The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

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Customers find the book an excellent explanation of money and the blockchain. They also say the content is informative and insightful, with readable explanations. Readers also praise the author as incredible and a remarkably clear and readable writer.

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This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. Informative read
    The first 7 of 10 chapters cover the history of money, and digital money is covered in chapters 8-10.Those first 7 chapters set the necessary foundation for understanding the formation of money through the millennea emerging into the era of fiat money, that of government controlled money, which by its nature creates inflation. Then follows the introduction of digital money.An excellent read with anoeugh depth for understanding.

  2. Excellent book! Light on Bitcoin, but great on it’s fundamentals.
    Excellent book! A must-read even if you don’t care about Bitcoin.The author discusses the foundations of what makes ‘sound’ money and describes how, over history, we’ve departed from these foundations, leading to a recurring set of consequences that inevitably end with the downfall of the currency and sometimes of the civilization/country. In particular, I found the history of the Roman currency interesting and telling.Later, the book discusses why gold has historically been a great store of value, and shows hard numbers that prove that it fits the conditions previously described as ideal for sound money. This part of the book feels airtight in its logic.As the author moves on to the era of fiat money, the book helped me understand the significance of Bretton Woods, the Nixon shock, as well as understand how the Keynesian, Monetarist and Austrian school of political economy understand the cycles of capitalism. I had not previously realized that despite the fact that centralized economies are no longer considered sound economic policies, the way that our Central Banks control the interest rate and currency emission is a residue of that kind of thinking. And, in the context of Democratic governments vying for the public’s support, this gives Governments a tool that offers immediate short-term relief in exchange for fuzzy long-term pain which most likely will be felt by the next administration. Many of the vices of populist governments are fundamentally exploiting this loophole.The book became less insightful to me in the last 20% as it discusses Bitcoin. The discussion is centered around the properties that make it a suitable sound currency for the future, relating them to the previously established framework. While the conclusions are generally correct, Bitcoin is discussed entirely on an economic level and you won’t find many technical details or explanations relating the technical design to its emerging properties.

  3. The author is great when he sticks to his topic; sadly, he can’t bring himself to do that.
    I learned a lot from this book – enough to earn it 5 stars. I learned not just about bitcoin, but money in general. Despite its flaws, I recommend this book even to those who don’t care about bit coin. It’s a good overview of the history of money and how it works.However, there are two flaws the reader has to look past to get the most from this book.One is repetition, especially towards the end. Sadly, this is commonplace these days. Authors have 70-80 pages of material but seem to feel like it’s not a real book unless they can turn it into 250-300 pages. I’ll pay for a short, concise book if it has something valuable to say.The second flaw is more unique to this book. The author strays far from his subject matter to poop all over all kinds of things.He clearly despises John Maynard Keynes. That’s fine. But Keynes’ personal life has nothing to do with the subject of this book. And usually when an author resorts to attacking a person rather than that person’s ideas, that means the author’s ideas can’t stand up to the ideas it is criticizing, and thus has to attack the person behind the ideas to distract the reader.This is an unfortunate “self-own” / own-goal by Ammous, because his ideas clearly have merit. He should have let them stand on their own. The second half of Chapter 5 and parts of Chapter 7 can be skipped by anyone interested solely in the topic the book purports to cover.He also poops all over modern society and sees the era of the gold standard as a utopia that would return if we simply used bitcoin. For example, “Any industry in which people complain about their [jerk] boss is likely part of the [problem of loose money] because bosses can only really afford to be [jerks] in [this] economic fake reality….” In his hard-money utopia, “bosses who mistreat their workers will either lose the workers to competitors or destroy their business quickly.” Does he not remember that in the era of hard money he longs for many bosses literally owned and beat their workers? Hard money doesn’t guarantee a society free of jerk bosses.And can one really consider the rocket engine and transistor simply iterations on or somehow less significant inventions than the internal-combusting engine and lightbulb? Based on Ammous commentary you’d have to believe that.He resorts to evidence-free assertions that the arts, culture, and society of yesteryear are better than today’s. None of this is empirically verifiable, and more importantly, none of it is relevant to his arguments about. “It was hard money that financed Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos while easy money financed Miley Cyrus’s twerks.” Please. There was plenty of the equivalent of twerking happening in Bach’s day, and there is art produced the last few decades that will last for centuries. The anguish he cites of Michelangelo over his art reminds me of Leonard Cohen’s over some of his, despite Leonard Cohen being part of our debauched soft-money era. And the poem he cites from Michelangelo is no more void of ego than some of the modern pop artists the author disdains. The author cherry-picks once-in-a-century artists of the past and compares them to some of the basest performers of today, a false comparison, and one he doesn’t even pretend to back up with any evidence or argument.“[O]nly long pretentious diatribes shaming others for not understanding the work give it value.” This is his criticism of modern artists. The lack of irony with which he writes this, given it describes the exact chapter it appears in, shows a sad lack of self-awareness. He should have kept these off-topic opinions to himself rather than letting it soil what is otherwise the really solid case he is making.All of this is a sad and distracting (as evidenced by how much I’m writing about these digressions compared to the book as a whole) digression from the point of his thesis. It really deserves reducing my rating by 2-stars. But because I still recommend this book despite those flaws, I’m only deducting 1 star and giving it a 4-star rating.

  4. Everyone NEEDS a basic understanding of Money. Start here to understand the past and the future.
    You did not understand silicone wafer technology but almost every electronic device you purchase needs or uses semiconductor chips technology. You don’t understand Bitcoin technology but you will ultimately be forced to accept the new monetary reality in the very near future. You make and spend money everyday but don’t understand why your same dollar does not purchase the same goods it did when you first started your working career and you just accept the debasement of your savings. This book is an easy read in Lamens terms that will help you understand WHY Bitcoin is your opportunity to actually keep your legacy of work and value for your betterment and Not become poorer over time. Do yourself a favor and read this. Don’t be late to the party. You missed the industrial revolution but you’re living through a bigger Monetary revolution. Everybody gets Bitcoin at the price they deserve. Do the work, then HODL

  5. O livro é muito bom, começa com ele contando a história do dinheiro, pra entendermos como é essencial o Bitcoin para a sociedade moderna!

  6. Das Buch gibt einen schönen Überblick aus Sicht der Ökonomie über Bitcoin. Leicht verständlich für die Allgemeinheit geschrieben. Ich hätte allerdings auch nichts gegen ein wenig mehr technische Details gehabt.

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