9 Best Books for Crypto Beginners

📚 Recommendations from ShapeShift Founder & CEO, Erik Voorhees.

The crypto space is still in its nascent years, but already we’ve seen advocates — from journalists and economists, entrepreneurs, technologists, and cryptographers putting their ideas and visions for the space into the written word.

🚀 If you’re ready to start navigating your journey to bitcoin and crypto, review this curated list from our Founder & CEO Erik Voorhees.

Digital Gold — Nathaniel Popper

Is this really a surprise? Any legitimate list of crypto or blockchain reads should invariably start with Digital Gold. Nathaniel Popper’s book is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the space. Technical enough to whet your appetite, but not too technical to scare you away, Digital Gold walks us through the early days of Bitcoin, some of its key players, and how this technology is changing the world.

What Has Government Done to Our Money? — Murray N. Rothbard

“What Has Government Done to Our Money?” is an excellent introduction to Austrian economics, a strain of economic thought that has inspired many early cryptographers and Bitcoin entrepreneurs. Rothbard’s book is surprisingly easy to digest, and offers clear, concise points on what went wrong with our money, and how we can fix it.

The Bitcoin Standard — Saifedean Ammous

Ammous’ book helps us understand Bitcoin’s characteristics through a historical lens. He discusses how seashells, cattle, and beads among other things were used as money, and how Bitcoin is the right form of money for the future. Here, readers get the chance to not only learn more about Bitcoin, but about the broader scope of money throughout history.

The Social Singularity — Max Borders

Futurist Max Borders book has been called a “decentralized manifesto.” Borders discusses his views of the future — like how humanity will take on a hive-like collective intelligence, and work to collaborate and compete with AI.

How Money Got Free — Brian Patrick Eha

How Money Got Free discusses Bitcoin’s history and the companies and people who built it. It is known for taking more of a business approach than other books that tend to focus on technology or ideology. Author Brian Patrick Eha discusses players like Goldman Sachs, the New York Stock Exchange, and Richard Branson, and how they interacted with the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.

The Law — Frédéric Bastiat

Frédéric Bastiat, the 19th-century economist may have been a little too early for Bitcoin, but our CEO is convinced he would’ve loved it. In this short read, the French economist argues that the law, in the hands of government is wielded poorly when it undercuts the freedoms of the individual against the collective.

Mastering Bitcoin — Andreas Antonopoulos

Andreas Antonopoulos is easily one of the most well-known and respected figures in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. With his deep understanding of economics, technology, and philosophy, he breaks down the complex ideas of Bitcoin in a way that is simply unmatched. Before you dive in, please note that Mastering Bitcoin is a largely technical read. It’s a powerful book on the subject, but may require a steep learning curve.

Bonus: For a lighter read from Andreas, pick up The Internet of Money. This book focuses on the history of Bitcoin, and why it is important to the world.

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System — Satoshi Nakamoto

The original Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakomoto may not be a book, but hey….can you really have a list of the best crypto reads without including the document that started it all? For those who are new to crypto, it’s a great starting point that is broken down into an easy to digest format. In just a few pages (nine to be exact) the Bitcoin whitepaper changed the world.

Bitcoin Billionaires — Ben Mezrich

Bitcoin Billionaires is the story of Tyler and Cameron Winklevosses entrance into the cryptocurrency space. Tyler and Cameron, who you may know from stories of their battle over Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg, are two of the most influential names in the cryptocurrency space today. Read about the early days of crypto, and how our Founder, Erik Voorhees, interacted with the famous duo.

🦊 Did we miss anything? Let us know your favorite crypto-related reads in the comments below!

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