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Strength in Numbers: A Novel of Cryptocurrency
Phlox Tseretelli was an ordinary English literature major and part-time waitress worried about grades and her career prospects after graduation... until she discovered that somewhere in her apartment might be the key to five bitcoin. Left behind by a long-dead researcher who used to live there, it would make her one of the richest people in Pittsburgh. For a poor girl from a dying Rust Belt mill town, this was the opportunity of a lifetime.
With the help of her friend Chris, a computer science major, and her roommate Holly, a mathematics major, Phlox may be able to understand how cryptocurrency works and obtain a fortune, solving her monetary problems forever.
But that would only be the beginning of her troubles.
About the Bill Laboon currently teaches computer science at the University of Pittsburgh, after fifteen years in the software industry in a variety of roles including developer, quality analyst, field engineer, and technical lead. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and meetups on a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, functional programming, and the ethics of software development. He is also the author of A Friendly Introduction to Software Testing, a textbook used in his own Software Quality Assurance course as well as by numerous other instructors in the United States, Ireland, New Zealand, and elsewhere. If forced to answer the question, his favorite programming language is Ruby.
With the help of her friend Chris, a computer science major, and her roommate Holly, a mathematics major, Phlox may be able to understand how cryptocurrency works and obtain a fortune, solving her monetary problems forever.
But that would only be the beginning of her troubles.
About the Bill Laboon currently teaches computer science at the University of Pittsburgh, after fifteen years in the software industry in a variety of roles including developer, quality analyst, field engineer, and technical lead. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and meetups on a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, functional programming, and the ethics of software development. He is also the author of A Friendly Introduction to Software Testing, a textbook used in his own Software Quality Assurance course as well as by numerous other instructors in the United States, Ireland, New Zealand, and elsewhere. If forced to answer the question, his favorite programming language is Ruby.
323 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2018
16 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 4, 2019
This is a highly-entertaining primer of cryptocurrency that is suspenseful, funny, and hard to put down! It surprised me that I enjoyed it as much as I did.
I went to the University of Pittsburgh, where these characters attend school (the author is a professor there, though he was not in my day, as we’re the same age) and there are a bunch of reference that will give any past or present Pitt students lols. The sombrero man, the shop on Atwood selling low-quality pizza to students for giveaway prices (it was $4 for a whole cheese pizza in my day), the Cathedral being called “the drunk man’s beacon.” Good stuff. But even if you didn’t go to Pitt, it doesn’t hurt the book. Laboon uses such details to really enrich a story that, I suspect, has the main intention of teaching people about how cryptocurrency works, as well as both its benefits and pitfalls. Even with that kind of dry (to some—including me) background intention, the book manages to be something of a thrill ride!
The characterization is excellent, and there are a number of interesting side characters who really fill the book in. The funniest is Violet, a freshman who adopts new political philosophies every day she spends meeting new people in college—she goes from Marxist to Anarchist to monarchist over the course of a few days. And don’t worry, eventually you’ll learn why Chris’s roommate is carrying all that soy sauce! I laugh thinking back on it.
This is an impressive book and more people should read it, in my opinion!
I went to the University of Pittsburgh, where these characters attend school (the author is a professor there, though he was not in my day, as we’re the same age) and there are a bunch of reference that will give any past or present Pitt students lols. The sombrero man, the shop on Atwood selling low-quality pizza to students for giveaway prices (it was $4 for a whole cheese pizza in my day), the Cathedral being called “the drunk man’s beacon.” Good stuff. But even if you didn’t go to Pitt, it doesn’t hurt the book. Laboon uses such details to really enrich a story that, I suspect, has the main intention of teaching people about how cryptocurrency works, as well as both its benefits and pitfalls. Even with that kind of dry (to some—including me) background intention, the book manages to be something of a thrill ride!
The characterization is excellent, and there are a number of interesting side characters who really fill the book in. The funniest is Violet, a freshman who adopts new political philosophies every day she spends meeting new people in college—she goes from Marxist to Anarchist to monarchist over the course of a few days. And don’t worry, eventually you’ll learn why Chris’s roommate is carrying all that soy sauce! I laugh thinking back on it.
This is an impressive book and more people should read it, in my opinion!
August 23, 2018
A pretty fun, quick primer on the basics of cryptocurrencies, in the form of a suspenseful novel. I'm giving it some extra stars because it may well be the first of its kind; I haven't found many books that explore how the future might look if current cryptocurrencies become very widely adopted.
I will say that the book holds less value for readers who are already quite familiar with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Monero. This book, while set ~40 years in the future, is basically about explaining how these cryptocurrencies work today. It doesn't go very far into exploring how the technologies themselves might evolve over time - it assumes that in 40 years we'll still have the same top 4 coins, each serving the same use cases that are described today, and with the same exchange ratio among them. This seems unlikely to me.
I guess I picked up this book expecting a bit more of an imaginative, sci-fi kind of look at a distant cryptocurrency future. But it's also fine just the way it is: a fun, easy-to-read, technically sound introduction for people who are curious or confused about what cryptocurrencies are. And, of course, it's indulgent for current investors who like to imagine the massive gains that might come over the years.
I do hope this is a herald of many books to come, that explore in all kinds of broad strokes what kind of futures these technologies enable.
I will say that the book holds less value for readers who are already quite familiar with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Monero. This book, while set ~40 years in the future, is basically about explaining how these cryptocurrencies work today. It doesn't go very far into exploring how the technologies themselves might evolve over time - it assumes that in 40 years we'll still have the same top 4 coins, each serving the same use cases that are described today, and with the same exchange ratio among them. This seems unlikely to me.
I guess I picked up this book expecting a bit more of an imaginative, sci-fi kind of look at a distant cryptocurrency future. But it's also fine just the way it is: a fun, easy-to-read, technically sound introduction for people who are curious or confused about what cryptocurrencies are. And, of course, it's indulgent for current investors who like to imagine the massive gains that might come over the years.
I do hope this is a herald of many books to come, that explore in all kinds of broad strokes what kind of futures these technologies enable.
April 18, 2020
The concept of incorporating cryptocurrency ideas (or any technical field in general) into an accesible novel deserves appreciation.
The book is spotted with humour and futuristic visions of ways how humans interact with technology. There are a number of plot turns you don't expect and the technical level is mostly accessible to a reader who's had at least some exposure to blockchain.
The book is spotted with humour and futuristic visions of ways how humans interact with technology. There are a number of plot turns you don't expect and the technical level is mostly accessible to a reader who's had at least some exposure to blockchain.
November 18, 2022
Loved it
Loves the story and thought it was presented in a way that owed learning more about Bitcoin to be entertaining.
Very cool novel - I will definitely recommend it to friends looking for a book to teach them about cryptocurrency.
Loves the story and thought it was presented in a way that owed learning more about Bitcoin to be entertaining.
Very cool novel - I will definitely recommend it to friends looking for a book to teach them about cryptocurrency.
August 14, 2021
I would rather to read the book five years ago..
Good book, gives history background and I got to know what "monero" means in esperanto language.
Good book, gives history background and I got to know what "monero" means in esperanto language.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews