In 2009’s “Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook,” Ben Mezrich recreated the pitch the Winklevoss twins delivered to Mark Zuckerberg: “If it made any money, they’d all do well. But until then, Mark could use the launch of the Web site to rehabilitate his image.”
Ten years and a quarter-billion-dollar movie later, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are the ones whose images need rehabilitation. Because of the success of Mezrich’s book and the resulting film, the sobriquet “Winklevii” has become synonymous with entitlement, privilege and litigation. Mezrich’s latest book, “Bitcoin Billionaires” details the 6’5″ brothers’ attempt to slough off that reputation by making it big in what they call “the world’s oldest social network” — money.
“Bitcoin Billionaires” is mildly compelling as a recounting of the early days of cryptocurrency, as the Wild West of drug dealers and anarchists transitioned to a more respectable (and lawful) store of value under Winklevoss supervision. Of more interest to Mezrich is the twins’ redemption arc, as the author has a clear sense of guilt over impugning their character all those years ago.
And it is not hard to see why. A decade ago, the Winklevoss were the bad guys, symbols of a Harvard elite frustrated by the breakdown of a system to which us common folk would never have access in the first place. Mark Zuckerberg, on the other hand, was our tribune to the patriciate, our man on the inside charged with disassembling the centuries-old structures that have long separated the many from the privileged few.
Zuckerberg succeeded in that quest, but it is no longer clear that he was our hero in the story. Facebook has created a brave new world that may in fact be far worse than the one designed to favor Ivy League rowers from Greenwich, Connecticut. Instead of a society built on rules and purpose and mutual respect, we now have one in which the most defining features are hatred, anomie and mutual distrust.
The creator of Facebook is not solely responsible for the breakdown we currently find ourselves in, but he is less sympathetic than he once was, especially when you compound Facebook’s deleterious effect on society with the indifference the company has shown to protecting its vast troves of user data.
All this is to say that while “Bitcoin Billionaires” attempts to rehabilitate the Winklevoss reputation with an exploration into their background and work ethic, the biggest thing the brothers have going for them is that they are not Mark Zuckerberg and they did not invent Facebook. The rest — namely, becoming the public faces of cryptocurrency — is gravy.
But gravy is tasty, and “Bitcoin Billionaires” is a very fun read. Mezrich’s breezy writing style makes this a perfect summer companion, even if you have never found yourself wondering what the Winklevoss twins are up to these days. It is a testament to Mezrich’s storytelling that what is essentially a “rich get richer” narrative (that begins in Ibiza and ends at Burning Man) can be marketed as a story of redemption and get away with it. As an added bonus, you will finish the book with a better understanding of how digital currency works. With Facebook announcing its own attempt to launch a cryptocurrency, this will be useful information in navigating whatever world Mark Zuckerberg decides to create next.
