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Bitcoin & Black America
Ready for a change in black economics? Join the Bitcoin revolution. Bitcoin and Black America is a dynamic new book that explores the synergy between black economics, Bitcoin and blockchain technology. The global financial system is changing and the digital revolution will not be televised.
We explore how to incorporate cryptocurrency in your business, job and educational institution. This book also outlines the need for separation from the racist banking system and a comprehensive list of black professionals actively working in the Blockchain industry.
We explore how to incorporate cryptocurrency in your business, job and educational institution. This book also outlines the need for separation from the racist banking system and a comprehensive list of black professionals actively working in the Blockchain industry.
109 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 7, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 26, 2021
Less of a systemic analysis than a primer intending to encourage Black Americans to look into Bitcoin and cryptocurrency generally as an alternate financial infrastructure to build wealth and leverage in the American system. Most of the information will not be new to people with a baseline knowledge about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and some of it is dated from the time the book was written. The book actually reminded me of the old-time political pamphlets that were once distributed to try and galvanize people to a particular course of action. I happen to agree with the author that cryptocurrency offers a promising channel to people sidelined by the traditional financial system. Black Americans who have been subject to economic discrimination over the long-term and failed to build intergenerational wealth commensurate with their numbers and time in the United States appear like a prime case, and indeed many of them like Jackson have been at the forefront of adopting Bitcoin.
June 23, 2020
I am a white college professor, and I was reading this book for research purposes rather than advice. However, I think both are important, and the book includes plenty of advice. I am mostly interested in how bitcoin can bring about economic justice, particularly by providing a monetary system to people who have been actively harmed by the banking system. The author makes a compelling case that Black people have been harmed by the racist policies of many banks and that bitcoin can be a solution to this. He then explains a variety of ways of getting into the cryptocurrency space. If you are thinking about reading it, then you are ready to read it and you should read it.
July 13, 2020
Not sure if Bitcoin is inflation proof when we still tend to understand the value of a bitcoin by its dollar value. To say, ‘Since Bitcoin hit exchanges in 2010, speculators and investors have driven the price of Bitcoin from $0.06 to $9,733.’ We rely on the U.S. dollar to understand its value so it goes to reason that if inflation got out of control, the price of a bitcoin would not be immune. If the dollar one day becomes worthless, and we rely on the value of a dollar to determine the value of a bitcoin, it will get out of whack as well. Will we then decide to value Bitcoin by the number of jelly beans they’re worth? Probably not, but what would we base the value on then? Not sure we have a great alternative and therefore, again, the two are not independent.
Given that the total number of Bitcoin is fixed, it's possible to conceive of a day where there aren't enough bitcoin to pay the prices mom and pop shops would need to charge for their goods. The mass adoption of bitcoin would force prices down since it would reduce the maximum amount any given individual could maintain. And forcing prices low may sound good (again combating inflation) but may not work when there aren't enough to keep businesses afloat, or people can't obtain enough to use them as their base form of currency for everyday transactions (this is likely long down the road, just playing devils advocate with the notion of being inflation proof).
Jackson highlights Ethereum’s move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake as a way to reward Ether holders for holding more Ether. I don’t have a strong opinion of this move, and recognize that it allowed more efficient mining, but I can envision a day where this creates a power imbalance between those who hold more vs those who have less, and challenges the democratization quality of cryptocurrencies, which Jackson is highlighting as a main feature.
While many have criticized foreign governments for illegitimating crypto, I don’t know that it’s all some mass power conspiracy. I think some countries recognize that the average person doesn’t have the financial literacy to understand the risks they’re taking when they buy cryptocurrency. It’s very volatile and some people sunk their 401k savings in the US into Bitcoin around 2017, and if they did so, they haven’t seen a full recovery since. At its peak Bitcoin was $16,962 in December of 2017 but it currently trades at around $9,000. The closest it’s gotten to a recovery was July 2019 when it was $12,054.18, but still a 28.9% loss from the 2017 peak. Of course with any investment you have to ride out the peaks and valleys, but it’s just too volatile to be a ‘sure thing’ for those who geek out on investing this isn’t a surprise, high risk high reward go hand in hand. Just not a risk the average person can take especially if they don’t have a lot of assets and they take a single gamble on Bitcoin.
In the past year, Bitcoin has decreased in value from being worth 11,279.60 a year ago today (July 13, 2019) and is now worth $9,254.33. If you bought bitcoin a year ago today, it’s now worth 17.9% less.
However, it is clear that in some areas the regulations have moved too fast, often faster than the government agencies have been able to even understand the technology. We must first understand the technology and give it time to breathe and evolve before we jump into rampant regulation.
The low adoption rate alone makes it mildly underwhelming. But this is a product of the volatility, you can’t price coffee on a commodity that changes prices nearly by the hour. Until the volatility calms down, you won’t see a large utility of cryptocurrency and it won’t be a practical currency. While it may get you out of the banks that have unrightfully denied black people their equal treatment (which is indeed an issue), I don’t know if the cumbersome crypto market is a ‘solution’ (but you can tell I’m skeptical of crypto in general so that’s my bias talking).
With all of that being said, this book is an impressive account of Bitcoin and blockchain technology that makes it pretty accessible for the reader. A great overview for those not familiar. But I do encourage anyone who found this book interesting to really explore the blockchain. For those of us geeks who have been on the blockchain kick since 2015, the blockchain is the far more exciting aspect than the cryptocurrency use case.
Given that the total number of Bitcoin is fixed, it's possible to conceive of a day where there aren't enough bitcoin to pay the prices mom and pop shops would need to charge for their goods. The mass adoption of bitcoin would force prices down since it would reduce the maximum amount any given individual could maintain. And forcing prices low may sound good (again combating inflation) but may not work when there aren't enough to keep businesses afloat, or people can't obtain enough to use them as their base form of currency for everyday transactions (this is likely long down the road, just playing devils advocate with the notion of being inflation proof).
Jackson highlights Ethereum’s move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake as a way to reward Ether holders for holding more Ether. I don’t have a strong opinion of this move, and recognize that it allowed more efficient mining, but I can envision a day where this creates a power imbalance between those who hold more vs those who have less, and challenges the democratization quality of cryptocurrencies, which Jackson is highlighting as a main feature.
While many have criticized foreign governments for illegitimating crypto, I don’t know that it’s all some mass power conspiracy. I think some countries recognize that the average person doesn’t have the financial literacy to understand the risks they’re taking when they buy cryptocurrency. It’s very volatile and some people sunk their 401k savings in the US into Bitcoin around 2017, and if they did so, they haven’t seen a full recovery since. At its peak Bitcoin was $16,962 in December of 2017 but it currently trades at around $9,000. The closest it’s gotten to a recovery was July 2019 when it was $12,054.18, but still a 28.9% loss from the 2017 peak. Of course with any investment you have to ride out the peaks and valleys, but it’s just too volatile to be a ‘sure thing’ for those who geek out on investing this isn’t a surprise, high risk high reward go hand in hand. Just not a risk the average person can take especially if they don’t have a lot of assets and they take a single gamble on Bitcoin.
In the past year, Bitcoin has decreased in value from being worth 11,279.60 a year ago today (July 13, 2019) and is now worth $9,254.33. If you bought bitcoin a year ago today, it’s now worth 17.9% less.
However, it is clear that in some areas the regulations have moved too fast, often faster than the government agencies have been able to even understand the technology. We must first understand the technology and give it time to breathe and evolve before we jump into rampant regulation.
The low adoption rate alone makes it mildly underwhelming. But this is a product of the volatility, you can’t price coffee on a commodity that changes prices nearly by the hour. Until the volatility calms down, you won’t see a large utility of cryptocurrency and it won’t be a practical currency. While it may get you out of the banks that have unrightfully denied black people their equal treatment (which is indeed an issue), I don’t know if the cumbersome crypto market is a ‘solution’ (but you can tell I’m skeptical of crypto in general so that’s my bias talking).
With all of that being said, this book is an impressive account of Bitcoin and blockchain technology that makes it pretty accessible for the reader. A great overview for those not familiar. But I do encourage anyone who found this book interesting to really explore the blockchain. For those of us geeks who have been on the blockchain kick since 2015, the blockchain is the far more exciting aspect than the cryptocurrency use case.
March 9, 2021
Forgiving the fact that it’s just not well-written, ignoring its amateur writing style and disconnected, poorly timed poignancy of ideas, and accepting it’s a first time author with no real experience in creating something of value.... this book is a catastrophe and misguided at best.
This deludes people away from the firm grounding of what Bitcoin should be and misses the point entirely of wealth, poverty, oppression and what money is.
Don’t waste your time.
This deludes people away from the firm grounding of what Bitcoin should be and misses the point entirely of wealth, poverty, oppression and what money is.
Don’t waste your time.
July 20, 2019
This is a useful and interesting outline of crypto's role in mitigating marginalization of black communities in banking, investment, and more. Such wholistic approaches to documenting requirements and plans for future structuring, and cultural evolution towards decentralized institutions, is valuable, needed, and well done.
October 10, 2021
The book has two main purposes: to pitch Bitcoin and blockchain, and to make the case that the black community should do a number of things to participate in the benefits that these technologies are bringing and will bring in the future.
The author doesn't make that much of a case for using bitcoin, other than pointing out issues in the existing systems that new economic tools might solve. The issues in the current system are real, and do need solutions, and if these new technologies are viable solutions, then they should be embraced.
He doesn't even try to explain smart contracts, and only vaguely mentions how they might be useful.
He suggests that people in poverty might benefit from using bitcoin, but since these are people who don't usually have a lot of money to save, they probably won't be able to participate much in the rising value of bitcoin. Businesses might be better positioned to take advantage of any increase of value, but each business has to look at their "cash on hand" to make that determination.
However, he does point out that embracing bitcoin payments opens the potential new markets for the businesses, and (as do technologies like Square) make it easier to sell your products and services. I think this is excellent advice.
He also makes the case that there is a great opportunity for future tech workers and for lawyers by training in bitcoin and block chain, and offering services that aren't very widely available yet. This is also excellent advice.
I have more quibbles, but I think this describes what I believe he covers well, and what he doesn't do as good a job covering as he might.
Still, this is a quick read, and may well be worth your time.
The author doesn't make that much of a case for using bitcoin, other than pointing out issues in the existing systems that new economic tools might solve. The issues in the current system are real, and do need solutions, and if these new technologies are viable solutions, then they should be embraced.
He doesn't even try to explain smart contracts, and only vaguely mentions how they might be useful.
He suggests that people in poverty might benefit from using bitcoin, but since these are people who don't usually have a lot of money to save, they probably won't be able to participate much in the rising value of bitcoin. Businesses might be better positioned to take advantage of any increase of value, but each business has to look at their "cash on hand" to make that determination.
However, he does point out that embracing bitcoin payments opens the potential new markets for the businesses, and (as do technologies like Square) make it easier to sell your products and services. I think this is excellent advice.
He also makes the case that there is a great opportunity for future tech workers and for lawyers by training in bitcoin and block chain, and offering services that aren't very widely available yet. This is also excellent advice.
I have more quibbles, but I think this describes what I believe he covers well, and what he doesn't do as good a job covering as he might.
Still, this is a quick read, and may well be worth your time.
February 23, 2021
Isaiah does an excellent job presenting his thesis that the black community must dip its toe into Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the first hardest asset with a fixed supply, is immutable, divisible, fungible, and durable. Bitcoin will rule as a store of value, probably surpassing gold, hence the term "gold 2.0." The black community needs to buy-in because this is an opportunity to level the racial income gap. Bitcoin is the only asset where your money appreciates exponentially based on its sound fundamentals.
February 27, 2022
Good primer on blockchain, bitcoin and the nature of crypto. Speaks directly to the Black American community and offers real life solutions that can be implemented today. Some info is outdated as it was published in 2019 and the blockchain industry is rapidly evolving. Easy to read and can be finished in a day.
June 16, 2020
Insightful
You can feel the excitement in every word from Mr. Jackson. It’s so refreshing to know someone wants to help and gives a blueprint for doing it. Crypto is becoming bigger everyday and it is imperative to get on the train before it leaves the station. 10/10
You can feel the excitement in every word from Mr. Jackson. It’s so refreshing to know someone wants to help and gives a blueprint for doing it. Crypto is becoming bigger everyday and it is imperative to get on the train before it leaves the station. 10/10
September 13, 2022
I was hoping this book would’ve gotten deeper into black community’s historical problems and financial challenges. Then wrapping it up with how Bitcoin would help them.
Instead the author mentions many times blockchain and many utopian use cases without many support.
Instead the author mentions many times blockchain and many utopian use cases without many support.
June 10, 2020
Building a Brighter Day.
Well written during a time when we need to press even harder. I enjoyed to focus on development using a decentralized methodology.
"We Will Breathe"!!!
Well written during a time when we need to press even harder. I enjoyed to focus on development using a decentralized methodology.
"We Will Breathe"!!!
January 21, 2021
This is a call to action to get Black America involved in Bitcoin.
November 17, 2021
A good concept. I would have given this book 2.5 stars. However, the writing style was difficult to follow.
January 20, 2023
The most informative Crypto guide I've ever read! Buy this book and use it as your guide to safely storing and securing your crypto.
January 29, 2023
The most informative Crypto guide I've ever read! Buy this book and use it as your guide to safely storing and securing your crypto.
February 4, 2023
Great read and will help you get clarity on things and gives great info and insight.
Read
April 14, 2024Good stuff here, this guy is smart, will recommend to others.
January 21, 2023
This is a solid book for anyone who is looking to get an introduction into Bitcoin and how it can be leveraged and better understood as an investment and technology. Isaiah talks through concepts that can help foster interest into the technology and help to explain to those who are not as familiar with Bitcoin, financial literacy, and investing.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews