While the news will update you on the latest happenings in the business world, books and whitepapers will give you a broader view on particular sectors, emerging trends, and business developments. This is mostly because they are often the result of extensive interviews and research.

Whether you are interested in the Internet of Things (IoT), smart contracts, mobile banking, peer-to-peer lending, cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, or simply curious about the future of the world economy, banking and money, the following list of top twenty blockchain books and whitepapers is interesting to read. Focused on distributed ledger technology, these are books and whitepapers you need in your library. Although not all of them cover blockchain fully, they will provide you with the advanced knowledge required to decipher blockchain technology and conceptualise the possibilities of the future.

Additionally, these hand-picked books and whitepapers will keep you updated on all emerging developments in the interestingly evolving FinTech ecosystem. They were written to inform both the general public and specialised practitioners about distributed ledger technology and the implications it will have on everyday life.

Although it used to be tough to find the best blockchain books and whitepapers, the tide has turned for the better. At the time of writing, there are plenty of publications on this technology, which you can rely on to build your knowledge and understanding. So, without further ado, here are these recommended titles that you need to consider reading:

Top 20 Books and Whitepapers on Blockchain

Whether you have spent a couple of years being a blockchain insider, or you would like to be one, the following blockchain books and whitepapers will keep you up to date with what is trending in the industry.

Blockchain Books:

The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology by William Mougayar

Drawing on decades of experience in the technology industry, William Mougayar wrote this book to describe a collective human future influenced largely by fundamental shifts emanating from blockchain technology. As a catalyst for change, this technology is going to change finance in major ways.

In particular, this book acts as a welcome invitation for technologists. As such, it provides information about the business and profit potential of the blockchain. In the same way, this title will help the business minded individual to grasp the different facets of blockchain technology, while empowering them to think about blockchain.

The FinTech Book: The Financial Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and Visionaries by Susanne Chishti and Janos Barberis

Penned by Janos Barberis and Susanne Chishti, this title represents the first crowd-sourced book in the world about the FinTech sector. It collects thoughts and ideas from 166 global experts and thought leaders from 27 countries.

The FinTech Book will, to this end, improve your understanding of the intermittent relationship between finance and technology. Additionally, it will show you how to capitalize on this information to improve your investments in the area of blockchain. The book, as you can garner from the title, is targeted at seasoned visionaries, entrepreneurs, and investors.

Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business and the World by Don and AlexTapscott

Blockchain Revolution looks to become the playbook for the business leader. Intended to inform players in the corporate world for the next decade (and beyond), this blockchain treatise explores how the technology is likely to have a great impact on the world economy both present and future.

The best-selling author of Wikinomics, Don Tapscott and his blockchain expert son (Alex Tapscott) present an utterly foundational, comprehensive, and perfectly researched book about the modern economy, as well as its future. Reading this book, therefore, will inform you about the various impacts the technology behind Bitcoin is having on the business world, and on financial matters.

ValueWeb: How FinTech firms are using mobile and blockchain technologies to create the Internet of Value by Chris Skinner

ValueWeb is short for the Internet of Value. In this book, Chris Skinner attempts to show how this internet is allowing machines to trade with other machines, and people to trade with people. This trade is happening free of charge and in real time.

The book also explores how FinTech companies are building the ValueWeb using a wide variety of technologies from the blockchain to mobile devices. The latest release by Chris Skinner further discusses what this trend will mean for individuals, governments, and large financial institutions.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Prof Klaus Schwab

Professor Klaus Schwab doubles up as the Founder and the Executive Chairman of the famed World Economic Forum. In this book, dubbed The Fourth Industrial Revolution, he puts forth his convictions about blockchain.

More particularly, he shows how the period of deliberate change we are currently living through is not only significant, but also that the ramifications of the latest revolution in technology will prove to be more profound than all the previous periods in human history. Professor Schwab also reviews the impact of these cutting-edge technologies on our global economy and its future.

Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy by Melanie Swan

Still on the long term implications of the blockchain and on FinTech, Blockchain primarily focuses on an understanding of the new economy that is emerging at an extremely impressive rate.

Reading this book by Melanie Swan, therefore, will improve your understanding of what distributed ledger technologies have already started. Swan asserts that the implications of blockchain have great potential to prove far reaching. These are things that the average global citizen may not realise. Further, the book explores the potential applications of this new technology using examples that are impressive and easy to digest.

Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

A proven record of excellence, Andreas Antonopoulos’s Mastering Bitcoin has been termed the ultimate guide about Bitcoin and blockchain mechanics in the world at the time of writing. Written in a technical way, this is not a book for the novice.

The author is a tech-entrepreneur and information security expert who consults for several startups related to Bitcoin. This, which is his most famous of blockchain books, provides a captivating technical reference on Bitcoin. This is primarily on account of the fact that it provides a guide to understanding Bitcoin, what it is, how it works, and what it means for humanity as a whole.

Digital Gold: The Untold Story of Bitcoin by Nathaniel Popper

This is an expansive narrative that weaves in and out of Bitcoin and its history. The history is narrated as a series of transactions between the characters in Digital Gold, and how these transactions played an important role in seeing the technology through its early years of existence.

In the book, Nathaniel Popper provides a number of interesting inside stories and profound insights. As such, it is one of the most captivating of books targeted at anyone who is interested in blockchain and Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are challenging the Global Economic Order by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey

One of the most excellent of entry-level blockchain books, The Age of Cryptocurrency provides a clarified overall overview about cryptocurrencies and money as a whole. Paul Vigna works as a markets reporter covering the economy and equities for The Wall Street Journal. Michael Casey, on the other hand, covers global finance for the same journal.

Not only does this book look at Bitcoin, it also delves deeper into the whole concept of finance and economics, as well as how blockchain technologies are disrupting capitalism as we know it. If you have had difficulties mastering blockchain, this is one of the entry-level books you must get your hands on.

Bye Bye Banks?: How Retail Banks are Being Displaced, Diminished and Disintermediated by Tech Startups and What They Can Do to Survive by James Haycock

Another of the top blockchain books, this treatise by Shane Richmond and James Haycock explores how technological startups are speedily disrupting the banking and financial services industries. Bye Bye Banks, as you will learn, also provides important strategies that the traditional bank can use to progress into the emergent digital era.

The book additionally features captivating interviews of senior executives working for some of the biggest banks in the world. It further proposes a Beta Bank business model to help the banking industry better understand what the modern consumer really wants. If adopted, this business model might trigger the digital transformation of the banking industry.

Blockchain Whitepapers (Including PDF Downloads):

Banking in a world of programmable assets by Accenture

In this whitepaper, Accenture reviews some of the reasons why the blockchain technology behind the Bitcoin cryptocurrency has made headlines for the past couple of years. It also focuses on the widening potential of blockchain technology, as well as what underpins this technology.

The paper also talks about the creation of DCLs (distributed consensus ledgers), and the implications of blockchain on financial assets. As you will learn from Banking in a World of Programmable Assets, financial assets existed as passive entries on ledgers. These same assets are activated into programmable objects by blockchain causing seismic shifts in all financial markets.

Blockchain: practical implications of a revolutionary technology for financial markets and beyond by DLA Piper (Global Law Firm)

This popular blockchain whitepaper underpins the impact of blockchain technology on the financial landscape, while providing insights into what you need to know about the various legal challenges that surround the technology.

Initially introduced to enhance Bitcoin transactions, blockchain is a distributed database providing protections against tampering. It contains every transaction that has ever been executed in digital currency.

By reading the paper, therefore, you will gain an improved understanding of how these shifting dynamics are affecting finance and the financial sector. You will also gain more knowledge about the legal challenges that surround blockchain.

A brave new world? What impact will distributed ledger technology have on the financial industry? by The European Central Bank

DLT (distributed ledger technology) is the paramount technological development that attracts many to blockchain and a great potential for the financial industry. The research above briefly looks at what this new technology really is, and the potential implications it is likely to have on the financial market infrastructure in Europe.

At the time of writing, we are living in an age largely characterised by rapid change. As such, the world is very different from what it was two decades ago. The internet, in particular, has completely changed shopping, communications, learning, entertainment, and information. To understand the impact of ledger technology on finance, therefore, this is one of the whitepapers you ought to read.

Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain by the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser

More on DLT, this is another of the blockchain whitepapers that clearly sets out the findings of a comprehensive review that explored how this technology would revolutionise services both in the private and in the public sectors. As such, it covers the technology, governance and regulation, security and privacy, the disruptive potential, and the global perspectives of DLT and its applications in government.

The paper further recommended actions that governments can take to maximise the new opportunities that DLT and blockchain provide. Governments can also use these recommendations to reduce the potential risks that the technology has on overall governance and public management.

The Impact and Potential of Blockchain on the Securities Transaction Lifecycle by The Swift Institute

This blockchain whitepaper is a report of a series of focus group meetings and interviews conducted of professionals who work in post-trade processing, as well as in the provision of mutual-distributed ledger services. The study was conducted to elicit and document the views of the professionals on three core research hypotheses formed on the potential impacts of blockchain (distributed ledger technology) on the post trade processing global security markets.

The research found that while blockchain use in the validation of operation data in these ledgers yields reductions in risk and cost, the data sharing concept is far from new. Significant momentum has been established by growing interest in mutual distributed ledgers.

BlockChain Technology Beyond Bitcoin by University of California , Berkeley

BlockChain Technology Beyond Bitcoin is one of the great introductory blockchain whitepapers for anyone looking for a basic primer to relay to management. It reviews how Bitcoin technology works, how it go into public discourse, and its association as a payment system used on underground and illicit website.

The story further develops showing how the narrative has largely mischaracterized the blockchain technology while failing to identify the most varied and important potentials that Bitcoin and its associated technologies promise. Further, the primer attempts to reboot the introduction to the technology while conveying a couple of reasons why so many people in the technology and financial sectors are excited about the promise blockchain holds.

Digital Assets on Public Blockchains by The Bitfury Group

This research paper brings about an improved perspective on why many people are excited about the possibilities that blockchain technology will bring. Currently, digital asset management ranks among the promising areas of application for this technology.

More specifically, it is likely that blockchain will provide the main disintermediation between consumers, application developers, and digital asset issuers. Similarly, it could decouple the tasks that are related to asset management such as the establishment of user identities, the securing of user funds, transaction processing, and asset issuance.

Reading the paper will provide you with a basic outline of the components of asset ledgers that are based on blockchain, as well as how they are used for the IoT (Internet of Things) and for financial services.

The Use of Distributed Ledger Technologies in Payment, Clearing, and Settlement by The US Federal Reserve

FinTech is used to describe innovations in digital finance. At the time of writing, blockchain has been capturing imaginations from Silicon Valley to London to Seoul to Tokyo in FinTech too. As such, there is a steady stream of new partnerships and startups in the industry, and consumers are now downloading apps related to FinTech and blockchain at alarming speeds.

In this treatise from the US Federal Reserve, you will learn about financial transactions, services and products, as well as how they are lending themselves to every successive wave of technological disruption. Further, you will gain insight on the impact of such disruption on the general public.

Blockchain Technology: Possibilities for the U.S. Postal Service by The Office of Inspector General ( United States Postal Service )

Blockchain Technology explores the distributed ledger technology behind Bitcoin and suggests how the Postal Service will benefit by exploring and experimenting with the technology to gain an understanding of the potential impacts it has.

The paper suggests that the Service could start by experimenting with the financial applications of the technology before expanding naturally to the other applications that blockchain will enable.

In the same way, the paper discusses the technology and how it is being used to transfer all sorts of information and data in a secure, tracked, and fast way. Read it to gain greater insight into blockchain and Bitcoin.

My Whitepaper made this list. Feeling proud! Top 20 #Blockchain Books & Whitepapershttps://t.co/CzqGJ64IrF pic.twitter.com/2vMxRxrSTo — George Samman (@sammantic) 13 August 2016

Consensus – Immutable agreement for the internet of value by KPMG

Consensus is one of the most comprehensive of overviews on how blockchain technologies and Bitcoin and the underlying consensus mechanisms are evolving in real time. This paper by KPMG analyzes the different consensus mechanisms and how they work. It also summarises the use of these mechanisms in various distributed ledger technologies.

Authored primarily by George Samman and Sigrid Seibold, it seeks to support companies as they go about selecting the best DLT for specific applications. Therefore, companies can use it to choose the consensus mechanisms that are best suited and most relevant to their specific requirements.

As the co-founder of BlockchainAge (The global leader in blockchain research and consultancy), it has been a pleasure to provide you with this list of top blockchain books and whitepapers, inspired by my business partner Dinis Guarda. If you enjoyed this article, retweet and comment please

This page was last edited on August 13, 2016.