Bloomberg Businessweek Publishes 40,000-Word Article on Crypto

Bloomberg Businessweek takes a good, long look at cryptocurrency, its future at the center of finance and the possibilities Web3 will unlock. And when we say “long” we mean it – for the second time in the publication’s 93-year history, an entire issue is occupied by this one story.

Clocking in at a novella-length 40,000 words, the piece by financial columnist, lawyer and investment banker Matt Levine takes advantage of the pause in crypto hype to examine the good, the bad and the ugly of the 14-year-old market.

We’re still digging into the details, but it reads as part introduction to cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and part a look at the key issues - both technological and financial - in the industry. He also discusses how crypto as an industry has matured and how it has already integrated itself into conventional markets, blurring the line between customer and shareholder.

"But really it's a good time to be talking about crypto," he wrote. "There's a pause; there's some repose. Whatever is left in crypto is not just speculation and get-rich-quick schemes. We can think about what crypto means – divorced, a little bit, from the lines going up."

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"My goal is to convince you that crypto is interesting, that it has found some new things to say about some old problems, and that even when those things are wrong, they're wrong in illuminating ways," he said. "Crypto has a pretty well-developed financial system, and I'm going to talk about it a fair bit, because it’s pretty well-developed and because I like finance."

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"If you build a financial system whose main appeal is its database, it will be well-suited to a world lived in databases," he wrote in the article's final paragraph. "If the world is increasingly software and advertising and online social networking and, good Lord, the metaverse, then the crypto financial system doesn’t have to build all the way back down to the real world to be valuable. The world can come to crypto."

This is a must-read for both those new to the space, as well as a good way for those in the crypto space to view how conventional finance minds view crypto and its potential. Set aside some time and click here.