Book Recommendations
Learning about AI, Crypto and Blockchains is a new journey into the digital frontier of technology. The following are some helpful books to get up to speed and dive into this new, ever-evolving ecosystem.
The internet of today is a far cry from its early promise of a decentralized, democratic network of innovation, connection, and freedom. In the past decade, it has fallen almost entirely under the control of a very small group of companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook.
"With blockchains we can create networks that are fairer, more durable, and more resilient than the networks of today."
In Read Write Own, tech visionary Chris Dixon argues that the dream of an open network for fostering creativity and entrepreneurship doesn’t have to die and can, in fact, be saved with blockchain networks. He separates this movement, which aims to provide a solid foundation for everything from social networks to artificial intelligence to virtual worlds, from cryptocurrency speculation—a distinction he calls “the computer vs. the casino.”
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 people 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.
"Sound money allows people to think about the long term and to save and invest more for the future. Saving and investing for the long run are the key to capital accumulation and the advance of human civilization."
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 an invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space.
A Harvard Business School professor and a16z crypto research partner and a career marketer and Web3 entrepreneur demystify the coming digital revolution, showing how NFTs will transform our online and offline interactions.
"Kominers and Kaczynski have created a framework that explains what NFTs are, why they’re valuable, and how businesses can leverage them to build highly engaged and intensely loyal communities around their products and brands."
NFTs aren’t just pictures on the internet, or a fad that has come and gone. Rather, they're a new technology for creating digital assets and providing irrefutable proof of ownership. NFTs open up markets that have never before existed, and are already revolutionizing commerce and brand-building at everything from hot startups to Fortune 500 companies.
In "Myth of Money: Breaking Out of the Failing Financial System," renowned finance, crypto, and economics thought leader Tatiana Koffman delivers an insightful and informative take on the past, present, and future of money and the rise of cryptocurrencies as a transformative force in the financial world.
Navigating her way from traditional finance and into the realms of venture capital, crypto, and digital assets, as she writes about fintech, Koffman's journey takes us from Eastern Europe to Canada, to Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador, to Lebanon, Dubai, Africa, Necker Island, and back to the States. Along the way, she shares hard-earned lessons about the myths surrounding money, even those emerging in the new digital era.
"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment.” —Anne Lamott
“I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.” - Rick Rubin
From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.
A renowned economist argues for the importance of property rights in "the most intelligent book yet written about the current challenge of establishing capitalism in the developing world" (Economist)
In The Mystery of Capital, the world-famous Peruvian economist takes up one of the most pressing questions the world faces today: Why do some countries succeed at capitalism while others fail?
"In strong opposition to the popular view that success is determined by cultural differences, de Soto finds that it actually has everything to do with the legal structure of property and property rights."
Every developed nation in the world at one time went through the transformation from predominantly extralegal property arrangements, such as squatting on large estates, to a formal, unified legal property system.
In the West we've forgotten that creating this system is what allowed people everywhere to leverage property into wealth. This persuasive book revolutionized our understanding of capital and points the way to a major transformation of the world economy. While Bitcoin is an invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space.