CryptoDad. J. Christopher Giancarlo
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J. Christopher Giancarlo
Copyright © 2022 by J. Christopher Giancarlo. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Giancarlo, J. Christopher (James Christopher), 1959- author.
Title: CryptoDad : the fight for the future of money / J. Christopher Giancarlo.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2022] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021036636 (print) | LCCN 2021036637 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119855088 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119855101 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119855095 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Cryptocurrencies. | Digital currency. | Finance—United States.
Classification: LCC HG1710 .G53 2022 (print) | LCC HG1710 (ebook) | DDC 332.4—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021036636
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021036637
Cover Image: Mike McGregor Inc.
Cover Design: Paul McCarthy
This book is dedicated to three wise teachers:
Ella Jane, my mother, who taught faithfulness in living;
Henry, my professor, who believed liberty is the goal of learning; and
Regina, my wife, who shows kindness as the essence of love.
Foreword
Cryptocurrency, or “crypto” as it is colloquially known, is a pretty big deal. In our opinion, a bigger one than the Internet itself. And we believe it has the potential to have as great an impact on personal freedom as the printing press, the personal computer, and the early, open Internet. Why? Because crypto makes decentralization possible, which is to say its center of gravity is you, the individual.
Prior to the invention of Bitcoin, the idea of a decentralized network, in which unrelated computers around the world could reliably reach agreement with each other on something (e.g. who owns what), was thought to be entirely theoretical. The challenge lies in the possibility that one or more computers in the network could be bad actors trying to confuse the others.
In computer science, this agreement problem is known as The Byzantine Generals' Problem. When Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, published the Bitcoin white paper in 2009, she, he, or they presented the world's first ever solution to this hitherto intractable problem. As described, the Bitcoin mining algorithm ensures that a network of computers that don't know each other will in fact reach agreement with each other in a reliable manner. And that this agreement or consensus—what today, we call a blockchain—would be immutable and verifiable.
Historically, such agreement had to be entrusted to a central party or ended up concentrating toward one. Money has long been the purview of governments and finance the domain of big banks. Tim Berners-Lee's original, utopic vision for the commercial Internet—an open network of interconnected computers—has become a closed, dystopic oligopoly of data cartels. When you log on to the Internet today, you're really logging on to one of five companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, or Google, aka the FAANG companies. Has there ever been a more appropriate acronym?
The problem with centralization of power was captured best by Lord Bryon: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” These sectors are centralized, not because it is the best approach, but because it has been the only approach … until now. Satoshi's breakthrough not only made the decentralization of money possible, but it also provided a blueprint for the decentralization of anything.
We now can envision a future where the Internet, finance, and money will not be controlled by a few, but by the many. Where the value of these social networks (they are all social networks) will not accrue to just a handful of CEOs and companies, but to all of us, their users. Where you no longer need someone's permission to invest, borrow, or build. A level playing field with no inside baseball.
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency as we have come to know them. It has created an entirely new economic sector we now call crypto. This sector, like the Internet, has grown from total obscurity into one that can't be ignored. While today, it still appears to most as a niche technology, tomorrow it will be everything. When Jeff Bezos was first pitching Amazon to potential investors, the first question he was always asked was, “What's the Internet?” Crypto's story arc will be no different.
Crypto is not just a technology; it is a movement. One that offers the possibility of greater choice, independence, and opportunity for all. It can achieve things that our current systems can't even begin to contemplate. It allows our money to work like email. Its barriers to entry are low—requiring only an Internet connection and a smartphone. It has the power to redesign the Internet, the financial system, and money in a way that fosters and protects the rights and dignity of the individual. These are quite awesome possibilities and embody the ethos and founding principles of our country. Crypto is very American.
It would have been hard to predict the sheer economic opportunity of the Internet back in the early 1990s. Not long ago, many of the Internet companies that today are the biggest economic drivers of the global economy were seen as novelties or didn't even exist. The majority of these companies are American and their economic growth and prosperity was captured primarily by Americans. America won