Jumia Books Bitcoin Billionaires - A True Story Of Genius, Betrayal And Redemption

An Amazon Best Book of May 2019: Those who have read Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires, which was made into the movie The Social Network, will know the Winkelvoss twins. They were the big, square-jawed, square-shouldered identical twins/Harvard rowers who hired Mark Zuckerberg to work on their Facebook-like project in college. Zuckerberg wound up launching his own product, which grew into the Facebook that counts one quarter of the world as its members. A lawsuit followed, and after the settlement the Winkelvoss twins were substantial millionaires. Mezrich opens his new book, Bitcoin Billionaires, with a meeting in San Francisco between the twins, Zuckerberg, and an army of lawyers. But this book is not a sequel to the first book so much as a chronicling of the Winkelvosses’ second act. As the Winkelvosses tried to launch a career as venture capitalists, they soon realized that their fight with the Zuck had tainted their money: no one in Silicon Valley would take it. Then, in Ibiza of all places, they learn about a crazy new idea called cryptocurrency. Flash forward to November 27, 2017: the Winkelvoss twins became the first Bitcoin billionaires. If you’re wondering how that happened, this book tells the fascinating tale. —Chris Schluep, Amazon Book Review