Book Review | The Infinite Machine by Camila Russo

I think whether or not you support or invest in Ethereum you will find this book interesting. The book was published in July 2020, but it does a tremendous job documenting the history of Ethereum until that point. I knew about many of the events, such as the DAO hack, the ETC fork, Parity Bug, etc.

So much of Ethereum's history is also Bitcoin's history. Vitalik Buterin for instance was a writer for Bitcoin magazine, and the funds for the Ethereum crowdsale itself were gathered in Bitcoin. Ethereum would not exist technically, or financially without Bitcoin, a point that many Ether maximalists tend to gloss over. There are other colorful characters such as Joseph Lubin (who later founded Consensys), Gavin Wood (who moved on to Polka Dot), who did the heavy lifting of the technical implementation of the first ETH client, and Charles Hoskinson (who moved on to Cardano), who was very annoying in the book, and was ultimately driven out of Ethereum very early on for that reason. From the videos and posts I have seen about him, I believe every word.

I listened to the audio version, and the narrator was very robotic in her delivery. It was painful to listen to at times. Lucky for her the content held my interest, so I held my nose. I know a lot of Bitcoin maxis call Ethereum a scam, and after listening to this book, I believe that even less. I believe that the team's intent was to really create something useful. It's also interesting to contrast the different cultures between Bitcoin and Ethereum. Though I don't put either on the authoritarian spectrum, socially and technically Bitcoin is the conservative right, and Ethereum is the progressive left.

Ethereum has a lot going for it, and it also has a lot that can go wrong. It's transition to proof-of-stake is very risky, as the entire chain can blow up. Also, there are a myriad of 'Ethereum Killers' that have been able to learn from the shortcomings of Ethereum. That being said, Ethereum has the first mover advantage, a lot of engineering behind it, a large DApp ecosystem, and a large war chest to draw from. I'm not about to count Ethereum out.

I recommend this book, even if you aren't an Ethereum fan. So much innovation has been spurred by the Ethereum ecosystem, it's an important part of crypto history, even if something else eventually supplants it.

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