Money, “The Age of Cryptocurrency” ­explains, is “a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value.” But for Schopenhauer it was “human happiness in the abstract,” and for Dostoyevsky “coined liberty.” These passion metaphors reflect the febrile excitement about Bitcoin that Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey, both of The Wall Street Journal, share in their wide-ranging, interesting account of the origin, past and possible future of this virtual-money wannabe.

Money was traditionally viewed as a tangible commodity (like gold) or an i.o.u. token of trust for settling debts. Then, out of the blue in 2008, the pseudonymous ­Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, the name of both the digital Internet ­currency and its software infrastructure.

“Cryptocurrency” devotes detailed, ­anecdote-filled chapters to the genesis and reception of Bitcoin. Its political ­origin lay in the 1990s anarcho-libertarian community of the Cypherpunks, cryptographers who developed software to ­preserve privacy in the face of snooping Big Brother governments and corporations.

How does a purchase with Bitcoin work? Think first about what happens when you pay cash: You can spend a ­dollar bill once only, the transaction is anonymous, and involves no fee.