The Bitcoin Standard Saifedean Ammous

The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications.

While Bitcoin is a new invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt.

With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world.

The final chapter of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin:

• Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy?
• Is Bitcoin for criminals?
• Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please?
• How can Bitcoin be killed?

The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralized, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks.

Video Summary

Extra: Lex Fridman Podcast with the author of this book

Related readings

• The Genesis Book by Aaron van Wirdum
• The Book Of Satoshi by Phil Champagne
• The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier
• Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, David A. Harding