Home Economics Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption
Read in 11 min.
Listen in 14 min.
Learn the key ideas of the book by Ben Mezrich

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption

The story of the people that built a financial empire with Bitcoin

The Social Network film introduced them to us as some sort of antagonists, but there are two sides to every story. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who became famous through their much publicised feud with Mark Zuckerberg over the Facebook case, had to reinvent themselves after the media labelled them as “finished”. Their redemption started with an investment in technology that was little known at the time, but which made them billionaires in a few years. In Bitcoin Billionaires we will find out how the most hated twins in the tech world reinvented themselves, and against all odds, managed to build a financial empire.

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Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption
Read in 11 min.
Listen in 14 min.
IDEA CHIAVE 1/14

The Social Network and the multimillion dollar agreement

Twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss became famous a few years ago thanks to a case that sparked major discussion: they accused Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, of stealing their idea to create the famous social network. Years of court battles led to an out of court settlement and they accepted somewhere in the region of 65 million dollars to settle the matter, of which 20 were paid in cash and 45 in stock of the Zuckerberg company.

A few months later, Facebook went public and the shares shot up in value: the twins’ stock became worth over $500 million, but after this whole ordeal, public opinion was not exactly on their side. Seen by the public as a couple of jovial jocks, they were branded by the media as rich, spoiled kids trying to make money on the back of others.

Sometimes though, life offers up the chance for people to redeem themselves and for the twins, this opportunity came in the form of a digital revolution that goes by the name of Bitcoin.

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The key ideas of "Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption"

01.
The Social Network and the multimillion dollar agreement
02.
A life devoted to sport
03.
The lukewarm welcome at Silicon Valley
04.
A party in Ibiza and a casual chance meeting
05.
The exchange created in a kid’s bedroom
06.
Public and private keys: how Bitcoin works
07.
The Cyprus crisis and the future of the economy
08.
A security system thought through to the tiniest detail
09.
Doubts about the legality of the system
10.
Business is booming, personal relationships are cracking
11.
The end of Silk Road and the beginning of trouble
12.
Lessons learned and a new beginning
13.
Quotes
14.
Take-home message
 
 
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