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Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money

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A New York Times technology and business reporter charts the dramatic rise of Bitcoin and the fascinating personalities who are striving to create a new global money for the Internet age.

Digital Gold is New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper’s brilliant and engrossing history of Bitcoin, the landmark digital money and financial technology that has spawned a global social movement.

The notion of a new currency, maintained by the computers of users around the world, has been the butt of many jokes, but that has not stopped it from growing into a technology worth billions of dollars, supported by the hordes of followers who have come to view it as the most important new idea since the creation of the Internet. Believers from Beijing to Buenos Aires see the potential for a financial system free from banks and governments. More than just a tech industry fad, Bitcoin has threatened to decentralize some of society’s most basic institutions.

An unusual tale of group invention, Digital Gold charts the rise of the Bitcoin technology through the eyes of the movement’s colorful central characters, including an Argentinian millionaire, a Chinese entrepreneur, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Bitcoin’s elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Already, Bitcoin has led to untold riches for some, and prison terms for others.

416 pages, Hardcover

First published May 19, 2015

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Nathaniel Popper

6 books54 followers

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 603 reviews
Profile Image for BlackOxford.
1,095 reviews68.9k followers
May 8, 2019
Hacking the Central Banks

If there is only time to read one book about Bitcoin, this should be the one.

Bitcoin is not just a practical technology, it is also a philosophy and an economic ideology. Popper gives a reasonable nod to all three (Arguably it is the last which has proven essential in its initial successes but which has now run out of steam). But like all philosophies it has a problem.

As a self contained system Bitcoin is a masterwork of self-verifying logic. This logic is an ingenious combination of Kantian analysis (the blockchain is a giant double-entry ledger which automatically identifies errors) and Hegelian dialectics (any blockchain can only be integrated into the system through competitive trial and error toward the solution of a mathematical problem) and Lockean consensus (if there is disagreement about who wins in block competition, the consensus within the network rules). There is even a nod to Leibnizian monadology (the encryption of the blockchain allows an extreme compression of the entire ledger so that it an be stored simultaneously throughout the network of Bitcoin users). This combination of four philosophical solutions to the problem of integrity makes Bitcoin itself (but not necessarily its software) tamper-proof.

Economically this means perfect efficiency: zero fraud, virtually no transaction cost, and almost instantaneous execution of transactions (well, ten minutes). Ideologically, libertarians see this as a way to become independent of central banks which may be tempted either to debase the currency (the maximum Bitcoin supply is 21 million, an amount which will be approached only asymptotically at a predictable rate) or to control where and when it can be used (there is no effective way to control cross-border flows of Bitcoin since they never leave the ledger).

The problem arises not within the system but in the relation of the system to any other monetary system. This connection inevitably involves brokers and dealers and exchanges and traders which are not covered, as it were, by the Bitcoin guarantee of integrity or insulation from outside authority.

So to the extent Bitcoin is accepted as a convention it is indeed significant. But getting into it or out of it is fraught with the same dangers, inefficiencies, and regulatory arbitrariness as any other currency. And as long as governments don't accept Bitcoin in payment of taxes (which makes fiat currency currency), Bitcoin is a monetary sideshow mostly of interest to the underworld (not necessarily criminal) which is forced to hack the currently dominant monetary system to survive. This alone is likely to be sufficient to ensure Bitcoin a place in economic and social history.
Profile Image for BlackOxford.
1,095 reviews68.9k followers
May 9, 2021
Hacking the Central Banks

If there is only time to read one book about Bitcoin, this should be the one.

Bitcoin is not just a practical technology, it is also a philosophy and an economic ideology. Popper gives a reasonable nod to all three (Arguably it is the last which has proven essential in its initial successes but which has now run out of steam). But like all philosophies it has a problem.

As a self contained system Bitcoin is a masterwork of self-verifying logic. This logic is an ingenious combination of Kantian analysis (the blockchain is a giant double-entry ledger which automatically identifies errors) and Hegelian dialectics (any blockchain can only be integrated into the system through competitive trial and error toward the solution of a mathematical problem) and Lockean consensus (if there is disagreement about who wins in block competition, the consensus within the network rules). There is even a nod to Leibnizian monadology (the encryption of the blockchain allows an extreme compression of the entire ledger so that it an be stored simultaneously throughout the network of Bitcoin users). This combination of four philosophical solutions to the problem of integrity makes Bitcoin itself (but not necessarily its software) tamper-proof.

Economically this means perfect efficiency: zero fraud, virtually no transaction cost, and almost instantaneous execution of transactions (well, ten minutes). Ideologically, libertarians see this as a way to become independent of central banks which may be tempted either to debase the currency (the maximum Bitcoin supply is 21 million, an amount which will be approached only asymptotically at a predictable rate) or to control where and when it can be used (there is no effective way to control cross-border flows of Bitcoin since they never leave the ledger).

The problem arises not within the system but in the relation of the system to any other monetary system. This connection inevitably involves brokers and dealers and exchanges and traders which are not covered, as it were, by the Bitcoin guarantee of integrity or insulation from outside authority.

So to the extent Bitcoin is accepted as a convention it is indeed significant. But getting into it or out of it is fraught with the same dangers, inefficiencies, and regulatory arbitrariness as any other currency. And as long as governments don't accept Bitcoin in payment of taxes (which makes fiat currency currency), Bitcoin is a monetary sideshow mostly of interest to the underworld (not necessarily criminal) which is forced to hack the currently dominant monetary system to survive. This alone is likely to be sufficient to ensure Bitcoin a place in economic and social history.

Postscript: After posting this review, this one day conference at MIT was announced. The technology is clearly advancing way beyond Bitcoin. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/60...
Profile Image for Mal Warwick.
Author 31 books444 followers
April 6, 2017
If you’ve ever thought much about money, you may have wondered what gives it its value, especially if you’re aware that Richard Nixon took the dollar off the Gold Standard more than forty years ago. And if you’re at all involved in the world of finance and investment, you know perfectly well that very little money is tangible in any way: it’s almost all electrons, whizzing around the Internet at unspeakable speeds — and the ways in which we store and transfer money (bank accounts, credit and debit cards, checks, cash) are all notoriously vulnerable to loss, theft, and misappropriation. Wouldn’t it stand to reason in this age of the Internet that there should be a better, faster, more secure, and more reliable way to transact business?

That’s the thinking that has led many venturesome individuals to create alternative currencies. Traditionally — and unsurprisingly — most of these alternative currencies have been paper-based. (Yes, there are dozens of them.) In recent times, though, especially since the advent of the Internet, innovative thinkers have been programming computers to create entirely new forms of money that are completely divorced from material reality. After all, there are just three fundamental functions that money must perform: “providing a medium of exchange, a unit for measuring the cost of goods, and an asset where value can be stored.” And none of these requires that money must be something you can hold in your hands.

Enter Bitcoin, the best-known of a long line of software-based alternative currencies. Introduced in 2009 by someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto (probably a pseudonym), Bitcoin has attracted more media attention than all the other alternative approaches combined. The early adopters of Bitcoins were self-styled libertarians who saw the new currency as a way to free society from the grip of government everywhere. However, Bitcoins didn’t rise to the attention of many others until one early adopter — an anarchist, really, despite what he might have called himself — set up a website for drug dealers and arms traffickers called Silk Road. The enormous traffic in Bitcoins created by Silk Road raised the level of activity manyfold and helped Bitcoin gain wider acceptance.

Later, more mainstream investors and entrepreneurs became involved in the Bitcoin phenomenon, and government agencies inevitably took notice. “The unmistakable irony of these wild days,” writes Nathaniel Popper in Digital Gold, “was that a technology that had been designed, in no small part, to circumvent government power was now becoming largely driven by and dependent on the attitudes of government officials.” Not just in the United States, either. The Chinese government cast an even more jaundiced eye on Bitcoins than the U.S. government.

As the word about Bitcoin spread through the financial marketplace, word leaked out that JPMorgan “began secretly working with the other major banks in the country . . . on a bold experimental effort to create [a system based on the technology behind Bitcoin] that would be jointly run by the computers of the largest banks and serve as the backbone for a new, instant payment system that might replace Visa, MasterCard, and wire transfers.” In other words, what began as a libertarian and anarchist effort to seize power from the hands of the Federal Reserve Bank, Wall Street, and the other arbiters of our financial lives might end up granting them even more power!

“[T]he system was set up so that, like gold,” Popper explains, “Bitcoins would always be scarce — only 21 million of them would ever be released — and hard to counterfeit. . . With a hard cap on the number of Bitcoins, users could reasonably believe that Bitcoins would become harder to get over time and thus would go up in value.” In fact, though Bitcoins were worthless when first created, the going price at this writing is now $235, having topped out last year at nearly $1,200. The price of Bitcoins is volatile, to say the least.

Just in case you’re thinking of taking a flyer and filling your piggy bank with Bitcoins, you might ponder its vulnerability. “Bitcoin itself is always one big hack away from total failure,” as Popper writes.On several occasions, hackers have raised questions about the security of the currency: the holes they uncovered have been plugged, but it’s anyone’s guess whether there’s more to be discovered.

Digital Gold represents a thorough job of research. Its picture of the many strange characters who have played seminal roles in the development of Bitcoin is colorful — worth reading for its entertainment value alone. If you’re interested in finance and money, you’ll enjoy this book.
87 reviews19 followers
December 12, 2022
كتب ال
Non fiction
الأمريكية مخيفة لأنها تهدد بأن تلوي الواقع لصنع الدراما لكن هذا لم يكن مثلها
استخدم أسلوب الكتابة الابداعية؟ نعم، سرد موضوعا اقتصاديا سياسيا من خلال حكايات ناس، شخصياتهم، مشاعرهم، أحلامهم
أي الحياة الشخصية
لكنه لم يحاول صنع فيلم اكشن
والذين ذكرهم لهم علاقة قوية بنشأة البيتكوين (كتب أخرى تذكر أشخاصا غير مهمين لأنهم الوحيدون الذين وافقوا على مقابلات مع الكاتب)

وتحذير: الناس في الكتاب يلعبون بالملايين وكأنها تراب😎 وأي شخص فتح ستارت اب نجح حتى أشعروني أنه أسهل شيء على الكوكب

لمحة صغيرة عن البيتكوين مما فهمته:
البيتكوين عملة للتبادل بين الناس دون إشراف من الحكومة وبهذا لا تخضع لحركات مثل طبع النقود في الأزمات الاقتصادية وبالتالي تضخم وبالتالي نزول قيمة العملة
أي لا تعتمد على مؤسسة مركزية، من شخص لشخص، تضمن إخفاء هوية المتعاملين بها على عكس طرق الدفع الالكترونية، وبإمكانها عبور الدول بتكلفة ووقت أقل من الطرق العادية
ذكرَ كيف استفاد بعض الأرجنتينيين منها مع الأزمة الاقتصادية الكارثية لديهم، سعر العملة كان يتغير بسرعة (في قصة في الكتاب أم تطلب من أبنائها أن يركضوا في ممرات السوبر ماركت مثلا ليدفعوا قبل أن ترتفع الأسعار) مما جعل من المستحيل على الناس حفظ مدخراتهم بالعملة المحلية ومن الصعب حفظها بالدولار بسبب القيود التي فرضتها الحكومة (تقتطع جزءا كبيرا من المبلغ) لو أرادوا تحويلها إلى الدولار، لذا وجد البعض حلا في البيتكوين
وقد تسأل لم لا يستخدمون الذهب مثلا؟ لأن نقله صعب
ومن هنا جاء اسم الكتاب
الذهب الرقمي

المشكلة أنه دخل بعد ثلث الكتاب تقريبا بتفاصيل لست مهتمة بها، تناسب شخصا يعمل في المجال، أنا أردت أخذ فكرة

والكتاب قديم، آخر تاريخ فيه 2016، الكثير حدث منذ وقتها خاصة في مجال يتطور بسرعة الضوء كهذا
ربما من الممكن عمل جزء ثان؟ مثل الروايات
Profile Image for TS Chan.
749 reviews909 followers
February 2, 2018
I picked up this book after seeking recommendations on what to read to gain a better understanding of bitcoin and how it works. I didn't expect it to be a blow-by-blow account and history on the invention of bitcoin by the still mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto and the numerous personalities (and quite a few oddballs amongst them) behind the success story of cryptocurrency. To be fair, even though the book did not meet my expectations of what I am looking for, this is a very thorough and well-researched book on the rise of bitcoin, which can be pretty entertaining at times.



Profile Image for Marija.
19 reviews68 followers
January 15, 2019
When innovation proves disruptive, money follows. This book is revealing how capital shapes the recognition of digital currency. Definitely a good read!
Profile Image for Atila Iamarino.
411 reviews4,425 followers
August 15, 2017
Uma ótima introdução à história da bitcoin. Popper dá uma timeline bem detalhada de 2008 a 2014, recapitulando um pouco das tentativas anteriores de criação de moedas, passando pelo artigo de Satoshi, os primeiros usuários de bitcoin e todo o processo de adoção dela.

Em especial, gostei muito da descrição detalhada do livro para a criação e o declínio do Mt. Gox e do Silk Road. O ponto chato é que o livro termina em 2014, quando ainda se tinha uma visão mais parcial da falência do Mt. Gox, e fica com uma visão de mais incompetência do que má conduta – do que mais parece má conduta atualmente.

Não tem como um livro sobre algo tão dinâmico não ficar desatualizado em bem pouco tempo, mas esse foco no começo das criptomoedas dá o maior espaço para algo que não muda tanto e continua interessante. O maior prejuízo do que fica de fora e é cada vez mais interessante saber são as altcoins, mas o livro que estou lendo em seguida The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order cobre isso muito bem.
Profile Image for Mehrsa.
2,235 reviews3,634 followers
April 15, 2018
I was worried that the book would already be outdated, but it was just an origin story and a stellar one at that. However, I would really love an update given the insanity that is the bitcoin and ICO market today. A lot of the book was coverage of silk road stuff, which I had already read in Kingpin (an excellent read) and I have been following the industry for years so I knew about most of the major events. However, Popper was so even-handed about the potential and shortfalls of bitcoin and blockchain amidst such breathless other books and pitches and white papers these days that it was really nice to just read a straight story.
Profile Image for George.
60 reviews47 followers
October 1, 2017
"Digital Gold" by Nathaniel Popper is a excellent introduction to the development of Bitcoin and digital currencies up to the year 2015. And it is a fun story to read with a number of interesting people. This book would make a great movie!

I recommend this book to anyone who would like a good introduction to Bitcoin.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Notes:
Audiobook:

Narrated by: Robert Fass
Length: 10 hours and 49 minutes 
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date: 2015-05-19
Publisher: HarperAudio
Profile Image for Murtaza .
680 reviews3,393 followers
February 23, 2021
A journalistic account of the early days of Bitcoin which is very light on technical analysis of the currency and its sociological implications but effectively conveys the Wild West atmosphere that reigned during its earliest years. Having read a few such accounts now there was not much in here that was wildly new, although it was an enjoyable read. One thing that did stand out, which the author surfaced through research, was that Alan Greenspan had predicted in the 1990s that globalization and the internet might see the emergence of a new currency suitable for its needs. Private currencies did exist for many years in the U.S. and were viewed as cash, with the U.S. dollar's hegemony over the country and later the planet coming only later. One of the most fascinating potentials of Bitcoin is to somewhat weaken this stranglehold. This book describes Argentinian billionaire's Wences Casares interest in the currency precisely because of his upbringing in a country wracked by the constant upheavals of inflation.

When the U.S. dollar is treated as gold by billions of people, a safe asset that stores the value of their savings, it gives an incredible power to the U.S. government. But it also greatly endangers non-citizens who are put in the position of having their wealth held by a country where they have no rights. The U.S. dollar serves flawlessly the three major needs of money: it is a store of value, a measure to price goods, and a medium of exchange. It is still early days for Bitcoin but to be honest as yet it does not fully fill any of those three roles, with the first one perhaps where it comes closest. As such it could indeed replace gold, and be the substitute precious metal suitable for a digital age. For that to happen we would have to create cultural valorization of the currency similar to what was created for gold over many millennia, treating it as an important marker of something beyond just a few lines of code on a protocol.

Aside from Casares another interesting part of the book deal with Silk Road, and its founder Ross Ulbricht who is now serving life in prison for helping facilitate drug transactions. Bitcoin was once naturally suitable for criminals, but like many things that began on the margins is gradually becoming legitimate. This book is about the people who got in on the true ground floor, culminating with Marc Andreesen's famous NYT op-ed defending the currency. The book deserves a follow up, though its tough given how events are moving.
Profile Image for Denis Vasilev.
681 reviews97 followers
March 25, 2018
Отличная книга по истории биткойна. Вызывает сомнения излишнее внимание к стартапу Xapo и Венцесу.
March 7, 2021
Bitcoin prices touched an all time high of $50,000 in February 2021. Apparently the highest it has ever been - $57,489.10 - the day I started reading this book.


All in all, what an educational, thrilling, wild rollercoaster of a ride. And good timing too, with a digital rupee in the works, a digital yuan in circulation, and a prospective ban on bitcoin and other private cryptocurrencies in India.


"It's not just a thing, it's a phenomenon."

- Susan Athey

Up until few days ago when I read about the crypto regulation bill in India, I hadn’t thought about the larger implications of bitcoin - and what it means in a world with increasing government oversight and decreasing rights to privacy. So while this book was a pretty good primer for the tech, it also helps to see what the tech represents in a world like ours, at a time like ours.


This is undoubtedly my favorite kind of book. Amazing things happening - when, how, but most importantly, why. The whys are nearly always the most important factor in any invention. Something happens and that's great, but who made it happen and why did he (and apparently it was a he all throughout this book, with the sole, tiny mention of Susan Athey, who is the Economics of Technology professor at Stanford) want to? Bitcoin here trascends from merely being an invention born out of necessity and represents a larger cause that resonates with a lot of people for a lot of reasons - and ends up being something that is much more grander than just the sum of all these individual, human parts.


My favorite person in the book was Wences Casares, an Argentinian tech entrepreneur. His story leads us to the economy of Argentina, a point of interest for me. Casares' vision for bitcoin is shaped by his childhood in a country that is in a league of its own in terms of economy - in Simon Kuznets' words. Casares in an interview describes his memories of childhood as "not an economic or financial memory but an emotional one". Every page of this book revolving around this man was a learning experience for me, and I look forward to getting to know him more. Hopefully, someday soon, he'll think about writing a book (and there's plenty to write about, including Argentina, bitcoin, and money itself!)


"It came to seem that the people who wanted Bitcoin to do the least for them were the ones who were managing to do the most for Bitcoin."


Another such person was Hal Finney, who died in 2014. One of my most valuable lessons from him was: "when Hal found something interesting, he didn’t just passively read up on it"


There was also Ben Reeves - "a reclusive young man" - who only gets about half a page, but intrigued me enough to Google about him. He created blockchain.info which reflected the essence of bitcoin, so to say, in my opinion - unintrusive and convenient.


Goes without saying that my list of these people includes Satoshi Nakamoto.


What I definitely would have liked was a little insight into the govt's perspective as well - to round off the 'Misfits and Millionaires'. Apart from the federal investigation for SilkRoute and a couple of other such instances, there is very little which indicates how this cryptocurrency bounced off of govt sensibilities. There are hints about how the govt worked in countries like China and U. S. - how regulators differed in their approach and how the market worked in response. What would have been interesting is to see what they "thought" of, and not merely what they "did". The book mentions Preet Bharara, US Attorney, for example, and upon further search, there's an article that I bookmarked which is titled: The Most Dangerous Man In Bitcoin Isn’t A Criminal.


To circle back, I'm glad now I know (maybe not all of what is going but significantly more than I knew before) what the btc articles are talking about. And I have all these people and their ideas and their aspirations backing all that technology. And I finally understand the Mt. Gox meme Elon Musk posted on Twitter.
Profile Image for Katie.
1,117 reviews239 followers
May 26, 2015
If you’re like me before reading this book, you’ve heard of the digital money called Bitcoin only when it’s gotten negative press. Honestly, after hearing about many people losing the money they’d invested in Bitcoins, I thought this experiment was dead. I was still fascinated to learn about it though and especially about the people behind Bitcoin. As the subtitle indicates, this group included a wide variety of people, from millionaires to social revolutionaries, from hackers to drug dealers. Like most narrative nonfiction I love, it was the way the author told these people’s stories that made this a great read for me.

The author had interviewed many of the people involved in the creation of Bitcoin. This meant that he was able to share direct quotes and snippets of their personal communication. I felt that he also presented the many different views on Bitcoin and its possible uses in an unbiased way. I particularly loved the variety of people involved in Bitcoin. Learning about them meant learning about many different subcultures and careers that I previously knew nothing about. I was also impressed by the way the author explained the technology behind Bitcoin. Within the text, he presented the fewest technical details necessary for the story to make sense. These bits were all explained very clearly and referred readers to the appendix for more, equally well explained, technical information.

For those of you who are curious, it turns out that not only is Bitcoin alive and well, Bitcoins are currently accepted by a number of retailers. The Bitcoin currency has two main advantages: Bitcoins can be transferred anonymously and they don’t need to go through banks, making even international money transfers fast and free. After reading Digital Gold, I see a few downsides to the currency as well. First, like every other currency, the wealthy are likely to gain wealth the fastest. Many wealthy individuals were the first investors in Bitcoin, concentrating the wealth in a few hands, and today, special hardware is required to earn new bitcoins. Secondly, the mining (computational work done to create new Bitcoins) has been made artificially more difficult to limit the rate at which Bitcoins are created. This means a lot of electricity and computing power that could be used to do useful scientific work are being wasted. Personally, I don’t want to support that and will probably never invest in Bitcoins, but whatever your stance on the currency, it’s origin story is an interesting one.

This review first published at Doing Dewey.
Profile Image for Maru Kun.
217 reviews512 followers
November 7, 2018
A great book for understanding the history of bitcoin, technical aspects and the history of its development.

It helps one appreciate why the currency is so popular in countries with experience of populist politicians undermining the stability of a country's currency with their insane political or economic ideas, such as Argentina, Ukraine and the UK (from March 2019).

However, as far as I recall, even this book didn't talk too much about what might well be an important limiting factor - electricity consumption of the blockchain technology:

Energy cost of 'mining' bitcoin more than twice that of copper or gold: New research reveals that cryptocurrencies require far more electricity per-dollar than it takes to mine most real metals. Includes a link to the paper.

Also, a video on the block chain data structure and bitcoin from what is probably the best maths channel on YouTube 3Blue1Brown: Ever wonder how Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) actually work?
Profile Image for Austin Larson.
165 reviews10 followers
July 31, 2015
Interesting piece of contemporary history tracing the development of Bitcoin. Engagingly written with detailed biographical information on important figures that have impacted Bitcoin in the past six years. Tells the story of the libertarian idealogues that created Bitcoin and then how it has developed wider acceptance but has simultaneously lost some of its allure to the libertarian movement as the financial system and the government have begun to force it to adapt to their precepts.
Profile Image for Keyton.
205 reviews
July 18, 2016
A fascinating walkthrough of Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related startups. He manages to capture the doe-eyed optimism of the ideologically-motivated players, the sleaze of the criminal elements that popularized many of its applications, and the pragmatism of businesses as they integrate it into common tasks and explore some of the more advanced features.

It may not be entirely obvious yet, but virtual currencies are changing the world and have a lot of gas left in the tank.
Profile Image for David.
528 reviews49 followers
May 27, 2017
Digital Gold does two things very well - it explains how Bitcoin works and it does so in entertaining fashion. I particularly liked the technical appendix the author referenced throughout the book.

Popper begins with the earlier iterations of digital currency and takes us through the origins of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin pioneers were tech savvy idealists and interesting characters. Things get a little less interesting when the who's who of Silicon Valley elbow their way into the Bitcoin arena when it starts to become clear that this is technology with considerable promise. (This isn't a failing of the author, I'm just tired of the uber wealthy leveraging their vast resources to perpetuate their financial advantage. One of the early ideals of Bitcoin was that it could be a currency for the poor but that just seems completely unrealistic to me at this point in time.)(I believe in capitalism, I just wish it could be a little less extreme sometimes.)

I saw an article recently that said a $100 investment in Bitcoins in 2010 would be worth about $75 million in late May 2017. I just googled the price of one Bitcoin and see that it's $2,046.86 USD. The price was close to $2,500 the day before. Who knows where it'll be in a year or 10 years.

I think you have to be at least a little bit interested in Bitcoin and the workings of digital currency to enjoy this book but that's a pretty low bar to clear.
Profile Image for Brendan Monroe.
609 reviews161 followers
December 12, 2017
Bitcoin has been in the news a lot recently. As someone who likes to keep up on current events but didn't have a firm grasp on what Bitcoin actually was, I picked up Popper's book to get something of a primer on this cryptocurrency. The end result left me with mixed feelings.

This is an easily digestible book, written more like a novel with its cast of many characters. As such it's not the most informative book on Bitcoin itself, more an occasionally intriguing look at the people involved with it. Plus, because "Digital Gold" was published 2 1/2 years ago, the material covered here feels more like the first entry in a series that doesn't look close to wrapping up anytime soon. What is here often doesn't seem to go deep enough.

My favorite parts of "Digital Gold" dealt with the notorious online black market site, Silk Road, and its creator Ross Ulbricht. But Popper only skims the service of what Silk Road is and only then in reference to its connection with Bitcoin. Which, for a book about Bitcoin, makes sense, but still leaves scant details about probably the most interesting thing to have arisen from its creation.

Overall, a decent read, but you can glean most of the same info from one of the Bitcoin documentaries out there.
Profile Image for Frank.
810 reviews42 followers
July 18, 2015
Much of this book reads like a cheap celebrity magazine, concentrating on irrelevant details of the private lives of the people who 'made' Bitcoin. It makes up some ground later; at its best succeeding in narrating the story of the development of a new technology through its initial incubation of an idea amongst a group of mathematicians and passionate, naive ideologues and its later appropriate by big business and government.

Indubitably, Bitcoin will play an important role in the near future. It is equally obvious that it is an immature technology with much work needed before it reaches its potential, whatever that turns out to be.
Profile Image for Charlene.
875 reviews595 followers
June 10, 2016
This book reminded me a lot of Hatching Twitter, which I loved. What a story! Mystery, murder, intrigue, and cooperation v Machiavellian strategy as each person associated with Bitcoin did their part to try to create a new global currency. What more could you want?

It is always the case that when new innovations come about, some people with less than good intentions will exploit the innovations to their advantage. I guess the trick is figuring out how to minimize that risk. I am sure we will figure it out in the future, but Bitcoin was one hell of an attempt to change the way things work. Loved it.
Profile Image for Laura.
Author 2 books92 followers
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May 14, 2015
I usually don't put books I read for work on my Goodreads page (and for that reason, I don't feel comfortable rating this), but in this case, I would have read the book anyway, plus I just wanted to post this review for my freshman year college friends who are also Goodreads friends. A prominent character in the book is Bobby Lee, who, because of his role in Bitcoin in China may someday eclipse Marissa Mayer as the most successful/famous member of our class. He has my favorite quote in the book: "Turns out, in China, there's no ethics -- there's no moral obligation." Yup -- 'bout sums it up.
Profile Image for Brian.
Author 3 books27 followers
January 3, 2016
Extremely entertaining history of the digital currency Bitcoin. The author does an exceptional job of showing the motivations and history of the people involved in Bitcoin's creation and attempts to make it mainstream.
The technological aspects of the currency (commodity?) were not as easy to understand from the book and I had to research the specifics on my own to feel like I had a grasp of the basics.
All the same, the subject matter alone is worthy of 5 stars. Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Tim.
316 reviews291 followers
September 5, 2021
Fantastic writing and a compelling story that just doesn't seem real. Who's writing the movie script on this? There's some incredible documentaries but nothing "movie epic" in scale as of yet. Maybe that's because we're sitting right on the edge of what feels like a tipping point, a rather critical moment if Bitcoin and the broader crypto space will start to become adopted in a mainstream fashion. In many ways it does seem inevitable not even from knowing anything at all about the industry but simply by studying the charts and seeing how many times it's proved it's resilience over the past 13 years. Yet the entire financial industry is propped up on mutant forms of the loans, debt obligations, options, etc that crashed it in 2008. Seems like a super sized version is coming next which of course is what inspired Bitcoin's creation in the first place. But it's never been tested in a broader macro crash. Undoubtedly it will crash along with everything else initially, much like March of 2020. The question is: how will it recover? Will it recover? Will enough people actually adopt it and start to ascribe value to it? Value is only what society claims it is so that more than anything is the tipping point. So much of our lives has moved completely online over the past 25 years, are we as a society ready for our money to move there free and clear as well? There seems to be vastly different answers depending on demographics with age being one of the biggest determining indicators - the younger a person is the more likely they're comfortable with crypto. What does that tell us?

Bitcoin was described as a mixture of "chaos, community, snake oil, innovation, high-mindedness, and enthusiasm" (94) The tech is amazing, the story is incredible, investing in it is highly risky, it could change the world, it could also go to zero but now it's led to development of technologies far past what Bitcoin developers even dreamt of so in that sense it always survives. Token issuance in gaming for example has been around for a long time, monetizing that is simple business sense. Same in regards to forms of digital ownership, copyrights, art, etc... this is all just future tech. Individual investments will thrive or fail but gaining a grasp on where tech is heading is to me what I'm diving into both as a personal fascination and investment potential. The story of web 3 gets started here.
116 reviews42 followers
November 30, 2017
This is a wonderful primer on bitcoin. The explanation of the mechanics of the cryptocurrency was relatively brief; in fact, I’d recommend that you seek other resources for the bitcoin technical.
Instead, it was a chronical survey of bitcoin’s early development between 2010 and 2014. It told the stories concerning the major players during the period, including the inventor Satoshi Nakamoto whose identity has never been confirmed, online drug dealer Ross Ulbricht and the founder of a bitcoin exchange BitInstant Charlie Shrem who ended up being arrested. It covered major events around the world, like the collapse of a Japan-based leading global bitcoin exchange MtGox, and the survival of a Chinese bitcoin exchange BTC.
It hailed the creative, tenacious and resilient American entrepreneurial spirits.
The author traced the bitcoin price movement during the period, with the driving force behind each major gyration sufficiently delineated.
The book introduced Nakamoto’s initial ideology when he invented bitcoin: a disintermediated, decentralized and anonymous financial network that will help create a socialist utopia. Throughout the early opalization of the digital currency, however, all aspects of the aforementioned ideology were challenged.
Nathaniel Popper laid out the various debates on the merit and prognosis of bitcoin, while mostly assuming neutral position.
Of course, as the book was published in 2015, it did not address whether at $11,0000, bitcoin is currently in the bubble teritory akin to the Dutch tulipomania in the 17th century. It neither encourage nor discourage the reader to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon at this point.
It was an entertaining and informative read for me. I was 9 years too late to take part in this spectacular phenomenon. But the book saved me otherwise many extra hours of homework, and gave me a jump-start on this hot subject.
Profile Image for Manoj M J.
27 reviews9 followers
January 6, 2017
Brilliantly engrossing account of the worlds most famous cryptocurrency - Bitcoin.
By all means, a great book - starts right from how bitcoin came into being and goes through both the professional and personal lives of people associated the bitcoin community who helped bitcoin grow in value (and in some cases, crash).
Popper's writing is top notch and a joy to read. He writes about the technological intricacies of bitcoin in such spectacular fashion. I particularly liked the parts about the (in)famous Silk Road and how it paved way for the rise in popularity of Bitcoin.
(Fun Fact: FBI is now the largest holder of bitcoin after seizing everything from Silk Road)
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Bitcoin.
Oh chuck that, I would highly recommend this to anyone who has even a remote interest in today's technology - because trust me, Bitcoin is going to be big, beyond your wildest imagination.
Profile Image for Nishit.
41 reviews27 followers
January 14, 2021
This book is the awe inspiring story of how Bitcoin came into being.
Of how a small fringe of people during the early Internet days spent an inordinate amount of time. Time discussing a kind of "currency" that would be free from all sorts of government regulations.
Of how they lost hope after innumerable exchanges among themselves.
Of how some anonymous person, years later, showed up with a technology which made people hopeful of this new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin, technically free from government intervention and decentralized at its core.

Bitcoin is not here to make you dollars. It's here to replace it. As someone on the internet rightly pointed out that you don't become rich off of Bitcoin, you become free. And that's a better incentive any day.
Profile Image for Meghan.
203 reviews54 followers
June 24, 2016
I read this in hopes of better understanding bitcoin and blockchain, but this is not a Bitcoin For Dummies. It relays the relatively brief but colorful history of this technology and its misfit founders and fanatics. I have a better sense of the benefits, applications, and limitations of bitcoin now, but I was left wanting more technical detail. I thoroughly enjoyed the drama of these radical libertarian nerds' attempts to buck the System, replete with black market drug sales, murders-for-hire, prison sentences, cancerous ego growth, Winklevi, and a dreamy Argentinian entrepreneur on whom I may have a crush.
Profile Image for Jacob.
411 reviews130 followers
October 29, 2015
If you're at all interested in Bitcoin, this is a great place to start. Popper writes well and has gotten his hands on a lot of personal details which combined make for several compelling narratives that make up the yarn of how Bitcoin has gotten to where it is today. From mysterious Satoshi to the Silk Road's Dread Pirate Roberts this book on he history of a recently developed cryptocurrency is surprisingly enough a page turner.
Profile Image for Alexandru.
309 reviews32 followers
August 8, 2021
Excellent book on the history of bitcoin. Covers the period from the inception of bitcoin in 2008 to 2015 and tells the story of the main players that contributed in the early years from misfit programmers to utopic libertarians and forward-thinking venture capitalists. The book covers little to no technical aspects.
Profile Image for Matt Heavner.
969 reviews11 followers
May 3, 2016
An interesting look at a very interesting topic. For me, it was too much of a story of the various people (and too many people!) rather than a look at technology and policy. Still fun, but a quick, "celebrity" (of bitcoin) view.
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