It's Mine: How the Crypto Industry Is Redefining Ownership

‘Crypto’, a loose term that means many things to different people, only entered the public consciousness within the last five years or so, now evident by the volume of public discussion, commentary and analysis spread across every conceivable media outlet.

Cryptography has been around for millennia, but Bitcoin only arose in 2009, and it was the spark that has taken crypto from a small group of enthusiasts into a many-tentacled creature, now attaching itself to an astonishing number of projects across all manner of applications, challenging both public and private power centres and long-established norms as it spreads. Starting with the emergence of cryptocurrencies, a whole new host of life-forms have emerged – NFTs, the metaverse, Defi, Web3 and DAOs – all of them changing the very notion of ownership.

It’s Mine digs into the history and concept of ‘ownership’, which ecosystems nurture it, and where we are now. Filled with anecdotes, observations and interviews, the book takes an entertaining and accessible look at how Bitcoin made its mark, how its technology is being re-purposed to enable a revolution, and (in non-technical terms) how it all works. It explores how these new crypto ‘life-forms’ will interact with the rest of the virtual and physical world, while making some very rich and some very poor.

Steven Boykey Sidley is an award-winning and multi-shortlisted author and playwright. He is the author of the novels Entanglement, Stepping Out, Imperfect Solo, Free Association, Leaving Word and the play Shape (co-written with his wife Kate Sidley), as well as the 2022 non-fiction release Beyond Bitcoin: Decentralised Financeand The End of Banks (co-written with Simon Dingle).

He is currently a partner at Bridge Capital Future Advisory, in charge of their technology practice, and is an investor in a number of technology and crypto companies. Sidley was appointed to the position of Professor at the University of Johannesburg, Graduate School of Business (JBS) in 2022, to pursue research and teaching in blockchain and 4IR technologies.