The system that governs how money works, with its brokers and middlemen, has stayed roughly the same for centuries. Now there's an alternative, and it puts us on the cusp of a revolution that could reshape our world. At the heart of this lie cryptocurrencies, a technology with the transformative potential of the printing press or the internet. They bypass the elites and cut out the gatekeepers. Unlike traditional money they're peer-to-peer, they don't have a nationality, they're digital and democratic. They are also lawless. For the Afghani woman denied a bank account by a repressive society, or any of the world's 2.5 billion unbanked individuals, cryptocurrencies open new possibilities. What would a world without banks or credit cards or even national currencies look like for all of us?From Silicon Valley to the streets of Beijing, this is a book about a revolution in the making, a story of human invention, and a guide to the future.

Autorentext

Paul Vigna (Author)
Paul Vigna is a markets reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering equities and the economy. He writes for the popular MoneyBeat blog, and is the anchor of the daily, live show of the same name. Before that post, he wrote and edited the Market Talk column for Dow Jones Newswires.

Michael J. Casey (Author)
Michael J. Casey is a senior columnist at The Wall Street Journal. Casey's work has appeared in publications as diverse as Foreign Policy, The Huffington Post, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. He is the author of The Unfair Trade: How Our Broken Financial System Destroys the Middle Class.

Klappentext

Now in paperback, this looks at the rise of bitcoin and digital money, and how it will affect our society in the future. Cryptocurrencies are democratic and international, but they are also lawless.

Zusammenfassung
From Silicon Valley to the streets of Beijing, this is a book about a revolution in the making, a story of human invention, and a guide to the future.