There was a moment not so long ago when I thought, “What if I’ve had this crypto thing all wrong?” I’m a doubting normie who, if I’m being honest, hasn’t always understood this alternate universe that’s been percolating and expanding for more than a decade now. If you’re a disciple, this new dimension is the future. If you’re a skeptic, this upside-down world is just a modern Ponzi scheme that’s going to end badly—and the recent “crypto winter” is evidence of its long-overdue ending. But crypto has dug itself into finance, into technology, and into our heads. And if crypto isn’t going away, we’d better attempt to
understand it. Which is why we asked the finest finance writer around, Matt Levine of
Bloomberg Opinion, to write a cover-to-cover issue of
Bloomberg Businessweek, something a single author has done only one other time in the magazine’s 93-year history (“
What Is Code?,” by Paul Ford). What follows is his brilliant explanation of what this maddening, often absurd, and always fascinating technology means, and where it might go. —
Joel Weber, Editor, Bloomberg Businessweek
