Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency
Written by Finn Brunton
Narrated by Christopher Ragland
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
The fascinating untold story of digital cash and its creators—from experiments in the 1970s to the mania over Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin may appear to be a revolutionary form of digital cash without precedent or prehistory. In fact, it is only the best-known recent experiment in a long line of similar efforts going back to the 1970s. But the story behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and its blockchain technology has largely been untold—until now. In Digital Cash, Finn Brunton reveals how technological utopians and political radicals created experimental money to bring about their visions of the future: protecting privacy or bringing down governments, preparing for apocalypse or launching a civilization of innovation and abundance that would make its creators immortal.
The incredible story of the pioneers of cryptocurrency takes us from autonomous zones on the high seas to the world’s most valuable dump, from bank runs to idea coupons, from time travelers in a San Francisco bar to the pattern securing every twenty-dollar bill, and from marketplaces for dangerous secrets to a tank of frozen heads awaiting revival in the far future. Along the way, Digital Cash explores the hard questions and challenges that these innovators faced: How do we learn to trust and use different kinds of money? What makes digital objects valuable? How does currency prove itself as real to us? What would it take to make a digital equivalent to cash, something that could be created but not forged, exchanged but not copied, and which reveals nothing about its users?
Filled with marvelous characters, stories, and ideas, Digital Cash is an engaging and accessible account of the strange origins and remarkable technologies behind today’s cryptocurrency explosion.
Related to Digital Cash
Related audiobooks
The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist That Almost Destroyed It All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Infinite Machine: How an Army of Crypto-hackers Is Building the Next Internet with Ethereum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Money: How Payment Became Social Media Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Digital Finance: Security Tokens and Unlocking the Real Potential of Blockchain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Money Plot: A History of Currency's Power to Enchant, Control, and Manipulate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Commerce: How a New Illicit Economy Is Threatening Our Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoney Without Boundaries: How Blockchain Will Facilitate the Denationalization of Money Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlockchain Success Stories: Case Studies from the Leading Edge of Business Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blockchain and Web3: Building the Cryptocurrency, Privacy, and Security Foundations of the Metaverse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Big Mind: How Collective Intelligence Can Change Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Owns the Future? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5DeFi and the Future of Finance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Blockchain Economy - A Primer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Real Business of Blockchain: How Leaders Can Create Value in a New Digital Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mastering Ethereum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fiat Standard: The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Endless Appetites: How the Commodities Casino Creates Hunger and Unrest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Money & Monetary Policy For You
The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Broken Money: Why Our Financial System Is Failing Us and How We Can Make It Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Devaluation: How to Embrace, Prepare, and Profit from the Coming Global Monetary Reset Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inflation Myth and the Wonderful World of Deflation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fiat Standard: The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crises Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/521st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pirate Money: Discovering the Founders’ Hidden Plan for Economic Justice and Defeating the Great Reset Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Options Trading Crash Course Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Theory of Money and Credit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForex: Trading Strategies & Analysis for Beginners; Learn Market Strategy Basics with this Fundamental Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Federal Reserve System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happy Money Happy Life: A Multidimensional Approach to Health, Wealth, and Financial Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scandal of Money: Why Wall Street Recovers but the Economy Never Does Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Money: How Governments and Banks Create Money and Help Us All Prosper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Money Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Money Plot: A History of Currency's Power to Enchant, Control, and Manipulate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saving Money: The Top 100 Best Ways To Save Your Money And To Spend Your Money Wisely Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5End Poverty. Make Trillions. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Death Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System (Int'Edit.) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Money Made Easy: How to Budget, Pay Off Debt, and Save Money Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Digital Cash
6 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really excellent explanation of why you should hate bitcoin and the ludicrous foundations of cryptocurrency.