Skip to main content

21 Lessons: What I've Learned By Falling Down the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole by Gigi

Not recommended for brand new beginners to Bitcoin; you'll want some foundation in order to really get value from this book. I'd first recommend completing a brief and easy reading list of 1) Saifedean Ammous' The Bitcoin Standard, 2) Ben Mezrich's Bitcoin Billionaires, and 3) Nathaniel Popper's Digital Gold. 

Then, I recommend listening to at least a few long-form podcasts on Bitcoin (for example Robert Breedlove on Lex Fridman's podcast, or a few episodes of Robert Breedlove's extensive podcast series with Michael Saylor). After that, then tackle this book.

And if you don't have the attention span to dedicate the necessary time to do these things, Bitcoin probably isn't for you. Yet. 

This book is a generous gift from quite an original thinker, and I strongly encourage spending as much time as you can eavesdropping on Gigi on literally any podcast where you can find him (he's done a lot; start by searching "Gigi Bitcoin" on Youtube). 

Bitcoin is a fascinating domain on many levels, and it is dangerous to approach it with anything other than true epistemic humility. In fact, know-it-all type people seem doomed to not understand it, and condescension towards Bitcoin tends to be an excellent indicator of midwittery (I'm speaking from experience here as a person who didn't "get" Bitcoin at first either, thanks to my own damn midwittery). 

Notes:
The book has three sections: philosophical teachings of Bitcoin, economic teachings of Bitcoin and technological teachings of Bitcoin. Each mini-chapter contains the author's musings and insights about Bitcoin across a wide ranges of domains, ending in a one-sentence "learning" like the moral at the end of an Aesop's fable. 

Part 1: Philosophy
1) Bitcoin taught me that it won't change. I will.
2) In a time of abundance, Bitcoin taught me what real scarcity is.
3) Bitcoin taught me that locality is a tricky business.
4) Bitcoin taught me that decentralization contradicts identity.
5) Bitcoin taught me that narratives are important. (On the "immaculate conception" of Bitcoin and Satoshi Nakamoto's disappearance)
6) Bitcoin taught me that in a free society, free speech and free software are unstoppable.
7) Bitcoin taught me that I know very little about almost anything. It taught me that this rabbit hole is bottomless.

Part 2: Economics
8) Bitcoin taught me to look behind the curtain and face my financial ignorance.
9) Bitcoin taught me about the hidden tax of inflation and the catastrophe of hyperinflation. (Me too, which sent me to reading When Money Dies by Adam Fergusson)
10) Bitcoin taught me that value is subjective but not arbitrary.
11) Bitcoin taught me what money is.
12) Bitcoin taught me about the history of money and the greatest sleight of hand in the history of economics: fiat currency.
13) Bitcoin taught me the fractional reserve banking is pure insanity.
14) Bitcoin taught me that sound money is essential.

Part 3: Technology
"No amount of coercive force will ever solve a math problem."
15) Bitcoin taught me that there is strength in numbers.
16) Bitcoin taught me not to trust, but to verify.
17) Bitcoin taught me that telling the time is tricky, especially if you are decentralized.
18) Bitcoin taught me that moving slowly is one of its features, not a bug.
19) Bitcoin taught me that privacy is not dead.
20) Bitcoin taught me that cypherpunks write code. (See Steven Levy's excellent book Crypto) 
21) Bitcoin taught me that understanding the past is essential to understanding its future. A future which is just beginning... (Bitcoin as an enabling technology, like the internet or like electricity)

"I don't believe we shall ever have good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop." --Friedrich Hayek

To Read:
Daniel Dennett: Where Am I? (PDF file online) [A great short science fiction story that really messes with your head about where "you" literally are.]
Ron Paul: End the Fed
Bruce Schneier: Applied Cryptography
Giannina Braschi: Empire of Dreams (poetry)
Andreas M. Antonopolous: Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain
Ludwig von Mises: Human Action 

Media: 
One the Brink Podcast (with Nic Carter and Matt Walsh: see especially their weekly news roundups, which are excellent for keeping up with Bitcoin/cryptocurrency industry and regulatory news)

More Posts

Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne

Quite a lot of horse sense in this book! Suitable for beginner- to intermediate-level investors, particularly if you want to invest competently with a minimum of fuss, worry and fees. There are two sections: Part I goes over the author's 17 Basic Rules, and Part II goes over each rule in more depth. The rules are useful and complete, and if you apply them, you'll have a robust investment plan. Let me specifically cite the author's Rule #11, which describes his extremely simple, low-fee "bulletproof" portfolio of 25% each in stocks, bonds, cash and gold, with basic annual rebalancing. I'd also recommend pairing this book with two short and excellent books by William Bernstein:  The Investor's Manifesto  and  The Four Pillars of Investing . [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon  for those readers who would like to support my work here: if you purchase your Amazon products via any affiliate link from this site, or from my sister site  Casual Kitchen , I will...
Read more

The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich

A biology professor buys 300 acres of Maine woodlands with money he doesn't have and spends the better part of his life exploring it. This book is a collection of essays musing upon his experiences over the years, as he brings the reader along on a tour of all the bugs, birds, trees and fungi in the forest ecosystem. This work will seem very familiar to readers of Edward Abbey, Paul Gruchow, Henry David Thoreau and other important environmental advocates. It has the same flowing and  at times convoluted  style, the same gentle lecturing of what happens and why on the trail and in the forest, and the same subtle misanthropy as he tells us all the things we're doing wrong by having the temerity to live on this planet. [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon  for those readers who would like to support my work here: if you purchase your Amazon products via any affiliate link from this site, or from my sister site  Casual Kitchen , I will receive a small affiliate c...
Read more

How to Fail at Almost Anything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams

Readable and quite useful. Most of the chapters are bite-sized, quick, and usually contain a good insight or two: the writing equivalent of a three-panel comic strip.  How to Fail  also offers certain extremely helpful heuristics that you can add to your toolbox for navigating reality. Two of the best and most noteworthy: * Set up systems rather than goals [see Chapter 6] * Manage your personal energy levels so that they're higher not lower: work on things and think thoughts that make you feel more energetic rather than less [see Chapters 11 and 12] The reader gets the impression that Scott Adams is deep down a very sensitive person: shy, socially awkward, with insecurities and shortcomings he worked hard to conquer. Social awkwardness is one of those things that almost nobody understands unless you have it, and Adams has found--and generously offers to readers--a few genuinely creative workarounds to deal with it. He's humble and self-effacing enough to admit candidly that he...
Read more