I wrote a book about Bitcoin, and it's out now!
Insights on how I wrote it and how you can order a copy of ‘Bitcoin. 100 Seiten’
This edition of my newsletter is a bit different. I usually don’t do shameless self-promotion, and I also typically don’t write in German. But the thing is: I have a book to promote, and it’s in German. So to still keep this interesting for you, I’ll give you a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at how I wrote the book and give you an overview of what it’s about in English.
Getting a book published is something I dreamed of since I was a teenager. And despite all the usual self-doubt that comes with such a project, I’m proud and happy that it’s out now!
The book is titled ‘Bitcoin. 100 Seiten’ and, as the title suggests, tries to give a beginner-friendly introduction to a topic the author likes. I like the concept of publisher Reclam’s 100-Seiten series, and I think that Bitcoin is — despite the complexity of the topic — a good fit for this format.
I can’t tell you how long it took me to finish this book, as I started to write longer texts on Bitcoin since I really started getting into the topic in 2017. Furthermore, I have two 200-pages raw text documents lying around, mainly dealing with the history of Bitcoin and its human rights aspects.
Overall, I was surprised by how long it takes to get a book from start to finish. The process was quite long: I knew at the end of last year that Reclam wants to work with me as an author, and I handed in the first version of the book in early 2022.
The book definitely got better during the process, as I had some very clever and helpful beta-readers, as well as excellent support from the publisher. The result is — at least I hope — a well-rounded, balanced, and entertaining introduction to Bitcoin.
Some interesting facts about my book, that I think set it apart from a lot of books out there on Bitcoin:
It’s exactly 100 pages long
It tries to give everyone interested in the topic a nuanced, optimistic view on Bitcoin, by showing what fans and skeptics have to say about it
It offers a glimpse into why people like me are fascinated by Bitcoin, and why other people hate it
It shows the ideological and technical roots of Bitcoin and addresses the fact that a lot of the narratives within the Bitcoin community are still more utopian wishful thinking than reality
It’s unique in the sense that it’s neither a classic everything-is-awesome Bitcoin book nor a Bitcoin-is-the-devil-and-will-burn-the-planet-down book
The publisher is a very well-known, traditional German publishing house called Reclam. They are well-known for their “little yellow books” of its Universal-Bibliothek (“universal library”): affordable, compact editions of literary classics every student in Germany and Austria has to read
The official summary
»Bitcoin ist weder die Lösung aller Probleme noch ein überbewerteter Hype. Zwischen Utopie und Wirklichkeit sollten wir Bitcoin als Innovation einordnen, die die enge Verkettung von Staat und Geld in Frage stellt.«
Über die gesellschafts- und finanzpolitische Bedeutung der Kryptowährung wird fundamental gestritten: Für die einen ist Bitcoin die wichtigste Erfindung seit der Druckerpresse, die das Ende von Zentralbanken und sogar Nationalstaaten einläutet. Für die anderen ist Bitcoin eine sinnentleerte Spekulationsblase, die Unmengen an Strom und Ressourcen frisst. Doch entgegen aller Skepsis ist Bitcoin offenbar gekommen, um zu bleiben.
Raphael Schön erzählt die Geschichte von Bitcoin, erklärt, wie die zugrunde liegende Technik der Blockchain funktioniert, und entfaltet die philosophischen, wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen und ideengeschichtlichen Hintergründe. Er führt in das Herz der Szene und zeigt, welche Rolle die Kryptowährung in Zukunft spielen wird, nicht ohne auch die Schattenseiten zu beleuchten.
The structure of the book
This was the trickiest part of the whole process: How do you fit everything there is to know about Bitcoin on 100 pages? I started out with a version of around 140 pages, where I felt that I included everything, and then had to continuously boil it down. The first 100-page version then lacked cohesion (at least that was the feedback), so I had to get rid of unnecessary parts and flesh out the most important stuff more.
Eventually, the book’s structure started to look like this:
So my goal was to capture the essence of what there is to say about Bitcoin in 5 chapters:
Chapter I: Tackle the most essential questions from a newbie-perspective head-on: Why are people getting rich with Bitcoin? What is money? How does Bitcoin work? Why is the Bitcoin network using so much energy?
Chapter II: The (pre)history of Bitcoin from Friedrich Hayek, early Hackers, and Cypherpunks to Satoshi and Ross Ulbricht.
Chapter III: The emergence of altcoins, pyramid schemes, scams, crypto billionaires, and how Silicon Valley and Wall Street started to want a piece of the cake.
Chapter IV: ‘Bitcoin is dead’ narratives in the media, and Bitcoin between vague Utopianism and real-life usefulness in different places of the world.
Chapter V: Bitcoin as a new asset class between digital gold and a global reserve currency, and what sets it apart from Central Bank Digital Currencies.
The final version of the book is structured like this:
Where to order ‘Bitcoin. 100 Seiten’
The book was released on November 15, 2022. You can get it in physical format, as well as an ebook.
You can order it here:
What’s next?
I would love to get the book translated into other languages (especially English). More on that hopefully soon.
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Title image by Reclam, other photos by myself.
This newsletter reflects the author’s opinion and is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Be aware that this newsletter should not be considered investment advice in any way. Investing in Bitcoin and other assets is risky. Please be careful.