The Age of Cryptocurrency

By: Paul Vigna, Michael J. Casey

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bitcoin became a buzzword overnight. A cyber enigma with an enthusiastic following, it pops up in headlines and fuels endless media debate. You can apparently use it to buy anything from coffee to cars, yet few people seem truly to understand what it is. This raises the question: Why should anyone care about bitcoin?

In The Age of Cryptocurrency, Wall Street journalists Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey deliver the definitive answer to this question. Cyber money is poised to launch a revolution, one that could reinvent traditional financial and social structures while bringing the world's billions of "unbanked" individuals into a new global economy. Cryptocurrency holds the promise of a financial system without a middleman, one owned by the people who use it and one safeguarded from the devastation of a 2008-type crash.

But bitcoin, the most famous of the cyber monies, carries a reputation for instability, wild fluctuation, and illicit business; some fear it has the power to eliminate jobs and to upend the concept of a nation-state. It implies, above all, monumental and wide-reaching change--for better and for worse. But it is here to stay, and you ignore it at your peril.

Vigna and Casey demystify cryptocurrency--its origins, its function, and what you need to know to navigate a cyber economy. The digital currency world will look very different from the paper currency world; The Age of Cryptocurrency will teach you how to be ready.

©2015 Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey (P)2015 Gildan Media LLC

Critic Reviews

" The Age of Cryptocurrency not only demystifies and explains bitcoin, but also 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 best-selling author of Endgame)

Nice intro, imaginative stuff, but boosterish

The good: here is a fine, plain-spoken introduction to this field and its early leading lights. Also, midway in the book, emerges almost another book, which is giving an eye-opening tour of emerging ideas in autonomous business systems, automation, and new permutations of the "sharing" economy (finding and prying new value out of existing assets in the manner of uber, airBnB, etc.). That really got me thinking. In this segment, the book wanders away from "currency" per se and ruminates (quite usefully) about various possible branches of the technology, particularly the blockchain, and more generations and spin-offs to come.
The bad: not since the "dot bomb" era circa 1999 have I heard such journalistic fluffery, "gee whiz, it's so now, so hot, and these people are so so smart, blah blah" kind of tone, and such willingness to ignore (and brush aside) the downsides. Yes, there is some hedging sprinkled across the author's descriptions, but I can see issues that are casually brushed aside to keep the whole (nowadays tedious) "wow, hip and cool" tonality going. It crosses the line between advocacy and reporting, without being transparent (enough for me) about it. Yes, it is a popularization, I get it, and I am a little testy with the casualness of that format. And sheer academic density and dullness can have its own problems. But it is SO breezy, as we are introduced to a bunch of whiz kids many of whom, young and green, (with suitable 60s razzle-dazzle San Francisco dreamin' journalistic puffery) sit in lofts coding and seemingly know next to nothing about business, monetary theory, rudiments of finance, etc., and demonstrate this by apparently making the most simple and boneheaded of mistakes occasioning various reversals. I envision a fair number of them in years hence still without any assets, scraping up pin money and perhaps some turning to cybercrime, for excessive youthful hipness and lack of respect for the ABCs that less hip people bother to learn. (It is good to hear here, some Silicon Valley luminaries are bothering to get some education to these people.) It is a problem I try to warn particularly my more creative students about: don't disable yourself in your desire to be pure in your artistry, as you will be raw meat for many more crafty people, who will extract the value leaving you little. I must allow for the authors that this IS a fast-breaking field (with new headlines the week of this writing), and a lot of the problems have not shown up yet.
Likewise, how are these newfangled automated self-executing contracts going to replace people? As a contracts expert I can see realms of implementation problems blithely brushed aside here. This utopia is a lot further away than it might look here.
In all, I'm very glad I heard this. I just want to add my caveats. Many are the people who want to write a new world. Many are the razzle dazzle salespeople around them, full of sizzle.

29 of 30 people found this review helpful

absolutely fascinating, yet scary and exciting,

I learned a tremendous amount about Bitcoin, but more importantly about digital currency the blockchain and technologies that will change the way we do commerce.

At first glance you might think this book would be boring but it's fascinating definitely a must read for any serious person today

14 of 14 people found this review helpful

Mind expanding read

I initially approached this book as a relative sceptic with respect of Bitcoin. This book radically altered my perspective on a very important topic for all of us. I would highly recommend this book as an introduction to Bitcoin and more importantly, currency and crypto currency's. Read it to understand what you don't understand. Read it to help you radically expand your perspective.

15 of 16 people found this review helpful

Amazing Book - must read

The authors do an amazing job of capturing the most significant technology of 2015. The book explains the basics phenomenally, but also goes into great depth.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

The must read book on Bitcoin

Want to learn what Bitcoin is? Know what it is but don't know why you should care? Thoughtfully written with input from extensive interviews with many many people who are building the future of money, Paul and Mike take the reader on a guided tour not only of the block chain, but the history of electronic money itself.

I can honestly say that after having been involved with Bitcoin since July 2010, I learned quite a bit from the book.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

perfect

I have been reading a lot about this crypto mania and much of the material is just so so, but this one is exactly what I was looking for.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Thorough, balanced and full of information

If you have even a passing interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, definitely get this. Highly educational, and you can't go wrong with Sean Pratt as narrator. A classic.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Weak on theory, strong on research

The authors clearly do not have a firm grasp on economic theory. They exhibit the shallowest understanding of monetary theory permissible for writing a book like this; they neglect the origin and function of prices and interest rates. They even succumb to several popular, albeit demonstrably absurd economic fallacies, including their conception of monopoly and monetary policy. They make up for these glaring problems with gripping analysis and comprehensive research.

14 of 17 people found this review helpful

Must read book

In short it’s an amazing book. It describes the history and origins of bitcoin and blockchain, going through all events up until 2014. It describes very well the benefits, advantages, risks, ... of crypto currencies. Talks about the impact of digital currencies and blockchain on the global economy and politics. Talks about ethereum and smart contracts, ripple and instantaneous transfers, crypto currency exchanges, wallets, ... and many other related topics.
Even though the book was completed in 2014 but has all what you need to know about the subject.
Finally the narrator, Sean Pratt, is the icing on the cake. He is just perfect.
Amazing book

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great Intro to Cryptocurrency

What made the experience of listening to The Age of Cryptocurrency the most enjoyable?

The combination of history, interesting narrative, and good basic explanation of cryptocurrency technologies. This book also provided an interesting summary of many of the various cultures associated with bitcoin and related technologies.

What other book might you compare The Age of Cryptocurrency to and why?

In a way this book reminds me of "Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell" because it also does a beautiful job of covering a tech subculture and a technology that is not that well understood. In this case the subculture was from the 1950s & 60s and ushered in the era of hacking communication networks and communicating over social networks.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful