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Chris Dixon, a cryptocurrency investor in Silicon Valley, wants to revamp the sector
On a cold day in March, Chris Dixon arrives at Green Apple Books, an independent bookstore in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood, ready to sign books. In Read Write Yourself: Building the Next Age of the Internet, Andreessen HorowitzThe leading cryptocurrency investor touts the virtues of blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The book is an attempt by one of the biggest promoters of the sector: he has invested billions of dollars in startups including Coinbase Global Inc. and creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club Yuga laboratories—to rehabilitate cryptocurrencies’ tarnished image in the wake of a year that saw rock-bottom prices and prison sentences for its biggest stars.
When Dixon’s book first hit shelves in January, the reviews didn’t exactly catapult it there Shoe dog state. Cryptographic researcher Molly White I skewered it with the joy of Pete Wells after killing an Almond Joy cocktail at Guy Fieri’s Flavortown. “Dixon cannot identify a single blockchain project that has successfully provided a non-speculative service at any kind of scale,” he wrote. Dixon tells me that White is “a professional anti-cryptocurrency person.” (White wrote an article on the state of cryptocurrencies for Bloomberg Businessweek on May 2.) In February, Read Write Own earned a spot on the New York Times best-seller list, surpassing Britney Spears’ memoir. But a dagger appeared next to the title, indicating that large wholesale orders were helping boost sales. The press took advantage of the discovery and after just two weeks the book disappeared from the list.