. The financial history and comparison was enlightening and highlighted the staying power and performance of Bitcoin including how it has performed against other alternative investments. Another strong inclusion in this book was information around Portfolio Theory, Asset Allocation and Risk Management, things often overlooked and underestimated by investors.
A core principle behind Graham’s Intelligent Investor is to focus on the inherent value of an investment without getting caught in the irrational behavior of the markets. The book talks about investment speculation, and how individuals speculating is less dangerous than the speculation of the crowds or speculation fueled by a ton of leverage and credit. As well as how to spot Ponzi schemes and various ways to store and protect your cryptoassets. It also explores ICOs which have been the source of great speculation as well opportunities.
Overall, I am really impressed with the level of research and detail put into this book which felt like a companion analyst and I highly recommend it. I have a finance background and still came out learning more about finance and investing. I have been exposed to the crypto-space and received, even more, exposure and insights from this book. The depth, quality, and clarity of cryptoassets make it a great book for beginners and experts alike.
February 3, 2018
الكتاب مهم جدا لمن يريد أن يفهم العملات المشفرة ومنها البيتكوين والإيثر
سيوضح لك الكتاب سبب حصولها على القيمة، وكيف أنها ليست فقاعة كما يتفلسف من لا يعرف عنها
سيوضح لك الكتاب سبب حصولها على القيمة، وكيف أنها ليست فقاعة كما يتفلسف من لا يعرف عنها
March 6, 2022
In diesem Buch wird von den Autoren erklärt wie Bitcoin während der Finanzkrise entstanden ist und was die Architektur und die Philosophie hinter diesem Produkt ist. Hinter diesem Projekt steckt „Satoshi Nakamoto“ eine anonyme Persona oder Gruppe.
Verständlich wird erklärt welche Funktionen Bitcoins haben. Neben der Funktion als Proof of Work, gibt es auch noch die Funktion als potenzielle Währung.
In diesem Handbuch werden diese Funktionen erläutert und auch noch gezeigt wie man sich an diesem System beteiligen kann. Entweder als Miner (hardware) oder eben als Anwender.
Burniske geht auch noch in die Alternativen Kryptoassets ein und erklärt wie sich diese aus der Abkapselung des Bitcoins entstanden sind.
In den nächsten Kapiteln wird auch noch das Thema Investment behandelt und wie die Volatilität der Produkte einzuschätzen ist und wie sich diese zu klassischen Anlageportfolios unterscheiden.
Verständlich wird erklärt welche Funktionen Bitcoins haben. Neben der Funktion als Proof of Work, gibt es auch noch die Funktion als potenzielle Währung.
In diesem Handbuch werden diese Funktionen erläutert und auch noch gezeigt wie man sich an diesem System beteiligen kann. Entweder als Miner (hardware) oder eben als Anwender.
Burniske geht auch noch in die Alternativen Kryptoassets ein und erklärt wie sich diese aus der Abkapselung des Bitcoins entstanden sind.
In den nächsten Kapiteln wird auch noch das Thema Investment behandelt und wie die Volatilität der Produkte einzuschätzen ist und wie sich diese zu klassischen Anlageportfolios unterscheiden.
July 27, 2018
Mixed bag
(But I honestly can’t say if that’s because of me or the content.)
The book starts out with dozens of high profile people praising the content of the book, both from within the crypto community as from the wider fields of economics, finance and academia in general. This is out of sync with the juicy-ness of the content. Nothing really new, startling or insightful here; it’s just a good summary of the scene. But again, that might be caused by me. Reading this book, I realized I already knew a lot about crypto.
My main beef is this the authors seem to understand that the “blockchain, not bitcoin(BNB)” banker babble is complete hogwash. BNB is like arguing that an intranet is better than the internet because it’s private: obvious nonsense. The internet outcompetes the intranets because there’s magnitudes more valuable information there. So, if the writers can see through the BNB façade, it’s a bit strange to see them embrace all these non-bitcoin cryptos as “assets”. Personally, I always sensed bitcoin maximalism – the idea that bitcoin can and will do everyone better than all alts – was a bit too rigid. But I’ve also noticed bitcoin going from strength to strength while beating every obstacle in its wake: 2017’s bull-run convinced me that bitcoin maximalism might actually be the correct attitude! Bitcoin might really be better than all other alts combined: it’s more decentralized, more secure, more censorship resistant, more valuable, less volatile (though still volatile), owned by much more people and it has the biggest and most brainy developers backing it. Other contenders cannot even come close.
The authors also do a great job explaining what makes people consider some cryptos scams, and what might make people decide to give some cryptos a second look. For example, I’m fairly certain Monero and Litecoin are decent cryptos, because they have decent developer communities, carry laudable aims (respectively enhanced privacy and being bitcoin’s testnet) and the creators did not try to enrich themselves through premines, etc. Dash and Ethereum do not pass similar smell tests. For the life of me, I do not get why people fall for this. (But I might be wrong, I never liked Ethereum, ever since it was $0,70. It’s almost $400 now. Dash is even higher, about $500!)
I absolutely believe virtual things can be assets. Dotcom domain names are clear assets, as are vanity telephone numbers or SMS short codes. So, virtual currency with limited amount of units certainly can be as well. I do think that virtual currencies will tend towards a dominant crypto to rule them all. The other cryptos surviving better have some specific niche (like Monero for darknets or Ethereum for smart contracts) when the music stops; otherwise they will be wiped out. We are nowhere near that situation today in crypto, and we might never really get there. The sector is too competitive, and maybe for the good, Competition in currency is probably a great thing; making it ever more necessary for money to constantly improve in security, usability, soundness and openness. I doubt all these smaller cryptos will be wise assets; investors should only buy a few carefully researched cryptos which are likely to be promising long-term.
So, yes, this book is worth reading, but people who have been in crypto or finance for longer than 6 months might feel underwhelmed.
(But I honestly can’t say if that’s because of me or the content.)
The book starts out with dozens of high profile people praising the content of the book, both from within the crypto community as from the wider fields of economics, finance and academia in general. This is out of sync with the juicy-ness of the content. Nothing really new, startling or insightful here; it’s just a good summary of the scene. But again, that might be caused by me. Reading this book, I realized I already knew a lot about crypto.
My main beef is this the authors seem to understand that the “blockchain, not bitcoin(BNB)” banker babble is complete hogwash. BNB is like arguing that an intranet is better than the internet because it’s private: obvious nonsense. The internet outcompetes the intranets because there’s magnitudes more valuable information there. So, if the writers can see through the BNB façade, it’s a bit strange to see them embrace all these non-bitcoin cryptos as “assets”. Personally, I always sensed bitcoin maximalism – the idea that bitcoin can and will do everyone better than all alts – was a bit too rigid. But I’ve also noticed bitcoin going from strength to strength while beating every obstacle in its wake: 2017’s bull-run convinced me that bitcoin maximalism might actually be the correct attitude! Bitcoin might really be better than all other alts combined: it’s more decentralized, more secure, more censorship resistant, more valuable, less volatile (though still volatile), owned by much more people and it has the biggest and most brainy developers backing it. Other contenders cannot even come close.
The authors also do a great job explaining what makes people consider some cryptos scams, and what might make people decide to give some cryptos a second look. For example, I’m fairly certain Monero and Litecoin are decent cryptos, because they have decent developer communities, carry laudable aims (respectively enhanced privacy and being bitcoin’s testnet) and the creators did not try to enrich themselves through premines, etc. Dash and Ethereum do not pass similar smell tests. For the life of me, I do not get why people fall for this. (But I might be wrong, I never liked Ethereum, ever since it was $0,70. It’s almost $400 now. Dash is even higher, about $500!)
I absolutely believe virtual things can be assets. Dotcom domain names are clear assets, as are vanity telephone numbers or SMS short codes. So, virtual currency with limited amount of units certainly can be as well. I do think that virtual currencies will tend towards a dominant crypto to rule them all. The other cryptos surviving better have some specific niche (like Monero for darknets or Ethereum for smart contracts) when the music stops; otherwise they will be wiped out. We are nowhere near that situation today in crypto, and we might never really get there. The sector is too competitive, and maybe for the good, Competition in currency is probably a great thing; making it ever more necessary for money to constantly improve in security, usability, soundness and openness. I doubt all these smaller cryptos will be wise assets; investors should only buy a few carefully researched cryptos which are likely to be promising long-term.
So, yes, this book is worth reading, but people who have been in crypto or finance for longer than 6 months might feel underwhelmed.
May 7, 2018
While balanced and well-written, Cryptoassets is too short on the core topics, frequently digresses, and misses out on the main risks/arguments against. As such, in the fast-evolving world of this asset class, the book was never going to have a much of a shelf life without some truly fundamental points which it does not have. It does an incomplete job explaining the true investment pros and cons as well.
To start with, the authors use long sections to justify cryptoassets as a new investment asset class for a diversified portfolio. However, the arguments used are largely wrong: one cannot use one cycle risk-adjusted returns or stats to make the case one way or the other. Some of the true risks of cryptoassets that the authors largely miss out on are:
a> technology evolution: while blockchain, in the best case like the Internet, might be revolutionary, its evolution means almost all stage one innovations - or currencies - in this case will be displaced fairly quickly.
b> infinite supply: In being fixated on the Bitcoin's finite and fixed supply, the authors forget that new hash functions and currencies can be generated at whim, with each slightly better than before ad infinitum. As blockchain technology stabilizes, tokens of all kind - and with far more legal protection, security etc - will be issued by governments, corporates etc.
c> currencies as assets?! The more a currency has an investment value, the worse is likely its utility value. Even those not familiar with a massively deflationary and economically debilitating tendency of any fixed amount of monetary base can easily foresee what ravaging effects hoarding could do if a currency being used by general folks for regular transaction is also an asset class.
d> non-price related risks: an investment in the crypto have almost no legal protection. Given the secrecies embedded, some of the standard legal protection is almost always going to be unavailable. Significant risks associated with the storage of private keys/wallets implies that few will genuinely park a significant amount/portion of savings in the crypto until better mechanisms evolve.
e> It's the underlying! Blockchain is a transformational technology, most likely. However, like the double-entry accounting or Internet, the benefits are going to be in the way it is deployed to extract more utility out of the underlying activities. If any cryptotokens or blockchain based processes enhance the efficiency of some activities that matter to some consumers, or reduce friction/costs, or create new utility, the underlying businesses and securities representing them (including possibly cryptotokens) will benefit. The book is implicitly pushing for the investment in technologies that have come up so far, rather than the use cases.
Cryptoassets are here to stay. And without a doubt, some of the points made about their investment case are valid for some investors. However, this otherwise well-intentioned and balanced book misses out on many key arguments even for those who would agree with the book's broad conclusions.
To start with, the authors use long sections to justify cryptoassets as a new investment asset class for a diversified portfolio. However, the arguments used are largely wrong: one cannot use one cycle risk-adjusted returns or stats to make the case one way or the other. Some of the true risks of cryptoassets that the authors largely miss out on are:
a> technology evolution: while blockchain, in the best case like the Internet, might be revolutionary, its evolution means almost all stage one innovations - or currencies - in this case will be displaced fairly quickly.
b> infinite supply: In being fixated on the Bitcoin's finite and fixed supply, the authors forget that new hash functions and currencies can be generated at whim, with each slightly better than before ad infinitum. As blockchain technology stabilizes, tokens of all kind - and with far more legal protection, security etc - will be issued by governments, corporates etc.
c> currencies as assets?! The more a currency has an investment value, the worse is likely its utility value. Even those not familiar with a massively deflationary and economically debilitating tendency of any fixed amount of monetary base can easily foresee what ravaging effects hoarding could do if a currency being used by general folks for regular transaction is also an asset class.
d> non-price related risks: an investment in the crypto have almost no legal protection. Given the secrecies embedded, some of the standard legal protection is almost always going to be unavailable. Significant risks associated with the storage of private keys/wallets implies that few will genuinely park a significant amount/portion of savings in the crypto until better mechanisms evolve.
e> It's the underlying! Blockchain is a transformational technology, most likely. However, like the double-entry accounting or Internet, the benefits are going to be in the way it is deployed to extract more utility out of the underlying activities. If any cryptotokens or blockchain based processes enhance the efficiency of some activities that matter to some consumers, or reduce friction/costs, or create new utility, the underlying businesses and securities representing them (including possibly cryptotokens) will benefit. The book is implicitly pushing for the investment in technologies that have come up so far, rather than the use cases.
Cryptoassets are here to stay. And without a doubt, some of the points made about their investment case are valid for some investors. However, this otherwise well-intentioned and balanced book misses out on many key arguments even for those who would agree with the book's broad conclusions.
August 29, 2021
Agreed with a lot of others - the best material on anything forward thinking in tech is not in books but in blogs, tweets, reddit posts, etc... but what this does well is help place this new class of assets into appropriate context for someone new. Also agreed that it doesn't do a great job at counseling proper risk management which is absolutely critical if you're dabbling with crypto. The book's now three years old but still relevant particularly since they've hit the mark with many predictions.
March 19, 2021
I picked up this book because there are way too many keywords thrown around about cryptocurrencies and blockchain and you never know what you don't know. Far from a comprehensive guide to "bitcoin and beyond", this book could be summarized as "Bitcoin is great. Yields are great. You gotta invest". While the initial few chapters go into explaining the technology and history of blockchain (Satoshi's white paper on bitcoin, Vitalik Buterin's work, Ethereum blockchain reversion to create Ethereum Classic, proof of stake/work), many of the latter chapters are far too repetitive. The authors compare the growth in value of native crypto assets vis-a-vis FAANG stocks. Problem is, most financial wisdom is retrospective. One cannot possibly argue that bitcoin will keep doing well because it had been doing well so far because it'll only stop doing well until it stops doing well. For the record, I'm long on crypto but the authors' arguments sound fragile to me. They do not discuss the issues with existing blockchains such the current cost of transaction, threshold of transactions per second etc. For bitcoin to become a practical alternative to the dollar, it needs to support at least as many transactions as VISA/Mastercard is doing at the moment per second. We are not there yet. There is also no discussion on the environmental cost of mining.
TLDR: Read chapter 2, skip the rest of the book. Peace.
TLDR: Read chapter 2, skip the rest of the book. Peace.
May 12, 2019
I'm wasn't engrossed in the book, unfortunately. Crypto is such a tricky subject because it straddles so many different areas. There is the pure technology angle, the monetary economics of bitcoin, the libertarian philosophy in some of the projects, investing in start-ups, speculative trading, or the legal regulator side, etc. The authors did well to try and focus on investing but it's difficult to make an investment case without delving into a few underlying principles. These difficulties meant that the book was lacking meat in certain areas and probably tried to touch on a bit too much content. That being said, it's a useful contribution, particularly for those who don't have much investing knowledge. A few simple investing concepts can add a lot of value to crypto experts who are lacking in this area. Crypto remains a wild-wild-west world and many people, me included, are making rookie errors that could be reduced with some simple portfolio strategy. I enjoyed the historical perspective of bitcoin and a few of the other crypto projects.
July 13, 2020
Hat tip to Abhishek Anbazhagan for giving me the opportunity to return this book to the library. Please remember that I don’t do favors, I accumulate debt.
This book did a great job of giving some much-needed structure to my understanding of the crypto ecosystem. Dividing cryptoassets based on their functionality into cryptocurrencies, cryptocommodities, and cryptotokens, to start with, helped me bring order from the chaos that is crypto. Staying true to their digital origins, the markets have changed significantly since the book was published in late 2017, but the background and methodologies described retain their value. I particularly liked the idea of using economic behavior patterns (trading pair diversity, supply schedule etc.) to gauge the maturity of a cryptoasset. In the last third of the book, the practitioners (cryptonauts?) lay out a cryptoasset valuation and analysis framework which partly builds on methods used in traditional capital markets. There is also a discussion on how current portfolios can be restructured around this trend, complete with tips on how to survive the impending blockchain disruption. It definitely helps to look at the bigger picture instead of spending time rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Recommended. I'd be interested to see if digital assets become an integral part of millennial portfolios going forward.
This book did a great job of giving some much-needed structure to my understanding of the crypto ecosystem. Dividing cryptoassets based on their functionality into cryptocurrencies, cryptocommodities, and cryptotokens, to start with, helped me bring order from the chaos that is crypto. Staying true to their digital origins, the markets have changed significantly since the book was published in late 2017, but the background and methodologies described retain their value. I particularly liked the idea of using economic behavior patterns (trading pair diversity, supply schedule etc.) to gauge the maturity of a cryptoasset. In the last third of the book, the practitioners (cryptonauts?) lay out a cryptoasset valuation and analysis framework which partly builds on methods used in traditional capital markets. There is also a discussion on how current portfolios can be restructured around this trend, complete with tips on how to survive the impending blockchain disruption. It definitely helps to look at the bigger picture instead of spending time rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Recommended. I'd be interested to see if digital assets become an integral part of millennial portfolios going forward.
Read
January 26, 2019A great introductory text on cryptoassets for anyone coming from a traditional finance background.
Burniske and Tartar cast this book as The Intelligent Investor for crypto and I think it lives up to that as well as any book can, given the early stage of crypto markets.
Unlike many other crypto books, the authors were involved in the industry from the early days and I think that gives them a better intuition for the space than accounts from journalists who were only observing.
In particular, I thought chapters 4 and 5 gave as good a taxonomy and overview of the crypto ecosystem as I’ve seen.
Burniske and Tartar cast this book as The Intelligent Investor for crypto and I think it lives up to that as well as any book can, given the early stage of crypto markets.
Unlike many other crypto books, the authors were involved in the industry from the early days and I think that gives them a better intuition for the space than accounts from journalists who were only observing.
In particular, I thought chapters 4 and 5 gave as good a taxonomy and overview of the crypto ecosystem as I’ve seen.
December 20, 2017
#themoreyouknow
This gives you a comprehensive introduction around blockchain, crypto currency/assets and how to evaluate/deal with them.
What is nice, is that it draws comparisons with how FIAT currencies and other stocks, IPOs behave.
Then it also ties into The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business about starting small and adjusting based on what you learn.
If you are wanting to get onto the gravy train which is crypto assets and haven't at least got the basic knowledge this book provides, you might be in for a rude awakening.
It also touches on points about Tax, which are probably not really considered by investors at this stage, but will cause issues later.
Probably a bit of bias, and probably a bit academic in places. But still a good read.
This gives you a comprehensive introduction around blockchain, crypto currency/assets and how to evaluate/deal with them.
What is nice, is that it draws comparisons with how FIAT currencies and other stocks, IPOs behave.
Then it also ties into The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business about starting small and adjusting based on what you learn.
If you are wanting to get onto the gravy train which is crypto assets and haven't at least got the basic knowledge this book provides, you might be in for a rude awakening.
It also touches on points about Tax, which are probably not really considered by investors at this stage, but will cause issues later.
Probably a bit of bias, and probably a bit academic in places. But still a good read.
July 15, 2018
Been in the space as an avid enthusiast and investor for about 2 years. Still found this to be a great review of key principles and even learned a few new things. It provides an interesting perspective in that it ties cryptoasset investing and valuation to traditional financial theories and models of investing and market behavior, while being one of the first sources attempting to systematically elucidate what is truly new and exciting about this emerging asset class both from a traditional finance framework and methods of analysis that are unique to cryptoassets and may serve as a template for valuation for this unique asset class. Would recommend to any interested in the space, but especially to beginners.
July 23, 2019
Si estábamos acostumbrados a buscar ser Intelligent investor (Ben Graham), el autor nos propone ser innovative investor bajo esquemas totalmente disruptivos.
El libro se centra en tres grandes secciones, primero el "QUE" donde explica nos da una introducción sobre blockchain, cryptoassets, cryptocurrencies y cryptotokens; particularmente aprendí mucho de sobre esta diferencia.
Luego nos muestra el "POR QUE", todo el universo crypt que existe, los diferentes altcoins aparte de bitcoin y analiza los más importantes, el análisis de bitcoin me gustó, explica muy bien su naturaleza expeculatoria, luego nos habla sobre el "COMO", es la parte más divertida, el fundamental y tecnical analysis de los cryptoassets, creación de portafolio y un tema que me atrae mucho, los ICOs.
Puntación 5/5: Si bien había leido libros de blockchain este es el primero que muestra el mundo de blockchain desde un punto de vista financiero y de inversión, se nota que el autor tiene bastante experiencia y lo plasma con un buen análisis.
Recomendación: Todo aquel que quiera invertir en Cryptos, no es solo comprar bitcoins y listo, es mucho más y debemos informarnos.
El libro se centra en tres grandes secciones, primero el "QUE" donde explica nos da una introducción sobre blockchain, cryptoassets, cryptocurrencies y cryptotokens; particularmente aprendí mucho de sobre esta diferencia.
Luego nos muestra el "POR QUE", todo el universo crypt que existe, los diferentes altcoins aparte de bitcoin y analiza los más importantes, el análisis de bitcoin me gustó, explica muy bien su naturaleza expeculatoria, luego nos habla sobre el "COMO", es la parte más divertida, el fundamental y tecnical analysis de los cryptoassets, creación de portafolio y un tema que me atrae mucho, los ICOs.
Puntación 5/5: Si bien había leido libros de blockchain este es el primero que muestra el mundo de blockchain desde un punto de vista financiero y de inversión, se nota que el autor tiene bastante experiencia y lo plasma con un buen análisis.
Recomendación: Todo aquel que quiera invertir en Cryptos, no es solo comprar bitcoins y listo, es mucho más y debemos informarnos.
January 8, 2018
If you're new to Bitcoin and the likes, this is one of the best books you can read at this moment if you want to understand the phenomenon. It's [mostly] impartial and written from a rational perspective, which is not something I can say about other books on the same topic.
The trouble is that in the space of a few months since the initial text this has become a history book rather than something you can read if you want to be up to speed with the field [this review written in Jan 2018]. A crypto year goes even faster than a dog year! I suspect another edition is in the works as we speak.
The trouble is that in the space of a few months since the initial text this has become a history book rather than something you can read if you want to be up to speed with the field [this review written in Jan 2018]. A crypto year goes even faster than a dog year! I suspect another edition is in the works as we speak.
January 23, 2019
Key message -
Cryptoassets present a huge investment opportunity – the kind that’s rarely available to novice investors. But, before you jump into the deep end, you absolutely must familiarize yourself with the market and what it means to invest in cryptoassets. Read white papers and pay attention to decentralization edges; keep an eye on trading pair diversities and store your cryptoassets securely. And remember: you might lose your money. If you know the risks and do the research, cryptoassets can prove a great investment.
Actionable advice -
Do your homework!
Cryptoassets present a huge investment opportunity – the kind that’s rarely available to novice investors. But, before you jump into the deep end, you absolutely must familiarize yourself with the market and what it means to invest in cryptoassets. Read white papers and pay attention to decentralization edges; keep an eye on trading pair diversities and store your cryptoassets securely. And remember: you might lose your money. If you know the risks and do the research, cryptoassets can prove a great investment.
Actionable advice -
Do your homework!
March 26, 2022
A very informative book about crypto from an investor point of view. It briefly touches on the history of crypto, the technology and the people. Then it delves deeper into the different types of cryptoassets, cryptocoins, cryptotokens and how to evaluate them (technical analysis, fundamental analysis etc.), how to invest in them, how to avoid scams.
December 29, 2017
If your financial advisor is a deer in the headlights on the topic of cryptoassets, hand him or her a copy of this book.
January 18, 2018
Good first read on crypto. Provides useful frameworks to help you navigate the stormy seas of cryptoassets. I recommend this to anyone getting into the field.
February 18, 2018
Definitely great for beginners, but better for those already in the space and who want more info on how it can aid to their overall investing strategy.
December 26, 2017
This is an excellent book and a very useful resource for people looking into cryptos as a way to diversify. While massive gains are no longer likely, I think anyone making informed investments into crypto at this point is likely to see healthy returns well above what equities or real-estate can offer over the next ten years. The authors bridge the gap between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies in a convincing way, providing quantitative measures that can be used to gauge whether individual cryptos or the market as a whole is over- or under-valued, like how P/E and similar ratios are used for equities.
While Burniske and his co-author clearly believe in the potential of cryptocurrencies/cryptoassets, they balance this with a healthy skepticism and steer clear of the delusional proclamations that you will usually find in mass-market books like The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order. Bottom line is, crypto fills an expanding niche in the global economy, and while the field is currently rife with scammers, snake oil salesmen and bad investments, there are gems there that may well and truly change parts of the economy forever.
For best results, combine this with Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction for a comprehensive understanding of the technology. I was skeptical for the longest time but now I'm sold on the idea and the long-term potential of this asset class.
While Burniske and his co-author clearly believe in the potential of cryptocurrencies/cryptoassets, they balance this with a healthy skepticism and steer clear of the delusional proclamations that you will usually find in mass-market books like The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order. Bottom line is, crypto fills an expanding niche in the global economy, and while the field is currently rife with scammers, snake oil salesmen and bad investments, there are gems there that may well and truly change parts of the economy forever.
For best results, combine this with Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction for a comprehensive understanding of the technology. I was skeptical for the longest time but now I'm sold on the idea and the long-term potential of this asset class.
December 30, 2017
Being my 100th book read for 2017, thought it pertinent that it was on a subject I'm most intrigued by; the world of Cryptocurrency. Today, as adoption grows, our media is being inundated with lots of puff pieces and disinformation; it's quite hard for a newcomer to find any cogent material that gives a succinct history and overview.
If you've been told bitcoin is a bubble, this book is for you. If you've been told bitcoin is going to replace our Fiat monetary system, this book is also for you. Both sides of the debate have valid points and if you can treat both these imposters equally then you're already ahead of the vast majority of the population. One of my mentors always said, no one can ever know enough to be an optimist or a skeptic, one has to do their own research and decide for themselves - be informed, was the message loud and clear.
Have a great 2018, and if you're interest is piqued by this brave new virtual world, I can highly recommend this book to help you traverse it.
If you've been told bitcoin is a bubble, this book is for you. If you've been told bitcoin is going to replace our Fiat monetary system, this book is also for you. Both sides of the debate have valid points and if you can treat both these imposters equally then you're already ahead of the vast majority of the population. One of my mentors always said, no one can ever know enough to be an optimist or a skeptic, one has to do their own research and decide for themselves - be informed, was the message loud and clear.
Have a great 2018, and if you're interest is piqued by this brave new virtual world, I can highly recommend this book to help you traverse it.
December 20, 2020
This book draws compelling parallels between the worlds of traditional equity markets and crypto assets, which is greatly helpful for a traditional equity investor to warm up to the idea of crypto.
Although this book gives a reasonably good introduction (their unique narratives, purpose, addressable market etc.) to a few popular cryptoassets, other than Bitcoin (Ethereum, Monero, Dogecoin, Litecoin etc), a 10+ hours of crypto basics through podcasts etc. would be absolutely helpful before starting this book. About 25% of this book narrates the history of stock markets: key events, manias etc., which one can quickly breeze through before coming to the section which deals with the fundamental valuation of cryptoassets. I found this section to be the most interesting and novel. The numerous techniques and resources presented in this chapter seemed absolutely compelling and legit. Any investor, who is willing to do his/her due diligence would find this book to be a very useful read before delving into the world of crypto investing.
Although this book gives a reasonably good introduction (their unique narratives, purpose, addressable market etc.) to a few popular cryptoassets, other than Bitcoin (Ethereum, Monero, Dogecoin, Litecoin etc), a 10+ hours of crypto basics through podcasts etc. would be absolutely helpful before starting this book. About 25% of this book narrates the history of stock markets: key events, manias etc., which one can quickly breeze through before coming to the section which deals with the fundamental valuation of cryptoassets. I found this section to be the most interesting and novel. The numerous techniques and resources presented in this chapter seemed absolutely compelling and legit. Any investor, who is willing to do his/her due diligence would find this book to be a very useful read before delving into the world of crypto investing.
January 28, 2021
There's a whole lot of graphs with numbers going up (has anyone not seen the price graph for Bitcoin before?), a very basic discussion of the technology, and some portfolio management techniques which are better covered in other places.
What would have been great is a deeper dive into the real world applications and valuations for coins and tokens outside of Bitcoin/Ethereum etc. Telling us to read the whitepaper isn't really breaking new ground.
If you want something to make you feel better about money you already have invested this might be worth a read. If you want advice on how to analyse and invest in emerging crypto assets, look elsewhere.
What would have been great is a deeper dive into the real world applications and valuations for coins and tokens outside of Bitcoin/Ethereum etc. Telling us to read the whitepaper isn't really breaking new ground.
If you want something to make you feel better about money you already have invested this might be worth a read. If you want advice on how to analyse and invest in emerging crypto assets, look elsewhere.
December 30, 2023
For an industry of people discussing complex ideas in a complex way and patting themselves on the back for being complex and clever and rich, this book was refreshing. Lucid, simple and covering a ton of ground, not only in the crypto space but about money management and financial systems in general.
A great intro read for anyone new to crypto, investing, financial systems or all and wanting to dive a bit deeper than Twitter!
A great intro read for anyone new to crypto, investing, financial systems or all and wanting to dive a bit deeper than Twitter!
March 27, 2021
Recency to the current status of the crypto-market is what drew me to the book. The healthy scepticism of new ico's and the importance of doing research are primary lessons as well as a brief history of crypto assets.
September 14, 2019
It was aight
January 3, 2018
A nice intro into the world of crypto.
January 1, 2021
Probably a good explainer of crypto
April 11, 2021
O livro faz um apanhado bem interessante do ecossistema. Mesmo sendo escrito há alguns anos, é atual e ajuda muito a fazer o paralelo entre o mercado tradicional de investimento e o de crypto.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 207 reviews