The Bitcoin Book: Everything You Need to Know About Money, Code & Power

What is Bitcoin? Is it a currency, a technology, or a political movement? This book offers a clear and comprehensive answers: a guide to Bitcoin’s origins, mechanics, and implications. Without hyping price predictions or drowning in jargon, it walks readers through the core concepts of how Bitcoin works from an economic, political and technical perspective, why it was created, and what makes it different from everything that came before. This book breaks down the essentials in a way that is both accessible and intellectually rigorous. It is not a beginner’s guide full of hype or simplified metaphors, but a clear and concise account of what Bitcoin is, how it works, and why it matters.Written by the author of the best selling book Token Economy, this book is designed for readers who want a deeper understanding of Bitcoin without having to wade through the broader crypto landscape. It condenses the Bitcoin-focused chapters of the third edition of Token Economy into a standalone volume. If you already own Token Economy (Third Edition), you don’t need this book — but if you’re only interested in Bitcoin, this is everything you need to know.The book decodes Bitcoin’s architecture as a form of political resistance and explores how a decentralized network of machines came to embody new ideas about economic coordination, governance, and digital sovereignty. It explores Bitcoin as a political project—one that emerged from a crisis of trust in traditional institutions. Unfortunately, however, fifteen years after its inception, the reality of Bitcoin is a far cry from its original ideals: Most users don’t control their own wallets or private keys. Exchanges have become the new banks of Web3. Reintermediation is everywhere, where disintermediation was the goal. Power is concentrated in code contributions, in mining infrastructure, and in gatekeeping institutions that were never supposed to exist. What was meant to disrupt surveillance capitalism risks becoming part of its machinery—unless we pay attention. If you want to understand this shift, you need to read the book. Read more