Bitcoin can better be interpreted as a distributed software that uses a currency safe from unpredictable inflation without relying on trusted third parties to pass value. In other words, Bitcoin automates a modern central bank's functions and makes them transparent and practically unchangeable by programming them into decentralized code among thousands of network users, none of whom can change the code without the consent of the rest. It makes Bitcoin the first demonstrably accurate example of digital cash and digital hard currency in service. While Bitcoin is a modern development of the digital era, the problems that it purports to solve — namely having a form of money that is under its owner's full command and likely to retain its value in the long run— are as old as human society. The book provides a conception of these issues based on years of researching the technology and the economic challenges it addresses, and how communities have historically found solutions across history for themselves. My argument can shock those who mark Bitcoin a speculators and promoters’ fraud or ruse to make a fast buck. In fact, Bitcoin is improving on earlier "value store" solutions, and the suitability of Bitcoin as the sound money of a digital age may surprise naysayers.

History can foreshadow what's to come, particularly when closely examined. And time will tell how sound this book is about the subject (I can assure you that the secrets and details in this book are second to none). The first part of the book describes money, its purpose and its property, as it must. As an economist with an engineering background, I have always tried to understand a technology in terms of the problems it aims to solve, allowing its practical nature to be defined and its isolation from incidental, decorative, and insignificant characteristics. Through understanding the problems that money is attempting to solve, it is possible to elucidate what makes sound and unsound money and apply that philosophical structure to understand how and why different goods, such as seashells, beads, metals and government money, have served the role of money and how and why they might have failed or served the purposes of society to store value and trade.

Some parts of this book explores over the course of history the human, social, and global consequences of sound and unsound money types. Sound money lets people think long-term, save and invest more for the future. The secret to capital accumulation and the development of human society is saving and spending for the long term. Money is an economy's knowledge and measurement method, and sound money makes it possible for trade, investment, and entrepreneurship to continue on a solid basis, whereas unsound money is undermining these processes. Sound money is also an integral element of a free society, as it offers an important bulwark against despotic law.

The latter of the book discusses the Bitcoin network's operation and its most outstanding economic characteristics, and analyzes Bitcoin's potential applications as a form of sound money, explaining certain use cases that Bitcoin does not fit well, while addressing some of the most common misunderstandings and misconceptions surrounding it.

The book is written to help the reader understand Bitcoin's economics and how it acts as the digital version of the other innovations used to accomplish money functions throughout history. This book is not an ad or invitation to buy into the currency of bitcoin. Far be it. Bitcoin's value is likely to remain volatile, at least for a while; the Bitcoin network may still succeed or fail, for whatever uncertain or unforeseeable reasons; and using it requires technological expertise and carries risks that render it unsuitable for many. Enjoy!