Bitcoin — Digital Gold

The secret history of money and the new millionaires who are reinventing it.

In Bitcoin — The Digital Gold, Nathaniel Popper offers a unique insight into the dramatic rise of cryptocurrency as an alternative medium of exchange to the traditional monetary system. It is a journalistic book that explains the details of an intricate technology—yes, the reader will come to understand how it works—and its ongoing struggles and upgrades in the face of malicious users, banks, and governments.

However, Bitcoin — The Digital Gold is more than just an explanation. It is presented in a narrative style that brings to life the personalities of a group of talented and revolutionary misfits who almost all met online. From Beijing to Buenos Aires, these pages introduce the believers—it is an ideological, perhaps even philosophical, movement aimed at shifting toward a fairer economic system—including a Finnish student, an Argentine millionaire, a Chinese entrepreneur, the Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron (who challenged Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Facebook), and the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.