Within the first five minutes of reading this book, you understand that the author is an incredibly smart person. He clearly is a master of economics and has a solid understanding of government money as well as the history of money.
However, this is also the issue I had with this book.
The first six or seven chapters are dedicated to the history of money, while the remaining three are the only chapters in which he actually talks about Bitcoin, albeit he does a fantastic job explaining it in a way that anybody can understand.
The second issue I had was that the author is biased. He leaves out huge details of the history of money (no IOU's??) which is interesting because one would think that seven chapters on solely the history of money would be a great opportunity to cover the entire history of money. Instead, the author seems to cherry-pick certain examples in history that prove his argument.
He also goes into a few very bizarre rants that had absolutely nothing to do with Bitcoin or money - he has some incredibly strong opinions about art, music, work, marriage, among several other seemingly random topics, and he certainly was not shy about expressing them.
You will learn a lot from this book, there's no uncertainty about that. I'd like to think that people who understand Blockchain and Bitcoin inside and out will still get something out of this read. Just like anything else, don't take everything this author has to say at face value; in many portions of this book, you get the sense of an "it's my way or the highway" type of vibe.
This book is the first of many that I will read about Bitcoin. I can't say that I'm disappointed with the book, rather, I'm disappointed in the amount of content on Bitcoin. However, I'd suggest doing a Google search for Saifedean Ammous, the author of this book. You will stumble upon several reviews that aggressively critique this book, the author's arguments, and his bias. Take a look at some just so you know what you're getting yourself into.
Todd Shaffer
Rodney T. Haynes
Eduardo S.