Short Description

Part autobiography and part investigation, the book explains the opulence of Bitcoin’s late-2017 boom and the bleakness of the subsequent bust. We begin with scandal and conflict in Canada’s cryptocurrency Wild West and spiral outward, including on-the-ground access to the cryptocurrency scene in North Korea.

Sales and Market Bullets

• Once a Bitcoin Miner is a narrative for a general readership. It immerses outsiders in the cryptocurrency world but is light on technical discussion, and any tech explanations are woven into the storyline.


• Lou has written for the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Maisonneuve, the South China Morning Post, The Walrus, and the Washington Post. He has served as a visiting journalist at the University of British Columbia.


• He writes Ocuis, a cryptocurrency newsletter read weekly by thousands across North America.

Audience

• People investing in cryptocurrency, or the crypto-curious


• Readers of immersive personal accounts into worlds everyday people do not see such as The Dogs Are Eating Them Now (Knopf Canada, 2013), The Hillbilly Elegy (Harper, 2016)


• People interested in the politics of North Korea


• People interested in the Dark Web


• Fans of investigative journalism

Ethan Lou’s writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the Washington Post. He is a former Reuters reporter and has served as a visiting journalist at the University of British Columbia. Ethan first bought Bitcoin in 2013. He splits his time between Toronto, Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta.