Includes index.

"Bitcoin is enduringly topical yet, in the author's opinion, incredibly misunderstood. He was a cynic himself until people likening it to digital gold sent him down a literature rabbit hole. While he now has greater faith in it, he sees the obsessive focus on it as a speculative instrument alone as the wrong reason to do so. The book is intended to be the introduction he wishes he had; the elusiveness of bitcoin, he asserts, stems from its intersection with numerous fields and disciplines. Consequently, this book will analyze the topic from a multi-disciplinary perspective: its technology, economics, politics and philosophy, on the basis that it is impossible to fully understand Bitcoin and its significance without understanding how these different disciplines impact it. As such, he aims to weave together these multifaceted themes into a cohesive overview anchored in first principles thinking"--