Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall Hardcover – September 12, 2023

I just finished Number Go Up by Zeke Faux. I rarely write Amazon reviews, or any reviews for that matter. But I feel compelled to briefly share some thoughts on this book.As some context for this review, I am a doctor of medicine, specializing in dermatology and dermatopathology. Doctors are generally not very good at matters pertaining to finance, and I am no exception. I took an interest in crypto a few years ago because I found it baffling in concept, and I was amazed by its popularity. Then, just when it seemed to be going to the moon like Apollo 11, it very quickly became more like Apollo 13, with all the headlines of the tremendous losses of millions and billions of dollars. I was fascinated by the idea of a guy like Sam Bankman-Fried, in his 20s, being a self made billionaire who could lose it all in a few days, and end up facing the possibility of years in federal prison.I followed the news, and during this time encountered a few interviews with a guy named Zeke Faux (incidentally, what a cool name!). Then I saw him interviewed by Patrick Boyle on YouTube, and I knew I had to read his book, Number Go Up. I read it this past week, and here is what I think.This book is very entertaining! I would not typically read a book about the sordid events in crypto over the last few years, because I would expect that to be similar to watching paint dry. But, this book is humorous, while also being informative. The author explains the subject matter in a way that can be understood by someone like me, who knows very little about crypto, in a non-condescending manner, while not losing the interest of a person more knowledgeable of the crypto ecosystem.I am impressed throughout the book with the author’s interview strategies. Mr. Faux seems to have a keen understanding of human nature, and a skill for acquiring pertinent information from a wide variety of personalities. He then has been able to take this information and organize it into a narrative that is entertaining yet informative, funny yet disturbing. Is humanity as a species really this stupid? Are we really this ignorant and corrupt? This book implies that we are. But as you read this book and discover this grim truth, you’ll laugh along the way.

Enjoyed the book and the reporter outlines some very negative things about crypto so it’s not a book that leaves any room for support for cryptocurrency’s. There are some positive’s in the outlining of its traceability but those are quickly put to bed. The reporter does bring several good points about its use in crime that should make people angry - people do suffer because cryptocurrency enables that. The flood of dollars are used as well, not nearly as traceable. Dollars have also been used for good; however, that era seems to be residing and something else will take its place.

To cut to the chase: this is one of the best business/finance books I've read in years. I came in with not super high expectations, given that the fruit here are so low hanging. To wit: there have been many many financial bubbles, frauds and scams. Very very few have been as obviously bubbly, fraudulent and scammy as crypto. It's patently obvious, on its face, that buying "proof of ownership" of a digital picture that anyone can download has value only to the extent that you can find a greater fool to pay more for it. It's only slightly less patently obvious that a "currency" that charges massive transaction fees, whose "value" is determined solely by the intersection of arbitrary demand and supply determined by how many supercomputers at a given time waste massive amounts of power solving randomly generated puzzles is going to be spectacularly volatile and entirely useless as a currency (even if the transaction fees weren't massive), and that a technology that's been around for longer than the iPad but whose obvious use case is limited to buying drugs over the internet doesn't appear to be "revolutionary" (or anything more than useful).Faux could've stopped there and written a perfectly readable take. But instead, what I learned is that the reality is so so so much worse (and more stupid). He takes us inside a "stablecoin" company run by a child actor from Mighty Ducks and the creator of Inspector Gadget, the FiDi apartment of a socially stunted hacker and his Vanilla Ice impersonator girlfriend who somehow managed to steal billions worth of crypto from purportedly reputable exchanges, and, tragically, a mountaintop in Southeast Asia where Chinese gangsters engage in human trafficking to force their victims to run crypto honeypot scams.Even for those with common sense who could see on Day One that crypto was a particularly dumb scam, Faux's clever reporting uncovers that it's so much dumber, so much scammier, and, sadly, much more tragic than anyone could've envisaged. Number Go Up is funny, it's entertaining, and it's eye opening. In a semi-rational world, it'd be a death knell for this particular delusion. But... if this book teaches us anything, it's that there may be no limits to the breadth of human delusion.

Well written and well-researched. If you're tempted to join the cyber-money swing, this book will dissuade you. It's all a scam and it's criminal connection is doing great harm to society

Easy to read book about crypto and update to 2024. I would recommend reading the book now before Trump and Lundwick screw it up.

Admirably clear telling of a rather complicated, but fascinating, tale. Highly recommended, especially to those who have been urging me to invest in crypto and who were unimpressed by my standard response: "I don't invest in anything that I do not understand."I now feel I have plenty of understanding and no appetite at all for investing in it.What held me back from 5* is what I see as a far too common blight in 21st century non-fiction. The author is too keen to insert himself into the narrative. There is a regrettable excess of first-person singular pronouns.Nevertheless, the recommendation stands and those who are less irritated than I at the pronoun excess will presumably enjoy it even more.