Book Review “Bitcoin Billionaires”

Do you know what is cooler than a million? A billion. Does this line ring any bell?. This is one of the famous lines of the movie The Social Network. The movie is based on the real-life incidents of the man Mark Zuckerberg. But, there were two more people, who played an important role in the movie as well as in real life & those two were Winkelvoss twins. The Harvard elite, who rowed in the Olympics. As mentioned in the movie, twins hired Mark to work for them. But, while working for them on their social network site, he built one by himself which is commonly known as Facebook. It is one thing to get your idea stolen & another to get humiliated in front of the world. Bitcoin Billionaires is a book that talks about the life of twins after Facebook.

The book starts with the latter half of the lawsuit, filed after the success of Facebook. After much agreement, both parties agreed to settle outside the court. Facebook paid the twins approx 65 Million dollars (20 million in stocks & 45 million in cash). The amount of 20 million skyrocketed after the IPO, which eventually made them richer by approx 500 million. With this amount, they were eager to invest in some startup.

However, with the release of the movie Social Network, the twin’s image was a laughing point in the tech world. Nobody wanted their money, as that would mean going against the silicon valley giant; the risk which nobody wanted to take. So, they decided to take a break; & this is where the magic happened. While partying, they were introduced to Bitcoin, a little known peer to peer payment system. The twins were little interested in the project at that time but still tried to get informed.

After coming back from holidays, twins were introduced to Charlie Shrem; then CEO of bitInstant. Once Charlie told them about the unchallenged use cases of Bitcoin, the uses thrilled the twins & like many visionaries, they could see what only a few can see. A digital currency replacing fiat currency. Soon they start buying the currency & working in the background to make it more visible. They started buying Bitcoin when it was hardly anything. With consistent buying through the years. They are probably holding 1% of total bitcoin supply, which eventually made them first Bitcoin Billionaires.

The book is about redemption as well. People laughed after the Facebook incident, but they learned how to bounce back. This attitude may have come from practicing competitive rowing. Also, Bitcoin is one part of their life. There are many more aspects to their life, like rowing, Harvard & their little experiments. The details in the book are great & good way to learn how Bitcoin functions for dummies.

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