Audible audiobook
Listening time around 7 hours
Diction and language simple English with few technical jargon in between
Non fiction genre
Rating- as a book of history of currency 3/5 as a bitcoin reference book 3.5/5
The author states that this is not the definitive book on Bitcoin but only a book which introduces on why and how Bitcoin are the currency of the future with the central theme that it is not controlled by the central Banking.
It could very well have been called Gold Standard because as far as the author is concerned, gold is the best currency for generations and goes on to compare bitcoin to gold!
Introduction on how bitcoin was invented and gives us some trivia which would be juicy for the tech geeks though it’s something which they would know already! A short introduction is given on how it is mined (this term was very confusing to me and it still is since we always think about the actual mining!). He goes on to introduce on what to expect by frankly stating that he is just An economist with engineering background.
He starts by the history of currency and chief features of currency or legal tender on how it can be
Perishable vs non perishable or Movable vs non movable which good examples!
Story of limestone stock and glass beads as currency. This is probably one of the most interesting part of the book! He mentions the old currency and how they were followed for a long time and how it got wasted or corrupted or lost its value! This is obviously a bed for shining light on the good property of Bitcoin!
Then gold copper and silver are introduced as mode of exchange with benefits and disadvantages of either! He mentions how governments keep gold in bank and release money for gold but then they dilute the value which is not good! He gives the example of how billionaire buys copper and loses but how this can never happen to Gold! On how gold can withstand the fall.
He then mentions how the currency of A state or country linked to gold can still be controlled by the king or the government and how many kings started underscoring the coin and basically reduced their value! In this he gives special mention of how Constantinople survived its currency for a long time and this along with gold is a baseline of a stable currency!
India and China’s dependence on Silver as their reserve automatically reduced their value in time and that was a big reason why their currency is lower placed!
Paper money is your money but controlled by the government so one fine day all the hard cash you have with you can be turned into paper by a simple law of the government!
He proceeds further and explains how the actual reason of worldwar 1 is monetary and if not for US support it would have ended then and there!
In fact after the war many countries lost their monetary value though the maximum brunt was felt by the ones who lost the war! He then mentions how for the first time in history President Nixon defaulted on the gold value of dollar when countries started taking back their gold reserves!
All this finally to get the conclusion that Bitcoin is not centrally controlled!
Remarkable ability of gold to hold it’s place is a constant theme in almost every section and he also gives the famous Marsh mellow and cookie experiment which is about immediate low gratification vs long term more gain! Which is indirectly inked to Time limit and tolerance!
Kenynesian economy is a terminology thrown multiple times which is apparently opposite of the communist economy and it is understood that the author leans towards the former!
He also states on how control by the central bank of currency will always lead to recession; he states this by giving an example of a developer and builder of an apartment with Reserve money which leads to Running out of money and building only half flat but still it can be managed of course!
Swiss bank; which was one of the last institutions not to be linked to international economy after linking to IMF lead to unemployment which was less than 1 before the tie up!
He also states that Conquest is not good even in history since sooner or later you will run out of money so in that case Defensive war is better! In that he concludes that 21st century was most dangerous!
He finally concludes that in any job and especially jobs which have an asshole boss is bad since the fear and desperation will never lead to any positive outcome! And the most important point he mentions according to me is how the public sector banks or banks supported by a central bank are the worst! They do not have to worry about any profit and every loss is absorbed by the government which in turn leads to recession!
The final section goes on to Bitcoin proper on initially payment is done normally and that Cash is fast, quick and safe but has its limitation so the other form is third party in one way or the other and in that trust is a huge factor!
Then he tells how Bitcoin are limited currency which cannot be produced more if you need so there will not be any recession! How it is not controlled by the central government but how he urges that even banks must start to maintain a Bitcoin account so that they do not miss the train to the future! He also states how Bitcoin cannot be hacked since it would take so much more effort and resource and the end result without POW is useless! POW is proof of work which has to be authenticated by a group who are paid for it and they will also never be hacked! Also how the cluster size is fixed and that the original Bitcoin can be modified but that will lead to another currency so it is better to not modify it! Since it is not controlled by a person or a group or even the government; it may be the best currency ever! All attempts are modifying, altering or even changing the cluster size have been unsuccessful even after it was inverted in 2009-10!
All in all a good summary of Bitcoin and one of the initial book if you are interested in money! It however does not tell you about how to invest or how to trade and many other technical aspects which the author explain is beyond the scope of the book!
Read it for some nice trivia on the history of money, silver, gold and finally Bitcoin!
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