In August 2019 I was invited to speak at a prestigious DevCon in Orlando.

Come the day of my presentation, I was in good shape and well prepared. As I stepped onstage, I had no idea that the presentation would not be the highlight of my week. Not by a long shot.

As much as I was prepared for my presentation, I wasn’t ready for the other “event” that took place later that day. Towards the end of the afternoon I found myself at a cocktail party, surrounded by brilliant people that I held in very high esteem. All of them developers, most of them friends of mine. The cream of the crop in our industry. 

The subject of Bitcoin came up. Everyone knew how much I’m a fan, so they started asking me questions. Some chuckled, probably asking themselves why I was interested in this magical Internet currency. I tried as hard as I could to answer their questions, address their concerns and communicate everything I had learned on the subject. Keep in mind it was roughly a year since I’d started investigating “cryptocurrency”. I had read a few books, but needless to say I wasn’t ready for that kind of “confrontation”.

Towards the end of the conversation one of them tried to defuse the situation and close the subject:

“Look, if Bitcoin is so great then wouldn’t everyone in our industry, not to mention economics and finance, be rushing to get their hands on it?”

At that very moment my interest in Bitcoin changed. Over the course of the following year I didn’t watch a single hour of Netflix, nor did I play a single video game. I read, wrote and translated non-stop until I felt I mastered the subject. I then developed my knowledge on various related subjects, notably how state-issued currencies and inflation work, collecting as many articles as I could and smothering them in highlighter ink.

All that material gave me the idea to offer a Bitcoin course at a College in the Montreal area.

However, a good part of my notes, including my summary of the excellent book by Yan Pritzker Inventing Bitcoin, were in English. I contacted Yan asking him if a French version was in the works. He replied that a certain Thibaud Maréchal was already working on it. Funny thing was that I had just met Thibaud during a Bitcoin Montreal meeting, so I reached out to him and offered to help translate the text.

In the meantime the idea to write my own book itched at the back of my mind.

I already had a good idea of the structure I needed. A person interested in Bitcoin should read it and walk away with a good overview of many important subjects, all essential to understanding Bitcoin properly.

It took me every ounce of courage to ask Marie Oneissi, who published the french version of The Bitcoin Standard (L’Étalon Bitcoin), if she was interested in publishing new material on Bitcoin, to which she replied: “Write it up and we’ll publish it.”

Given Marie’s interest, I figured that she might also be interested in publishing the French translation of Yan’s book, Inventing Bitcoin. Thibaud and I had already translated two thirds of the manuscript. Marie not only accepted to publish it but also took it upon herself to complete the translation.

And so two books, L’Invention de Bitcoin and Tout sur Bitcoin, saw the light of day.

I learned a lot during the editing process.

As soon as your opinion deviates from the established order you need solid arguments to back it up. When someone criticizes Bitcoin by claiming that it’s based on nothing but thin air or that it doesn’t really exist, that person refuses to apply the same reasoning to fiduciary currencies and question their own preconceived ideas. For them, there’s no need to ask where the value of state-issued currency lies, simply because those currencies are already working just fine. To defend Bitcoin, you not only need to know Bitcoin, but also the intricate cogs and wheels of state-issued currencies. Only then can you underline the contradictions in your detractor’s line of reasoning. If you’re going to disturb the established order, you need to pull up your sleeves and put in the effort.

In cryptocurrency, the networking effect is omnipresent: the usefulness of Bitcoin increases as the network grows.

The same goes for real life. None of this would’ve been possible if I hadn’t reached out to the author of The Bitcoin Standard on Twitter. Marie would’ve never seen my tweet on the subject and I would’ve never met my publisher. I would’ve never participated in translating L’Invention de Bitcoin if I hadn’t gone to the Bitcoin Montreal meeting where I met Thibaud. And none of that would’ve happened if I hadn’t accepted to go to that cocktail party with my fellow developers at the DevCon in 2019. I would’ve probably continued to learn about bitcoin, but not with such focus and intensity.

Which brings me to the conclusion that if, at some point, you find yourself in a heated debate on Bitcoin and run out of arguments, don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s perfectly normal. This is a complex subject that requires a ton of knowledge on multiple subjects. Keep learning and you will be better-equipped next time. 

That’s what happened in my case. My friend who rightfully asked why every finance professional wasn’t buying up Bitcoin back in Orlando eventually bought his first coins after completing my Bitcoin course. And what do you know, by 2020 the “finance sector people” were buying up as much Bitcoin as possible. All's well that ends well. Time after time Bitcoin keeps proving us right. Amazing, isn’t it?

For more information about the two books and their availability, visit the official website: inventionbitcoin.com and toutsurbitcoin.com respectively.

Translated by Jonathan LeBlanc