13 Books Critical to Understanding Cryptocurrency and Blockchain

The Sovereign Individual

Quintessential reading to understand the criticality of self-dependence in fiscal terms. Money detached from dependence on intermediaries to determine worth is the only means to guarantee security and future prosperity. Being individually sovereign should be the goal of every free person.

In many ways, this text, written in the late 90’s, projects a future path for the rise of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain. There are a great number of key figures in the technology industry focussing on this text as an indicator of where the future of the world is headed towards.

Money wants to be free, but while it is controlled by central banks and manipulated by governments for selfish endeavours it never can be. Ultimately it is a technology that can be disrupted like any other, but unlike others, certain expectations are baked deep within due to cultural norms. The sovereign individual provides a roadmap towards this future and provides an understanding of how you will personally participate and prosper.

Debt the First 5000 Years

Debt is the fundamental enabler of the economic prosperity we all benefit from, it is the building block for any and all progress that we experience as a species. Unfortunately, it is also a tool which has been used to exploit humanity and harm people for over 5 millennia.

First and foremost, debt the first 5000 years is an anthropologist study of people and our perception of self. What it uses to achieve this is our relationship with money, and utilisation of debt as a weapon to multiply differences and control. There’s a reason that the words host, hostage, hostility and hospitality are all derived from the same root. Relationships are intimately linked to our concept of worth, and our ability to maintain knowledge of who owes us what.

Debt and our relationship with it affects our future as much as anything else. Understanding the mechanisms of how it is evolved, how deep concepts of debt, guilt and reciprocity permeate every facet of our life, as well as the ways in which it has been forgiven at times throughout history to achieve certain things is crucial to understanding what…