Blockchain for Everyone

June 10, 2019
Long on braggadocio and short on content, this guide to blockchain investing from Media Shower CEO Hargrave is a sterling example of the book that should have been a magazine article. As a veteran bitcoin investor himself—Hargrave lost all his money in the dot-com bubble, then gained it back with blockchain—he’s determined to help ordinary investors build wealth and become “internet millionaires.” Offering cheerful cartoons to explain how the field works, he goes over blockchain and the technology that enables it, with the stated goal of making blockchain interesting, fun, and accessible to neophytes. Discussing incorporating the practice into one’s investment portfolio without risking everything, he talks about what the upper limits of the cryptocurrency boom might be, including the rise, fall, and rise that have already happened. His larger goal—encouraging more people to invest in bitcoin so the industry can grow more sustainably than in the past—is laudable, but self-praising stories make up the bulk of the book, and Hargrave’s language is often hyperbolic, as with his claim that readers can be “reborn” through bitcoin investment. Thanks to these lapses, his book feels more like an overenthusiastic advertisement than a viable guide. Agent: Cathy Hemming, Cathy D. Hemming Literary.