Cryptodad: The Fight for the Future of Money - Hardcover

by J. Christopher Giancarlo (Author), Cameron Winklevoss (Foreword by), Tyler Winklevoss (Foreword by)

An insider's account of the rise of digital money and cryptocurrencies

Dubbed "CryptoDad" for his impassioned plea to Congress to acknowledge and respect cryptocurrencies as the inevitable product of a fast-growing technological wave and a free marketplace, Chris Giancarlo is considered one of "the most influential individuals in financial regulation." CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money describes Giancarlo's own reckoning with the future of the global economy--at the intersection of markets, technology, and public policy--and lays out the fight for a Digital Dollar.

CryptoDad is Giancarlo's own personal story, detailing his forays into the world of Wall Street to his tenure as the 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he pushed for the agency to recognize the digitization of markets. His growing fame as a Twitter presence in this essential debate has given Giancarlo a platform to makes a case for the future of cryptocurrencies as the natural successor to America's current failing financial market infrastructure.

CryptoDad provides readers with:

• A thorough exploration of digital change and how it affects the lives of everyone in a global economy
• A revolutionary consideration of regulatory responses to the rapid pace of technological innovation
• A call to update our aging financial organizations, particularly the infrastructure of money itself, and focus on renewed faith and confidence in free market innovation
• A foreword by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, two of the biggest names in cryptocurrencies

CryptoDad argues that the next digital wave will be the coming Internet of Value, where cryptocurrencies will do the Internet of Information did to immaterial things: make them accessible, distributable, and movable instantly across the globe. This book is an ideal introduction to the importance of technology in the marketplace.

Front Jacket

Just as the Internet changed everything we know about social relationships, retail shopping, information gathering, and work and play, a new wave--an Internet of Value--is about to completely transform financial services, including the most valuable thing of all: money. In CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money, the accomplished former Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission delivers an insightful and groundbreaking account of the rise of Bitcoin, crypto, and central bank digital currency.

Dubbed CryptoDad for his celebrated call on Congress to respect a new generation's interest in cryptocurrency, J. Christopher Giancarlo provides a dramatic, eyewitness view of his efforts during the Obama and Trump Administrations to modernize oversight of America's antiquated financial markets. Seeing the greatest danger to America's future in Washington's focus on the past, he urges courageous new leadership to harness the digital reordering of the global economy and the coming future of money.

CryptoDad tells the story of Giancarlo's oversight of the world's first regulated market for Bitcoin derivatives, an action that ventured domestic political fallout and engendered some global derision. Yet, by braving the political risk of greenlighting the debut of Bitcoin futures, the CFTC provided regulatory certainty essential for today's burgeoning crypto industry.

CryptoDad also explains in simple and understandable language the workings of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and a future digital Dollar. Mixed with these explanations are exciting "you are there" stories of his five-year journey through the centers of financial power in Washington and London, Brussels, and Hong Kong--and, yes, the Oval Office.

Asserting that money is too important to be left to central bankers, CryptoDad is a clarion call for democratic society to ensure that the social values that are enshrined in the Dollar today--values like individual liberty, economic freedom, personal privacy, and the rule of law--are embodied in the digital future of money.

CryptoDad brims with faith and confidence in free market innovation and economic renewal, a perfect book for anyone interested in financial market regulation that balances entrepreneurship, sound policy, regulatory oversight, and courage to allow new digital technologies to flourish and change the world around us.

Back Jacket

Praise for CryptoDad

"Giancarlo has a rare gift for demystifying cryptocurrency, while also sharing his page-turning adventures as an 'accidental regulator' heading a major U.S. government agency. Young and old, disruptors and traditionalists, crypto believers and skeptics and the merely curious--everyone will love CryptoDad!"
--JO ANN BAREFOOT, CEO and Co-founder, Alliance for Innovative Regulation

"Giancarlo is one of the few people who deeply understands the potential for crypto to transform our financial system, the regulatory framework in which these technologies exist, and the political realities to be navigated to help innovation thrive."
--AVICHAL GARG, Founder, Electric Capital

"It takes guts to speak truth to power. Giancarlo's bird's-eye account of using his position to challenge the status quo and demand respect for digitization of the financial world makes for gripping reading."
--BLYTHE MASTERS, Founding Partner, Motive Partners

"A delightfully inspirational read discussing insights from the front lines of an emerging financial industry that is on course to change the world!"
--ZAC PRINCE, CEO, BlockFi

"A lucid call to action for anyone who cares about money, prosperity, and freedom. CryptoDad sets out the dramatic opportunities as well as huge challenges of cryptocurrency. Giancarlo shows why key democratic values--like freedom of speech, economic liberty, and censorship resistance--must be encoded in the digital future of money and that members of free societies, not governments, must make it so."
--DON TAPSCOTT, Bestselling Author of The Blockchain Revolution

"Giancarlo is one of only a few lonely voices in government who is not afraid to call out the self-preserving resistance to innovation of the U.S. regulatory and political structure and why we need to embrace the creative destruction and growth that financial innovation promises."
--BRIAN BROOKS, Former Acting Comptroller of the Currency

Author Biography

J. CHRISTOPHER GIANCARLO is a renowned blockchain technology advocate and key contributor to the global discourse on cryptocurrencies and digital assets. He served as the 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Giancarlo was first nominated by President Obama and again nominated by President Trump, each time unanimously confirmed. Today, Giancarlo is Senior Counsel to the international law firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher and a Co-founder of the Digital Dollar Project, a not-for-profit initiative to advance exploration of a U.S. central bank digital currency.