Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order

The system that governs how money works, with its brokers and middlemen, has stayed roughly the same for centuries. Now there’s an alternative, and it puts us on the cusp of a revolution that could reshape our world.

At the heart of this lie cryptocurrencies, a technology with the transformative potential of the printing press or the internet. They bypass the elites and cut out the gatekeepers. Unlike traditional money they’re peer-to-peer, they don’t have a nationality, they’re digital and democratic. They are also lawless.

For the Afghani woman denied a bank account by a repressive society, or any of the world’s 2.5 billion unbanked individuals, cryptocurrencies open new possibilities. What would a world without banks or credit cards or even national currencies look like for all of us?

From Silicon Valley to the streets of Beijing, this is a book about a revolution in the making, a story of human invention, and a guide to the future.

Paul Vigna (Author)
Paul Vigna is a markets reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering equities and the economy. He writes for the popular MoneyBeat blog, and is the anchor of the daily, live show of the same name. Before that post, he wrote and edited the Market Talk column for Dow Jones Newswires.

Michael J. Casey (Author)
Michael J. Casey is a senior columnist at The Wall Street Journal. Casey’s work has appeared in publications as diverse as Foreign Policy, The Huffington Post, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. He is the author of The Unfair Trade: How Our Broken Financial System Destroys the Middle Class.

What the critics say
Invaluable ... a fascinating field guide to the phenomenon in which three of the most powerful forces shaping our world today meet - the reform of finance, technological innovation, and the rejection of traditional politics
- Felix Martin, author of Money: the Unauthorised Biography

Admirably clear and judicious … If the word ‘blockchain’ makes you want to call a plumber, or you think Satoshi is some kind of raw fish, you need to read Cryptocurrency today. If you're already a bit-convert, you'll still learn a lot
- Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money

Engaging, lucid, and thought-provoking … I can think of no better guide to what the future holds
- Eswar Prasad, author of The Dollar Trap

Not only demystifies and explains bitcoin, but shows where it fits into the cultural zeitgeist and where it's pointed, and what that may mean for our financial system
- John Mauldin, New York Times bestselling author

Anyone who views bitcoin as a voodoo concept must read this totally comprehensible narrative outlining the history of money and how bitcoin might become a new and better currency. For those confused by Bitcoin concepts this clearheaded and readable book sets forth credible reasons why Bitcoin might or might not be an evolving economic miracle
- Arthur Levitt, former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission