  | Gini: Capitalism, Cryptocurrencies & the Battle for Human Rights HUMANITY EVOLVES AT THE SPEED OF JUSTICE. This is a book about justice and the technologies, systems, and public policies that are necessary to achieve justice. Humanity's technology is evolving at an exponential rate, but our laws and cultural norms evolve at the speed of justice. The speed of justice is dictated by those who have the most financial and political power in a society. The more concentrated the power, the slower the justice. Indeed, justice can only exist when economic and political systems produce outcomes that maximize health, wealth and political freedom for the largest number of humans. By that measure, the speed of justice in many countries on Earth today is excruciatingly slow. In fact, it's not only slow; it's accelerating in reverse. PRIVACY IS A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT. All human rights depend on the right to privacy. Democracy cannot exist without protecting the human right to privacy because politicians and the corporations that finance their political campaigns inevitably use their wealth and power to spy, manipulate, and sabotage their political opponents. These assaults on democracy and human liberty are only possible when politicians and corporations are given the power to violate our human right to privacy. Gini protects your right to privacy. THE ESSENCE OF A BROKEN SYSTEM. With such enormous economic and political power concentrated in the hands of less than 0.01% of Earth's corporations and less than 0.0000001% of Earth's human population, is it any surprise that economic and political systems worldwide are imploding, humanitarian crises are exploding, and 80% of the global population lives in poverty? Is this the free market that we learn about in college Economics textbooks and on mainstream financial news programs? All the problems discussed throughout this book are only possible when gigantic corporations and governments collude against the best interests of their citizens. This is the essence of broken capitalism and broken democracy on Earth today. Gini provides solutions. BEST-SELLING AUTHOR. Written by the best-selling author of Broken Capitalism: This Is How We Fix It, International Political Economy expert, cryptocurrency and A.I. architect, financial services professional, and former U.S. Government Intelligence operative, Ferris Eanfar. Tackling big questions about privacy, A.I., cryptocurrencies, taxation, economic freedom, and human rights, Mr. Eanfar provides unique and refreshing insights into the socioeconomic trends and technologies that are shaping the future of humanity and our global economy. All book proceeds go to the nonprofit Gini Foundation. Visit GiniFoundation.org to learn more. |
  | The Internet of Money While many books explain the how of bitcoin, The Internet of Money delves into the why of bitcoin. Acclaimed information-security expert and author of Mastering Bitcoin, Andreas M. Antonopoulos examines and contextualizes the significance of bitcoin through a series of essays spanning the exhilarating maturation of this technology. Bitcoin, a technological breakthrough quietly introduced to the world in 2008, is transforming much more than finance. Bitcoin is disrupting antiquated industries to bring financial independence to billions worldwide. In this book, Andreas explains why bitcoin is a financial and technological evolution with potential far exceeding the label "digital currency." Andreas goes beyond exploring the technical functioning of the bitcoin network by illuminating bitcoin's philosophical, social, and historical implications. As the internet has essentially transformed how people around the world interact and has permanently impacted our lives in ways we never could have imagined, bitcoin--the internet of money--is fundamentally changing our approach to solving social, political, and economic problems through decentralized technology. |
  | Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money A New York Times technology and business reporter charts the dramatic rise of Bitcoin and the fascinating personalities who are striving to create a new global money for the Internet age. Digital Gold is New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper’s brilliant and engrossing history of Bitcoin, the landmark digital money and financial technology that has spawned a global social movement. The notion of a new currency, maintained by the computers of users around the world, has been the butt of many jokes, but that has not stopped it from growing into a technology worth billions of dollars, supported by the hordes of followers who have come to view it as the most important new idea since the creation of the Internet. Believers from Beijing to Buenos Aires see the potential for a financial system free from banks and governments. More than just a tech industry fad, Bitcoin has threatened to decentralize some of society’s most basic institutions. An unusual tale of group invention, Digital Gold charts the rise of the Bitcoin technology through the eyes of the movement’s colorful central characters, including an Argentinian millionaire, a Chinese entrepreneur, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Bitcoin’s elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Already, Bitcoin has led to untold riches for some, and prison terms for others. |
  | The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally-accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications. While Bitcoin is a new invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse. With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for final settlement of large payments—a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure. Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders. The final chapter of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy? Is Bitcoin for criminals? Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please? How can Bitcoin be killed? And what to make of all the thousands of Bitcoin knock-offs, and the many supposed applications of Bitcoin’s ‘blockchain technology’? The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralized, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks. |
  | The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order Bitcoin became a buzzword overnight. A cyber-enigma with an enthusiastic following, it pops up in headlines and fuels endless media debate. You can apparently use it to buy anything from coffee to cars, yet few people seem to truly understand what it is. This raises the question: Why should anyone care about bitcoin? In The Age of Cryptocurrency, Wall Street journalists Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey deliver the definitive answer to this question. Cybermoney is poised to launch a revolution, one that could reinvent traditional financial and social structures while bringing the world's billions of "unbanked" individuals into a new global economy. Cryptocurrency holds the promise of a financial system without a middleman, one owned by the people who use it and one safeguarded from the devastation of a 2008-type crash. But bitcoin, the most famous of the cybermonies, carries a reputation for instability, wild fluctuation, and illicit business; some fear it has the power to eliminate jobs and to upend the concept of a nation state. It implies, above all, monumental and wide-reaching change-for better and for worse. But it is here to stay, and you ignore it at your peril. Vigna and Casey demystify cryptocurrency-its origins, its function, and what you need to know to navigate a cyber-economy. The digital currency world will look very different from the paper currency world; The Age of Cryptocurrency will teach you how to be ready. |
