The Genesis Book

  • 15 years on from the Genesis block, a book has become available highlighting the innovations and experimentation leading up to that historic event. The book is now available for pre-order HERE.
  • The Genesis Book tells the story of the people and projects that inspired the invention of the world’s first successful peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Bitcoin did not appear out of nowhere. For decades prior to Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention, a diverse group of computer scientists, privacy activists, and heterodox economists tried to create a digital form of money that could operate independently of government control.

Jump The Queue

  • Aaron Van Wirdum, the book's author, has published the content on Google Drive to gain input & feedback from key people in the industry. If you are privacy-minded, the entire book's files will be available for 24 hours for 100 people to download here on Wormhole.app.

Testimonials

Jameson Lopp:
The Genesis Book takes us on a century-long journey through the little-known stories of visionaries whose insights and innovations laid the foundation for the revolutionary creation of Bitcoin. From the economists who challenged conventional wisdom to cypherpunks who blazed new trails in privacy, Aaron van Wirdum meticulously weaves together a tapestry of technological triumphs, setbacks, and extraordinary breakthroughs. You'll be captivated by the anecdotes of individuals who dared to dream beyond the status quo, pushing the envelope to reshape the landscape of money itself.
Tuur Demeester:
I long suspected that van Wirdum was bitcoin’s best historian, and this page turner proves it. It’s a tour de force. The Genesis Book is a highly readable and essential history, revealing the many causal connections between Viennese Classical Liberalism, the Anglo-Saxon Cypherpunk movement, and the advent of bitcoin. Whereas other books on the industry have tended to focus on headline-making entrepreneurs, van Wirdum has the technical chops to dig under the surface and correctly identify the brilliant figures who built the foundations on top of which the bitcoin edifice was eventually engineered. Over the course of 16 dense chapters, The Genesis Book combines the kind of in-depth research and philosophical connections that one could only expect from an industry veteran (Van Wirdum was one of the first writers to ever gain employment in the bitcoin industry), with the engaging prose you’d look for in a respected periodical. One cannot understand bitcoin without studying its extraordinary origins, and I’m thrilled this book exists to bring that knowledge to a wide audience."
Paul Sztorc:
Why is Bitcoin so different from its predecessors? This book sheds light on the problems which vexed smart, hardworking people in the pre-Bitcoin era. That is the right way to tell a technology story. All of the important problems are included, and they're all in the proper order. The best Bitcoin book yet written.
Giacomo Zucco:
Until now you could find many books about Bitcoin, but none that covered its multifaceted cultural background in a complete, systematic, and elegant way. Aaron van Wirdum, already famous for his ability to accurately convey subtle technical matters to a generalist audience, just wrote it. A must-read if you want to understand where Bitcoin came from.

Final Thoughts

Looking forward to reading this with or without Book Club @elvismercury. The book was previously posted here on SN, but wanted to give it a further boost, especially the fact it is readable TODAY. Perhaps it is worthy of your time to celebrate Proof of Keys day on SN. Kudos Aaron for all the hard work!
I haven't read the book but found it fascinating that why a Bitcoiner ( and many others ) selling a Bitcoin book yet not setting up your own shop with BTC payment?
I mean, all you need is one afternoon to test things out, not like rocket science.
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A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.
Honestly I can't think of a better opportunity to showcase this than selling a Bitcoin book online, pure P2P and no third party needs to know anything 👀
₿e the change!
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It will happen eventually. Just when there are no longer other options 😋 we’re all creatures of convenience.
Surprises me we’ve not seen many consolidation services either. Like you had with pricerunner etc, but specifically for bitcoin self-hosted shop products. Would be a cool initiative for btcpayserver probably if they were able to reduce the drop-off from fiat discoverability (when avoiding Amazon et al).
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Just when there are no longer other options 😋
I'd do the opposite, do it NOW before being force to 👀
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Completely with you. Especially when our choices can affect others.
Many bitcoiners will be ordering through Amazon for the sheer convenience, when they’d almost certainly pay P2P given the option (or not).
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I don't even have Amazon account anymore 👀 yay!
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Reminds me, someone should probably pay over the odds for https://amazap.com/ Maybe @benwehrman can redirect it to ~AMA territory.
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and yes, not only can you survive without Amazon and even live a way better quality of life without it.
time to go against the convenience - most of them are traps, from online shopping and takeaway to dating apps.
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I agree 100% especially bitcoin magazine they should be bitcoin only!!
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Just finished this book and it’s fantastic!!! Completely changes my world view. From Tim May Eric Hughes. b-money and RPOW it’s amazing to see all of this stuff come together. after reading the bitcoin standard the very next book you should read is this one!!
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Great to know. Thanks for coming back and sharing. You thinking about a new ~booksandarticles piece?
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I normally do book reviews on medium but I would hate to duplicate work.
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Thanks for the reminder. Those are really eclectic and bad-ass endorsements! I doubt you could get Lopp, Tuur, PS, and GZ to agree on much of anything, so the fact that they all blurbed the book is pretty telling.
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😂 very good point.
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Great write up! Thanks. I'm going to order my copy now.
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@davidw, my man! This is so generous from you, thank you! I'll be happy to translate it to Spanish whenever you're ready for it! Translation also includes promotion across our TWENTYONE network on a value4value basis
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571 sats \ 1 reply \ @davidw OP 3 Jan
Aaron Van Wirdum is the author and the generous one who has shared this research. Perhaps he’s lurking on SN under another nym.
Wish I could have written such a great book 😂 I merely posted the link. If you’re willing to translate, you should reach out to bitcointhegenesisbook@gmail.com listed inside the ‘About’ section and share some of your past work. Maybe he’ll take you up on that offer.
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I thought the author was using a nym around here eheheh... Thanks for sharing the email, I'll do!
It's just a shame it's using gDrive and Amazonian distribution
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Added to wish list
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deleted by author
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