Best Bitcoin Books You Must Read

Who should read the book:

• People that are interested in the history of money.
• People that are wondering what makes Bitcoin different.
• People that are curious about what makes money work.

This is a wonderful book written by a world-class economist. Saifedean Ammous really knows his monetary history and has clear and logical explanations of not only how money works, but why some money works better than others. He makes a compelling argument for why Bitcoin is superior to other forms of money tried in the past. As a bonus, he goes into why so much of "blockchain technology" is mostly hype.

Antony helps us clearly understand the theme, concisely describing the technology in a logical way, clearly presenting the concepts, and on top of that how everything fits together. Unlike Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, which definitely is a book for people who already have a programming background, interestingly The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains can be appreciated by readers with different backgrounds. It is an enjoyable and easy reading although a comprehensive exposure to bitcoin and blockchains.

As mentioned on the back cover, this book is a crash course in money, cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings (ICO) and enterprise blockchains. As the one responsible for Cash and CBDC strategy at R3, not surprisingly, Antony teaches us everything we have to know from historical facts, physical and digital money, through a smooth introduction to cryptography (probably the most understandable explanation about the mechanics of Proof-of-Work), the emergence of cryptocurrencies and digital tokens to the latest thinking about the technology adoption by enterprises. By and large a delightful read for anyone who wants to understand everything about bitcoins and blockchains.

Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized digital currency, is still in its early stages and yet it's already spawned a multi billion dollar global economy. This economy is open to anyone with the knowledge and passion to participate. Mastering Bitcoin provides the knowledge. You simply supply the passion. The second edition includes:

• A broad introduction to bitcoin ideal for non technical users, investors, and business executives
• An explanation of the technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architects
• Details of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer to peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principles
• New developments such as Segregated Witness, Payment Channels, and Lightning Network
• Improved explanations of keys, addresses and wallets
• User stories, analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts

If you want to understand the basics of what Bitcoin is all about but want to avoid the inevitable hype you see on the internet, this guide is for you. They do a great job of presenting sound, rational investing advice that is easy to follow. This book fits well into the overall series, showing how you can use Bitcoin in your investing portfolio, what tools to use and how to avoid scams. The book maybe short but it is to the point, and given it's quality.

With this being all the rage eight now, I found it very important to have at least a semblance of an idea of what cryptocurrency is all about before I get left behind. This book gives a decent breakdown of what cryptocurrency is, how it works, how you can get in and invest, but it also does skate around the truth: about how volatile cryptocurrency is and the dangers of participating in this largely new and experimental curreny market.

After reaching a multimillion dollar settlement with Mark Zuckerberg (for allegedly stealing their idea for an Internet social network), the Winklevoss twins start a venture capital firm, hoping to make their mark in the business world. Surprised to learn that their money is unwelcome in Silicon Valley (entrepreneurs are afraid of antagonizing Zuckerberg), they discover Bitcoin. Convinced that cryptocurrency will be the "Next Great Thing," they invest in a Bitcoin exchange start-up run by an unstable but brilliant young man, and they also buy directly large amounts of Bitcoin. The resulting wild and crazy ride (for both the volatile value of Bitcoin, and the fortunes of the main characters) becomes the central story of this well-written and fascinating book.

The author does an excellent job of explaining the basics of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. As someone who did not know what a "Blockchain" was, I learned a lot. Whether or not cryptocurrencies represent the future of finance remains to be seen, but the author gives the reader a good basis to come to one's own conclusions. 

In this fascinating deep dive into the evolution of monetary systems around the globe, Nik Bhatia takes us into the origins of how money has evolved to function in a "layered" manner. Using gold as an example of this term, he traces the layers of this ancient currency from raw mined material, to gold coins, and finally to bank-issued gold certificates. In a groundbreaking manner, Bhatia offers a similar paradigm for the evolution of digital currencies. Bhatia's analysis begins in Renaissance Florence with the gold Florin coin and a burgeoning banking culture, continues with the evolution of central banking, and concludes with a vision for the future of our international monetary system.

As central banks around the world prepare to launch their own crypto-competitors, Bhatia illustrates how the invention of Bitcoin created a seismic shift in money and merged the monetary and cryptography sciences. Readers will come away with an understanding of the mechanics of our financial system, why the dollar is deeply entrenched despite its state of disrepair, and how Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and cryptocurrencies will interact in our new monetary future.