The Blocksize War: The battle for control over Bitcoin’s protocol rules
Published: March 2021
This book covers Bitcoin’s blocksize war, which was waged from August 2015 to November 2017. On the surface the battle was about the amount of data allowed in each Bitcoin block, however it exposed much deeper issues, such as who controls Bitcoin’s protocol rules. It is not possible to cover every twist and turn in the labyrinthine conflict or all the arguments, but I have provided a chronology of the most significant events. This book explores some of the major characters in the conflict and includes coverage, from both the front lines and behind the scenes, during some of the most acute phases of the struggle. The account in this book includes discussions with the key players from both sides during the war, exploring their motivations, strategy and thought processes as the exhausting campaign progressed and developed.
Reckless: The Story Of Cryptocurrency Interest Rates
Published: November 2022
This book begins by providing a brief history of interest rates. It discusses the perplexing conundrum of how to determine the most appropriate base interest rate in an economy. The book then moves over to the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, cataloguing various interest rates, quasi-interest rates and different yield structures which have existed throughout the ecosystem’s short thirteen year life. The book contrasts some of these structures with those in the world of traditional finance and economics. The book then explores the emergence of cryptocurrency lending markets, tracking the development and extraordinary growth of these markets into the 2021 yield market bubble. The book disassembles the peculiar components of the cryptocurrency credit market, covering the incestuous relationships between many of the leading lenders and borrowers and the insatiable greed they demonstrated, resulting in the eventual market crash in June 2022.
