First, this book is very well-written. The characters, their motives, and their positions are clear, especially toward the end of the book. Second, the overall storyline is fairly clear - after much reading you begin to understand the major arguments and positions that people took over the main technical attempts to improve/change the existing Bitcoin protocols. The complexity of some of the technical ideas is confusing in many places - diagrams or tables would have helped to isolate and clarify them. The book tries to avoid digging into obscure technical details, but even so, as a knowledgeable reader, I got lost in the details in multiple places. At the end, I am very grateful that the author did such a wonderful job of capturing this part of Bitcoin’s history and the people involved in the evolution. You can’t help but come away from the book feeling the impact of the complexity of what goes on under the hood in the Bitcoin mining and user networks. Working on the Bitcoin Core software is definitely not for the faint of heart. I strongly recommend this excellent book to anyone interested in Bitcoin’s history.

Awesome book that seems to give a fair shot at both sides. A lot of good Bitcoin history.

Upon entering the crypto industry recently, I find myself bumping into the so called BitcoinXT and the hard forks that follow. This book gives greater insight on how that came to be and is a deep dive to how Bitcoin is run behind the scenes. (Thanks Nic Carter for providing the awareness of this book)

A word of warning, the book can be very technical and difficult to follow if you aren’t aware of how crypto works.

Throughout the story, Bier gives the perspectives of both the big blockers and the small blockers. He includes details that Ver's book leaves out.

Although he does criticize big blockers, it was for their failed strategies, and not the idea of bigger blocks. If you have time, then read Ver's book too, as it is an eyeopener to the big Block mindset throughout that history.

However, this book is still the best read on the topic.

Absolutely love this narrative of the war. This book is a must read for every bitcoiner! Kudos to the author, well done!

I had heard so much about the blockchain battle, the blocksize war, etc that I needed some kind of neutral source. The author has his opinions but always expresses them so the reader knows what to consider. Extensive original documentation very difficult to find anywhere else and notes from conversations and presentations not recorded or lost, except in this book.

It is written in a humble, matter-of-fact manner, and self-published. Before I invested any more into bitcoin, I had to know the play-by-play of the two year battle over the future of the bitcoin protocol. Got what I wanted and continued my Orange Pill journey.

All the interactions on social media between bitcoin people makes sense after reading this book. You also get a sense of what makes bitcoin strong as well as what things can make it fragile.

As mentioned by another reviewer there is no page in the front with copyright date info. That's important to get context on when this book was written. That eventually becomes clear at the end.

This book needs a once over for editing.

Constantly switching between "small blocker" and "smaller blocker" or "large blocker" and "larger blocker" was super annoying.

Many things like that almost made my review score a 4... But it was better than a 4

Once again Bitcoin proved to be a combination of multiple disciplines. Fascinating. A mandatory read for the ones interested in fully understanding this magnificent invention.

On en apprend beaucoup sur la communauté Bitcoin et nous donne une idée de ce qui pourrait se passer dans un futur conflit. J'ai rarement autant dévoré un livre.

Ce livre est essentiel pour comprendre l’évolution du bitcoin pendant sa première décennie. Il montre aussi le côté humain derrière la cryptomonnaie. Attention, ce n’est pas pour les non initiés. Il faut connaître déjà les fondamentaux de la blockchain.

Very interesting bit of Bitcoin history. I was deeply absorbed in the book from start to end.

Read this to know the history of Bitcoin protocol

Jonathan Bier had a ringside seat at many of the pivotal events that defined the 2015-2017 blocksize war: the battle over whether BItcoin should undertake a "hard fork" as a means of allowing for more on-chain transactions.

This book provides a gripping account of the events that took place, telling a story that spans continents, and involves a host of intriguing characters.

The book provides:

>An outline of the blocksize controversy, and the key technical and economic issues at stake

>The events of the 2016 Hong Kong Roundtable, where large and small blockers met and controversial compromises were reached.

>The Segwit and the Lightning Network scaling proposals, and why these were opposed by prominent big blockers.

>The 2017 Bitcoin Cash hard fork, and the intriguing roles played by Bitmain’s Jihan Wu and early bitcoin investor Roger Ver, including the events that led to Bitmain ploughing a colossal $888 million of its cash reserves into Bitcoin Cash.

>The emergence of Craig Wright, his claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, his joining of the big blocker cause, and the eventual split between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.

>Where we are in 2021 with BCH trading at around 1% the value of BTC, and the apparent victory of the small blockers.

The book is simply a "must-read" for Bitcoiners, and those looking to learn more about this emerging new form of money that is profoundly impacting the financial world. Highly recommended.