Nathaniel Fried
In 2017, the value of a single bitcoin soared from below $1,000 to close to $20,000 at its highest point.
The world of cryptocurrency is incredibly complex and challenging to understand. We reached out to industry experts to suggest the best books to read to understand Bitcoin.
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#1 Age of Cryptocurrency + The Truth Machine
There are so many books being published about Bitcoin and blockchain tech generally, and many go out of date by the time they reach print. However there are some excellent ones which really dig into lasting principles, and I’d like to recommend Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey’s ‘Age of Cryptocurrency’, as well as their more recent follow-up “The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything”.
Together these two books will provide a thought-provoking and informed perspective on the history and implications of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and the potential impact of blockchain technology and distributed ledgers in a range of sectors. They’re well-written, only as technical as they absolutely need to be, and very thoroughly researched - as you’d expect from two WSJ journalists.
I often recommend their work to anyone new to the sector who really wants to understand the technological and ideological roots, as well as the potential impact, of this new tech and asset class.
The Age of Cryptocurrency: Want to read more reviews of this book or buy it? Check out the links below:
The Truth Machine: Want to read more reviews of this book or buy it? Check out the links below:
Contributor: Maya Middlemiss from blocksparks.io
#2 Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds will teach you everything you need to know about bubbles and will keep you from getting swept up in the hysteria surrounding them. You can learn all about previous bubbles like the South Sea Bubble and the Dutch tulip mania or Tulipomania (where, at one point, a single tulip bulb cost 12 acres of land). Then you can apply that knowledge to the current cryptocurrency landscape and save yourself a ton of hassle.
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Contributor: Dary Merckens from gunnertech.com
#3 Blockchain Revolution
Blockchain Revolution by Alex and Don Tapscott is a good book to understand the underlying idea and philosophy of blockchain technology.
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Contributor: Nydia Zhang from socialalphafoundation.org
#4 Blockchain and the Law
Most books on blockchain focus on how it works or what it does, and that makes it very difficult to distill what it means to us as a society and how it differs from other technologies. What I like about this book is that it explores some of the details that affect the law and other fundamental building blocks of our society. This book clarifies why blockchain is not just another gee-whiz new technology, but something that will create fundamental change.
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Contributor: Alan Majer from goodrobot.com
#5 The Bitcoin Standard
The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous delves into the historical social and political contexts that make Bitcoin an attractive alternative.
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Contributor: Tim Spell from getopenwater.com
#6 Mastering Bitcoin
An amazing intro to the Bitcoin world and also a developer guide. While this book is generally aimed at people who know how to code, I don't know how to code and really enjoyed it. It gives the most simple, but yet in-depth explanation of how Bitcoin works.
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Contributor: Ofir Beigel from 99Bitcoins.com
#7 The book of Satoshi
[This book is] a great way to learn about how Bitcoin began by going over Satoshi Nakamoto's original blog posts (Bitcoin's creator).
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Contributor: Ofir Beigel from 99Bitcoins.com
#8 Digital Gold
This is one of the best books I've read (or actually heard, it was an audiobook) about Bitcoin. It tells the whole story of the Bitcoin business community. It covers Mt.Gox, the Bitcoin association, Bitstamp, The Winklevoss twins, Silk Road, Bitinstant and a lot of many more milestones which were crucial for Bitcoin's adoption in the early age.
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Contributor: Ofir Beigel from 99Bitcoins.com
#9 The Internet of Money
A great collection of Andreas Antonopoulos talks. While this book is really good, I highly recommend skipping it and watching the actual talks on Youtube since they are much more engaging.
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Contributor: Ofir Beigel from 99Bitcoins.com
#10 Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy
The blockchain is the wave of future, Swan’s book is the perfect primer to blockchain and why its caught the world by storm. While everything blockchain is deep, complex and at least a little theoretical Swan dismantles all confusion on the topic by explaining things in clear terms.
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Contributor: Nate Masterson from mapleholistics.com
#11 The Bitcoin Bible
In his book, Guttmann provides informational stories that cover what Makes bitcoin special. He also goes through the nature of VC funding in the industry and the hopes of wealth distribution that might be accomplished through cryptocurrency among other things.
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Contributor: Nate Masterson from mapleholistics.com
#12 The Business Blockchain
This book discusses the current trends in the industry, and try to give a clearer understanding of blockchain and the role it has to play. The book is well written and insightful.
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Contributor: Nate Masterson from mapleholistics.com
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Thanks for the overview , off to spend with Amazon