The Sovereign Individual ~ by James Dale Davidson and William Rees Morg
The Sovereign Individual is one of those books that forever changes how you view the world. It was published in 1997 but the extent to which it anticipates the impact of blockchain technology can give you a chill. We are about to enter the fourth phase of human society, which is moving from the industrial to the information age. You need to read this book to understand the scope and extent of how things are changing.
As it becomes easier to live comfortably and find anywhere, we already know that those who are truly thriving in the new information age can be workers who are not involved in a job or career and are location independent. . The pull of choosing where to live based on price savings is already more attractive, but it’s more than just digital nomadism and freelance gigs; the foundations of democracy, government and money are shifting.
The authors predicted Black Tuesday and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and here they saw that the rise in the power of individuals would coincide with decentralized technology that eliminated the power of governments. Death for the country says, they predict will have a unique presence, be it private, digital money. If that happens, the dynamics of governments as relentless bandits stealing hard -working citizens with taxes will change. If you become someone who can solve people’s problems anywhere in the world, then you are about to enter the new cognitive elite. Don’t forget it.
Choice Quote: “When technology is mobile, and transactions take place in cyberspace, as they increasingly do, governments will no longer be able to charge more for their services than their value to to the people who will pay for them. “
Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind ~ by Yuval Noah Harari
Whenever I want to impress someone on how good this book is, I ask: “Would you like to know the basic difference between humans and apes? That he sees a threat heading towards them. ‘ Kuyaw! Kuyaw! Leon! ‘ The monkey can also lie, jump on the rock and wiggle a stick and scream at the lion that there really is no lion. Go down and wave a stick and shout, ‘Danger! Danger! Dragon!’ “
Why is this? Because dragons are not real. As Harari explains, the human imagination, our ability to believe and talk about things we have never seen or touched elevates species to interact with many strangers. There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no law, no religion and no justice beyond the common imagination of the people. We made them that way.
This is all a very nice introduction to where we are today. After the Cognitive Revolution and the Agricultural Revolution, Harari guides you to The Scientific Revolution, which started just 500 years ago and could start something completely different for humanity. The money, however, will remain. Read this book to understand that money is the most talked about story ever and trust is the raw material from which all kinds of money are made.
Selected Quote: “Sapiens, by contrast, live in triple-layered reality. In addition to trees, rivers, fears and desires, the world of Sapiens also includes stories about money, gods, countries and corporations. “
The Internet of Money ~ by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
If the two books mentioned above help us understand the historical context in which Bitcoin first appeared, then this book expands on the ‘why’ with infectious enthusiasm. Andreas Antonopolous is probably the most respected voice in the crypto space. He has traveled the world as a Bitcoin evangelist since 2010 and this book is a summary of the talks he gave on the circuit between 2013 and 2016, all set up for publication.
His first book, Mastering Bitcoin, is a technical deep dive into technology, aimed more specifically at developers, engineers, and software and system architects. But this book uses a few chosen metaphors to explain why you can’t ban Bitcoin or turn it off, how the scaling debate is less important and why Bitcoin needs the help of designers to lock in mass adoption.
“When you first ride in your new car in a town,” he wrote, “you ride on horse-drawn roads with infrastructures designed and used for horses. There are no light signals. There are no rules of the road. Road. And what happened? The cars were stuck because they were out of balance and four feet. ” But the fast forward of a hundred years and the cars that were once ridiculed are completely commonplace. If you want to dive into the philosophical, social and historical implications of Bitcoin, this is your starting point.
Choice Quote: “Bitcoin isn’t just money for the internet. Yes, it’s perfect money for the internet. It’s instant, it’s secure, it’s free. Yes, it’s money for the internet, but it’s so much more. Bitcoin is the internet of money.Currency is just the first application.If you understand that, you can look beyond price, you can look beyond volatility, you can look beyond trend . At its core, Bitcoin is a revolutionary technology that will change the world forever. Get involved. “