This is a crypto book with an agenda to prove that crypto is a scam. I’m sure he is spot on about the fact that yes crypto attracts a lot of scam artists and bad actors because it has been such an unregulated space, but this is not a balanced view.
Never once does Ben ever even hint at the fact that anyone who has lost money investing in crypto is by people who have done so of their own free will. i.e. as much as scam artists are terrible, anyone who risks more than they can afford to lose is the idiot.
Chapter 10 goes on about how crypto is on life support yet you can write about any point in time and it be true about such a volatile asset. As I write this now in 2025 crypto is booming and worth over 4 trillion.
Been Mckenzie keeps harping on about the point how crypto is only backed by 10-15% “real” money. Sounds exactly like what “real” money is which is simply a belief system.
Anyway I’m glad I listened to get the counter argument and it raises some good points but definitely is a very “find evidence to fit my theory” book. Some of the evidence is correct but extrapolating it out to all of crypto is just flawed. The best and most useful part of the book without doubt is the list of red flags in the appendix.
Yes there are real scammers out there. But Crypto is here to stay.
Favourite quotes from the book:
People hate to be told something but they live to discover something for themselves. – 54:14
Humans en mass are primative, stupid and sheep like and thus are easily fooled. – 1:02:35
Most people consider themselves good people, no matter what bad things they have done… when interrogating someone suspected of a crime, no matter how brutal, he tended to employ the same simple tactics. Just listen. Tell the suspect you know he is a good person but you need help understanding what happened because the facts aren’t adding up. If given the opportunity to explain their behaviour most suspects will take it. They need to see themselves as good people. They desperately want to be understood. – Chapter 9. 1:03:28
Overall: 65%