Digital Gold

Change who controls the money, and you change everything. Bitcoin, the landmark digital money and financial technology, has spawned a global social movement with utopian ambitions. The notion of a new currency, maintained by the computers of users around the world, has been the butt of many jokes, but that has not stopped it from growing into a technology worth billions of dollars, supported by the hordes of followers who have come to view it as the most important new idea since the...
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Change who controls the money, and you change everything. Bitcoin, the landmark digital money and financial technology, has spawned a global social movement with utopian ambitions. The notion of a new currency, maintained by the computers of users around the world, has been the butt of many jokes, but that has not stopped it from growing into a technology worth billions of dollars, supported by the hordes of followers who have come to view it as the most important new idea since the creation of the Internet. Believers from Beijing to Buenos Aires see the potential for a financial system free from banks and governments, and a new global money for the digital age. An unusual tale of group invention, Digital Gold tells the story of the colorful characters who have built Bitcoin, including a Finnish college student; an Argentinian millionaire; a Chinese entrepreneur; Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss; Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's elusive creator; and Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road online drug market. With Digital Gold, the New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper offers a brilliant and engrossing account of this new technology - one filled with dramatic booms and busts that have led to untold riches for some and prison terms for others. But at each turn, Bitcoin has provided one of the most fascinating tests of how money works, who benefits from it, and what it may look like in the future. 'An amazing story . . . that is crucial reading for anyone who wants to understand the future.' Walter Isaacson, author of The Innovators and Steve Jobs'The fast-paced action never stops in the ongoing quest to create something the world has never seen before- virtual money.' William D. Cohan, author of House of Cards'Finally, the book so many of us have been waiting for.' Adam Davidson, Cofounder of NPR's Planet Money