Acknowledgements

I could never have written this book without the many people who collectively helped educate me or who otherwise influenced my thinking about bitcoin originally. Will Cole, Saifedean Ammous, Napoleon Cole, Marty Bent, Michael Goldstein, Marcus Dent, Pierre Rochard, Jimmy Song, Brooks Dudley, Vijay Boyapati, Stephan Livera, Andreas Antonopoulos, and Wences Casares are among many of those who contributed directly or indirectly to my understanding as I went down the bitcoin rabbit hole.

I began writing the original series of essays when I worked for Unchained and owe a debt of gratitude to the entire team for having supported me. As co-­founders of Unchained, Joe Kelly and Dhruv Bansal trusted me to represent the company and gave me full discretion to share my unedited views of bitcoin. To differing extents, many of my conclusions and perspectives were and inevitably still might be controversial—to the world generally, within our industry, and even within our company (at least at the time). Gradually, Then Suddenly might never have seen the light of day with different founders and within a different company.

When I originally wrote the bulk of my work, Phil Geiger, Will Cole, and Adam Tzagournis were my primary sounding boards for editorial feedback. Their comments sharpened my thought processes and improved my writing. In the process of writing the book version, Anil Patel and Neil Woodfine were instrumental in the editorial process and significantly improved the polish of the final work to make it worthy of print. It would have never have become a book had each not shouldered a heavy load when they did. In addition to the substantive editing process, Anil helped create all the graphics. Anil has a special skill of distilling complex thoughts into both visualizations and written copy. In many ways, I view this book as a collective work of both of ours because the images and graphics help tell a story that is otherwise much more difficult to grasp. Through the process of completing the book, Jimmy Song served as both an accountability partner—as he wrote his latest book, Fiat Ruins Everything, which you should also read—and as a mentor, which was invaluable to me in creating steady forward progress.

Over the past nine months, I have written and otherwise worked on this book out of the Bitcoin Commons in Austin, Texas. While there is no singular bitcoin community, there are local bitcoin communities all over the world, and community is important to bitcoin. I view the Bitcoin Commons as a model for bitcoin communities everywhere to replicate. The space would not exist without the Austin bitcoin community, and it would not be possible without the support of a broad set of bitcoin companies, including Unchained, NYDIG, Ten31, Swan, Spiral, Strike, Priority Power, TFTC, Trammell Venture Partners, Fold, Satoshi Pacioli, Bitcoin Magazine, Braiins, Casa, and Trezor. I specifically want to thank Kaily Buemi, who helps run the Bitcoin Commons, as well as Justin Moon, the Godfather of Austin Bitdevs. Without Austin Bitdevs, there never would have been a Commons. And without the Commons, I wouldn’t have had a space to write with the bitcoin community around me as a support structure and source of inspiration.

This is my first and hopefully last book—I will be a one-­hit wonder if I’m lucky. In the middle of my self-­publishing process, I had to audible and hire a team of independent freelancers. Saifedean Ammous was incredibly generous in providing me with advice and recommending resources that he used in publishing Principles of Economics. I am grateful for the editing support from Tara Taylor and Renata Sielecki, work on citations by Holly Gorman, and the design skills of Lorie DeWorken. The collective efforts of these individuals allowed me to improve the overall body of my work and are credited with ultimately helping me turn my writing into a professional and polished work product that I was proud to publish and put in print. The original cover art was created by Proof of Paint, specifically as a commission for Gradually, Then Suddenly. I want to thank the artist who worked tirelessly to create a beautifully unique piece and fittingly, who wishes to remain pseudonymous. The art is an allegory of the individual's journey to bitcoin, which we collaboratively created to fit hand-and-glove with the book. It turned out to be the perfect finishing touch to bring everything together.

I also want to thank Grant Gilliam, Scott Shreeve, Alex Gladstein, Peter McCormack, Ross Stevens, Bruce Gutkin, and Brett Morrison for reviewing and providing valuable feedback. While there are too many bitcoiners to thank them all, I do want to mention a combination of friends and friends in spirit who have either influenced me or had a lasting impact on my bitcoin journey—directly or indirectly—and who I haven’t already mentioned: Buck Perley, Ben Carman, Gideon Powell, Cam Stromme, Trey Sellers, Justine Harper, Michael Tanguma, Annaliese Wiederspahn, Tyler Campbell, Velvet Campbell, Daniel Chavez, Griffin Haby, Dave Hogan, Mario Gutierrez, Sahil Chaturvedi, Paul Miller, Tony Giorgio, Nick Gates, Gigi, NVK, Giacomo Zucco, Rockstar Dev, Aleks Svetski, John Magill, Alan Lane, Matt Odell, Erik Cason, Brady Swenson, Sam Callahan, Preston Pysh, Rod Bitkite, Gary Leland, Alex Leishman, Jack Mallers, Christian Keroles, Yan Pritzker, CJ Wilson, Ted Rogers, Cory Klippsten, Natalie Brunnell, Jeff Vandrew, Michael Saylor, Max Keiser, Stacy Herbert, Mark Moss, Bryan Bishop, Ti Kawamoto, Mitch Klee, Ryan Gentry, Michael Atwood, Michael Flaxman, Away Slice, Tuur Demeester, Nate Kitzke, Andrew Poelstra, Brandon Quittem, Guy Swann, Daniel Prince, and Steve Barbour.

To all the bitcoiners who have shared with me that the original essays helped you on your journey to understanding bitcoin, thank you! It is the best compliment I can receive when it comes to my work, and it was inspiration for the book. Lastly, I want to thank my family and closest friends. Bitcoin might be the most important tool ever invented by man, but it is just a tool. It would mean nothing without the people in my life who make it all worthwhile.