50 books about blockchain and digital currency

When one of our colleagues recently began retelling Nathaniel Popper’s Digital Gold book on vacation, we immediately realized that we had missed a very important and interesting topic on our blog — books, this is what we will talk about today. We at Wirex provide blockchain-based banking services. We draw many of our ideas in books, not only about business, but also about books about blockchains.

Next, we will present to you, as it seems to us, the most comprehensive selection of excellent books about the distributed registry and the digital currency created on its basis - from the beginnings to the hypotheses about the “new economic reality”. The rating is based on the feedback from readers, our personal experience, the popularity of books and their subjects. It contains works designed for both professional audiences and inexperienced users. The selection includes books published in 2014 and later.

Russian editions

Despite the huge selection of books on blockchain and digital currencies, only 2 books were translated into Russian - “Digital Gold: An Incredible Bitcoin Story” by Nathaniel Popper and “Bitcoin. More than money. ”Alex Fork.

1. Digital Gold. Bitcoin's incredible story or how idealists and businessmen reinvent money

Posted by: Nathaniel Popper
Number of pages: 350
Year of release: 2016
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The book of New York Times journalist Nathaniel Popper has gained great popularity and has been praised by readers around the world. Digital Gold is in the list of the best business books of 2015 in the Financial Times ranking. In it, the author talks about how the idea of ​​creating a Bitcoin payment system, initially interesting only to a small group of enthusiasts, gradually attracted the attention of the whole world. The most unexpected characters take part in this story: a Finnish student and an Argentine millionaire, a failed physicist who became an online drug lord, playboy twins who condemned the head of Facebook, special agents, US senators, and of course, the founding father himself of Bitcoin, known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

The book is not overloaded with technical details and is designed for a wide audience. Read the introduction and the first chapter here . You can buy the Russian edition version on Ozon or Combook . The original book: Digital Gold: Bitcoin and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money is available at most western stores.

“In 1994 it was very difficult to know who exactly would be the big players on the Internet in the future. The companies that were large at that time disappeared with time, and most of the large companies have not appeared for a long time. That is why I wrote this book as a history of technology. This is an attempt to look at how Bitcoin found itself in its place and who played an important role in this, ”the author explains.

2. Bitcoin. More than money

Posted by: Alex Fork
Number of pages: 280
Year of release: 2014

Alex Fork is the chairman of Blockchain.community, an association that promotes technology in Russia. In the book “Bitcoin. More than money "the author describes the history of Bitcoin and its distribution in the world, gives technical features, discusses the applicability in some theoretical financial hypotheses, analyzes anonymity, talks about the development of mining cryptocurrencies, banning Bitcoin in Russia and regulation in other countries, risks and security of a distributed network and much more. Also in the book are translations of the reports of the European Central Bank bitcoin, the FBI, the Office for Combating Financial Crimes of the US Treasury, collected a large number of comments by various experts, there are even stories of hackers.

“Bitcoin. More than money "has collected a lot of positive feedback. The book is easy to read and is suitable for both experienced professionals and beginners. In some places, the book resembles a workbook, where you can mark, draw, glue applications. Instead of the links that the author recommends for study, QR-pages are placed on the pages, and even there is an NFC-tag.

Theories, legal aspects, technical details

1. Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies

By: Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Number of pages: 298
Year of release: 2014

Andreas is a member of the boards of directors of several bitcoin startups. He founded his own Bitcoin business in London, New York and California, launched several Open-Source projects. He has extensive experience in various companies as a technical director, director of IT.

His book does not teach the development or earnings of digital currency, it only helps to understand the principles of the blockchain on the example of the Bitcoin payment system and other cryptocurrencies.

The first two chapters of “Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies” describe key concepts about digital currency and the fundamentals of cryptography and are more focused on inexperienced users, investors, and business leaders who want to better understand Bitcoin. The remaining parts contain a description of the technical details of Bitcoin with examples of business cases and are intended for professional developers, engineers, system administrators and other technically savvy people who want to understand the work of a popular network. The book also comes in handy for bitcoin entrepreneurs and university students who study digital currencies.

You can read the content and read the first chapter of the book here .

2. Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World

Authors: Don Tapscott, Alex Tapscott
Number of pages: 324
Year of release: 2016

The book "Blockchain Revolution" is written by a father and son, Don and Alex Tapscott. Don is the CEO of Tapscott Group and one of the most influential theorists of the United States, known as the author of the books Wikinomics, The Digital Economy describing a new economic reality, and a dozen other popular writings on technology, business and society. Alex Tapscott is the CEO of the Northwest Passage Ventures venture fund, which specializes in the development of blockchain projects.

Blockchain Revolution describes the blockchain usage scenarios in everyday life. The main idea of ​​the book is that the technology of the distributed registry can not only affect the development of the global financial system, but also contribute to the development of copyright-related business. For example, musicians, writers, designers will be able to receive royalties directly to their digital wallets.

“The purpose of the book is to demonstrate to companies, industry and society as a whole opportunities for successful development, competitiveness and social justice. This is a book about how the second generation of the Internet (based on blockchain technology) can change civilization for the better, ”summarize Tapscotta.

The authors also plan to release a set of infographics on the main topics of the book: “Blockchain and the music industry”, “Business models of the blockchain” and “Overcoming obstacles”. Graphic materials will be provided to users who pre-order the book.

3. The Age of Cryptocurrency: How to Cope with the Blockchain

Authors: Paul Vigna, Michael Casey
Number of pages: 384
Year of release: 2015

Michael Casey and Paul Vigna are journalists from The Wall Street Journal. Casey already has two books on his account: “Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image,” which became, according to American critic Michiko Kakutani, one of the best books of 2009, and “The Unfair Trade: How Our Broken Financial System Destroys the Middle Class ". For Vigna, this is also not the first experience, in 2013 he published the book “Big Brother and Cellphone Girl”.

In The Age of Cryptocurrency, Casey and Viña attempted to dispel fears, such as the instability of the Bitcoin exchange rate, its anonymity, non-state currency provision, etc. Journalists explained the origin of cryptocurrency, its functions and told what you need to know in order to navigate the new economic reality.

Michael Casey and Paul Viña cautiously note that, despite the increasing public awareness of cryptocurrency, it remains a niche product. However, they are in favor of turning bitcoin into a mass phenomenon, especially in those regions that until recently were cut off from the modern financial system, such as Afghanistan, some countries in Africa, Central and South America.

After the authors finished work on the book in 2015, they decided to write it in the blockchain. This was the first major publication placed in a distributed registry.

4. Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

Posted by: Melanie Swan
Number of pages: 152
Year of release: 2015

The author of the book, Melanie Swan, is a professor of philosophy, the founder of the Blockchain Institute, an independent organization that studies how to use a distributed registry. Swan decided to write this book when she realized that blockchain is a technology that goes far beyond digital currency, smart contracts and automated decentralized applications, and that blockchain means a completely new era of the Internet. In it, the author talks about the work of the decentralized digital registry and describes three “generations” of the blockchain — 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 — the bitcoin blockchain, the smart contract contracts blockchain, and the so-called “blockchain of all” —the system in which information about any object.

As Melanie herself says, of course, this is not a bitcoin for dummies. The book will be useful to anyone who wants to understand the principles of the distributed registry and the possibilities of its use in real life. Read the text of the book here .

5. The Ultimate Bitcoin Business Guide: For Entrepreneurs & Business Advisors

Posted by: Kirk David Phillips
Number of pages: 330
Year of release: 2015

For the first time, Kirk learned about Bitcoin at the end of 2013, when friends turned to him for advice, saying: “My husband and I want to invest $ 800 in a computer to get Bitcoins and earn some money. What do you think? ”, To which he replied:“ I don’t know anything about bitcoin, let's talk about it later. ” Phillips, as a passionate fan of new knowledge, immediately began to study cryptocurrency. He got so carried away that 2 years later he became one of the few qualified business consultants in cryptocurrency and released his own Bitcoin business directory “The Ultimate Bitcoin Business Guide”, in which he collected the information he received and 15 years of experience with public reporting and business. Kirk is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He launched several businesses, including invizibiz.biz .

Bitcoin will change the financial sector, as the Internet has changed the scope of trade. He will set new rules for the global business, create conditions for organizational transformations and screening out those players who are not able to adapt to the new conditions. We are on the threshold of a new, exciting "era" that comes once in 500 years, the author writes in his book.

6. Value Web

By Chris Skinner
Number of pages: 424
Year of release: 2016

Chris Skinner is best known as an independent columnist for financial markets at theFinanser and chairman of The Financial Services Club, a European forum he founded in 2004. Skinner is the author of DigitalBank and a dozen other books. Value Web is his most recent work.

The next generation of the Internet, the Internet of Things, cannot work without the Internet of values ​​(Internet of Value or ValueWeb), a network in which information about all tangible and intangible values ​​is stored. You can build it with only 2 components - a mobile device with Internet access and blockchain technology. And what will the ValueWeb generation bring to financial institutions, government and society? The book answers this question. Value Web will help you get an idea of ​​the future, where money transfers and non-money transfers occur instantaneously, via mobile and digital networks.

7. The Business Blockchain: A Primer on the Internet;

Posted by: William Mougayar
Number of pages: 208
Year of release: 2016

William Mugayar is an American publicist, entrepreneur, investor, startup mentor and business consultant to a number of large companies. William is an expert in blockchain technology, decentralization and peer-to-peer networks. His book, The Business Blockchain, presents technology as a “catalyst” for change. The author describes the future that is shaped by the fundamental changes caused by the development of the blockchain technology, the future in which all processes, whether business or something else, will move to the blockchain. According to William, the blockchain technology is able to eliminate many limitations and teach us to think differently.

8. The Science of the Blockchain

Posted by: Roger Wattenhofer
Number of pages: 124
Year of release: 2016

Roger Vottenhofer is a professor in the field of information technology and teaches at the Swiss Higher Technical School Zurich (ETH Zurich). His research interests include fault-tolerant distributed systems, efficient network algorithms, and cryptocurrency. On account of the professor more than 250 scientific articles.

"The Science of the Blockchain" is written in scientific language and is designed for a tech-savvy audience. The Vottenhofer book presents the basic techniques for building fault-tolerant distributed systems, as well as various protocols and algorithms that allow you to perform error-tolerant operations. The author gives an overview of several systems using such techniques.

9. Blockchain Contracts and Cyberlaw

Posted by: Pavan Duggal
Number of pages: 39
Year of release: 2015

This book is devoted to the description of the concept of "smart" contracts, their features and possible risks of working with the blockchain. There are a large number of legal, political, and regulatory issues related to smart contracts. The author of "Blockchain Contracts and Cyberlaw" Pavan Dougal, a specialist in the field of "cyber law", considers the most important of them.

10. "Decentralized Applications: Harnessing Bitcoin's Blockchain Technology" 1st edition; Siraj Raval; 150 pages; 2016. Read more

11. "The Book Of Satoshi: The Collected Writings Of Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto"; Phil Champagne; 396 p .; 2014. Details

12. "Wildcat Currency: Transforming the Economy Hardcover"; Edward Castronova; 288 p .; 2014. Details

13. “Are Bitcoins Ownable ?: Property Rights, IP Wrongs, and Legal — Theory Implications”; Konrad S. Graf; 92 p .; 2015. Read more

14. "Black Market Cryptocurrencies: The Bit of Bitcoin Alternatives that offer true anonymity"; Will Martin; 156 p .; 2014. Details

15. "Bitcoin: A Primer for Policymakers"; Jerry Brito, Andrea Castillo; 118 pp .; 2016. Read more

16. “Bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency, cryptology” (A detailed and technical study of Bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and cryptology); Jeremy Clark; 499 pp .; 2016. Read more

17. “Beyond Bitcoin: The Economics of Digital Currencies”; Hanna Halaburda, Miklos Sarvary; 186 p .; 2016. Read more

18. "Becoming Satoshi"; 1BTK2pXSxLeQMnZprjco7n5qANqFfDrNR5; 182 pp .; 2014. Details

19. "The Law of Bitcoin"; Jerry Brito Et Al .; 228 pp .; 2015. Read more

20. “Bitcoin Programming”; Mostafa Farghaly; 174 pages; 22014 g. Read more

Basics of cryptography, blockchain and digital currencies

1. Blockchain: The Simple Guide

By Jacob William
Number of pages: 69
Year of release: 2016

The book by Jacob William describes the foundations of the blockchain, explains why the blockchain is as important as this technology will change the financial sector and give long-term predictions. "Blockchain: The Simple Guide To Everything You Need To Know" is written in simple, accessible language and is designed for non-professional audiences. If you are familiar with the blockchain technology, you are unlikely to be interested, but for the rest, the book can be a good guide.

2. Bitcoin: Mastering Bitcoin & Cyptocurrency for Beginners - Bitcoin Basics, Bitcoin Stories, Dogecoin, Reinventing Money & Other Digital Currencies

Posted by: Tim Harris
Number of pages: 47
Year of release: 2016

The author tells what cryptocurrency is, how it differs from traditional currencies, how bitcoin has earned its popularity, as well as about mining of bitcoins and other digital currency (Lightcoin, Dogogin and others), about investments in cryptocurrency and about some nuances related to taxation of virtual currencies. The book is designed for non-professional audience and allows beginners to understand the basic concepts related to cryptocurrency as soon as possible.

3. Bitcoin Basics: 101 Questions and Answers

Posted by: Eric Sammons
Number of pages: 108
Year of release: 2015

If you’ve heard of bitcoin, but don’t know what it is, this book is for you. In it, Eric Sammons - a writer, developer, author of several books - talked about what bitcoin is, how it was created, told about the advantages of using cryptocurrency, about the technical and economic advantages of bitcoin, you can crack the bitcoin network, replace cryptocurrency with fiat money.

4. Bitcoin Pandemonium: Bitcoin

Authors: Nicolas L. Wenker (author), Scott Robinson (preface), Michael Rog (preface)
Number of pages: 138
Year of release: 2014

Nicholas Wenker, a graduate of Texas Law University, a member of the editorial board of several well-known legal journals. Specializes in financial regulation and business law. In the book Bitcoin Pandemonium, the author conducts a comprehensive review of the Bitcoin network, from the beginnings to the events of 2014 (when the book was published), focusing on the legal regulation of virtual currencies. The book contains many sources, using which readers can get additional information.

5. “The Bitcoin Bible”; Benjamin Guttmann; 436 pp .; 2014. Details

6. “What's the Big Deal About Bitcoin?”; Steve Patterson; 92 p .; 2015. Read more

7. “Great Chain of Numbers: a Guide to Smart Contracts, Smart Property and Trustless Asset Management”; Tim Swanson; 231 pp., 2014. Details

8. "The Bitcoin Big Bang: How To Change The World"; Brian Kelly; 240 pages; 2014. Details

9. "The Bitcoin Tutor: Unlocking the Secrets of Bitcoin"; Marc A. Carignan; 148 pp .; 2014 Read more

10. “The Case For Bitcoin: Why It Is The Worst Inventory Of Human History”; Mark Jeffrey; 57 pages; 2015. Read more

11. All About Bitcoin Guide & Handbook: “BTC”; Ron Legarski; 43 pages; 2015. Read more

12. "Bitcoin for the Befuddled"; Conrad Barski; 256 p .; 2014. Details

13. “Garry's Notes - Bitcoin Mining In The Cloud: Mining For Bitcoins And Others Crytocurrency In The Cloud”; Mr Garry Don; 42 pp .; 2015. Read more

14. “Bitcoin Decoded: Bitcoin Beginner's Guide to Making Money with Cryptocurrencies”; Brett Combs; 116 pages .; 2016. Read more

15. "The Bitcoin Tutorial: Develop an Intuitive Understanding of the Currency and Blockchain Technology"; Bruce Kleinman; 258 pp .; 2016. Read more

16. "Virtual Currencies - From Secrecy to Safety: The Evolving Landscape in the Bitcoin Era"; Dr. Neeraj Oak; 293 pages; 2014. Details

17. “Bitcoin in Brief”; Ben Isgur; 23 pages .; 2014. Details

Investment, business, sales

1. Bitcoin: Money Without Borders

By Yvonne Jenkins
Number of pages: 51
Year of release: 2014

As the author himself writes, “Bitcoin: Money Without Borders” is a brief and objective guide to the use of bitcoin, in particular, how you can use digital currency in combination with social media, such as Facebook, to increase your income or donations.

The author omits the history of the creation of Bitcoin, does not clarify the principles of his work and avoids terms such as hashing, mining, etc., arguing that knowledge of the terms will not bring tangible benefits to a business or a charitable organization. Instead, the author immediately goes on to analyze the problems of the modern financial system. Today, more than 2.5 billion people do not have access to financial services, Jenkins writes, and asks: "Can bitcoin or other digital currencies fill in the gaps in the banking system?" The author also explains why he is confident that cryptocurrency will be widely recognized, how the world will come to a new financial system, open and inclusive, how micropayments can be used in business or charity, why the price of digital currencies will skyrocket.

From the annotation it follows that the book is designed for managers and business owners, as well as for leaders of charitable and non-profit organizations.

2. Making Profit with Bitcoin

Posted by: Alex Harsen
Number of pages: 67
Year of release: 2014

This book contains real stories of successful work with bitcoin, stories about what opportunities cryptocurrency opens for business and ordinary users in everyday life. The author notes that some of them are certainly an example of random luck, but most of them are stories of people who made a conscious decision to use Bitcoin as payment. These people are my heroes, the author writes, because they help promote Bitcoin as an alternative to traditional payment methods.

3. "Bitcoin Trading and Investing: A Beginners Guide to Buying, Selling, Investing and Trading Bitcoins"; Benjamin Tideas; 28 pp .; 2015. Read more

4. “Bitcoin: Millionaire Maker or Monopoly Money?”; Yvonne Jenki; 40 pages; 2014. Details

5. “How to Buy and Invest in Bitcoin, A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners: Get Started; Kyle Watson; 78 pages .; 2014. Details

6. "Bitcoin Secrets: Your simple guide to making money from bitcoin"; Jack D. Donaldson; 34 pages; 2015. Read more

7. "Crypto Success: Investing in Cryptocurrency for the Long Term - Tips and Tricks"; Pablo Lema; 59 pages; 2016. Read more

8. "Bitcoin Business Boost: The Digital Currency" James B. Allen; 40 pages; 2014. Details

9. "Bitcoin Investment for Beginners: Bitcoin for Mine, Bitcoin and Mine for Bitcoin for Profit"; Kelly Ballantyne; 48 p .; 2015. Read more

10. “Bitcoin Riches: From Student to Entrepreneur”; Yoshi Fujimoto; 134 pages; 2014. Details

11. "Selling Books With Bitcoin"; Stuart J. Whitmore; 24 pages; 2015. Read more

Enjoy reading! See you in the blog Wirex.